QUIET WEEKEND: Earth's magnetic field is quieting after yesterday's near miss by a passing CME. No geomagnetic storms are expected this weekend. Fortunately, Earth can make its own auroras without a CME. Browse the gallery for sightings. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
DUCTED SUNSET: You don't see a sunset like this every day--not even in San Francisco. "The setting sun in San Francisco is rarely round, but last night the mirage was really interesting," reports nature photographer Mila Zinkova, who captured multiple simultaneous green flashes as the sun sank into the waves of the Pacific on Sept. 30th:
The pancake-stack shape of the sun is a clue to what happened. Late in the day, a strong temperature inversion layer formed above the ocean waters. Warm air sat on top of cold. Such inversions create ducts. Ducts, some of them only a few inches thick, can trap and bend the rays of the sun, curving them over the horizon and slicing the solar disk into colorful "pancakes."
San Francisco is a great place to see sunset mirages. The combination of cold offshore ocean currents and warm inland air blowing out to sea creates almost daily temperature inversions. It's a special atmosphere, indeed.
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GOTCHA! AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHS MILITARY SPACE PLANE: Did you know there's a space plane orbiting Earth? It's the US Space Force's Boeing X-37B mini-shuttle. Last night Philip Smith trained his 14-inch telescope on the elusive spacecraft as it soared over in Manorville, NY:
"I let out a loud audible 'GOTCHA' followed by a huge smile," says Smith. "I've been hunting this space plane for a long time."
The X-37B is a semi-secret robotic spacecraft which resembles NASA's old space shuttle. In fact, it started as a NASA project in 1999 before being transferred to the United States Department of Defense in 2004. The X-37B has been orbiting Earth off and on since April 2010, with some flights lasting as long as 780 days in orbit.
"I only wish the seeing had been better so I could get more details," says Smith. Maybe next time. Thanks in part to the efforts of amateur satellite observers, we usually know where the X-37B is. Local flyby predictions may be found at Heaven's Above.
RARE MR. SPOCK MUG (COLLECTOR'S ITEM): It's the logical way to wake up in the morning: Coffee in a rare Mr. Spock mug. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew this ceramic collector's item to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You cannot buy these mugs anywhere on the internet--not even Amazon. But you can have one from Earth to Sky Calculus for $170.10. That's the serial number of the Enterprise divided by 10. The mug comes with a greeting card showing the item in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space and back again. It's a great gift for any Trekkie!
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