ARCTIC AURORAS STOP TRAFFIC: Last night in northern Finland, the auroras were so bright Rayann Elzein had to pull his car to the side of the road. "It was the only safe way to take pictures," he said. "The auroras were changing very fast, and we kept having to reposition our cameras on either side of the road to shoot the action!"
"After a while, the show subsided and we started driving back home... Only to have to stop again 10 minutes later when it flared up again!" he says. "A brilliant pink nitrogen fringe appeared, and the pink was very visible to the naked eye."
The display was caused by a stream of solar wind flowing from a southern hole in the sun's atmosphere. The stream reached Earth during the late hours of Nov. 20th and is currently blowing faster than 600 km/s. Arctic sky watchers, prepare to stop your cars... Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
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LUNAR ECLIPSE MIRAGE: Europe was a terrible place to see Friday's lunar eclipse; the Moon was setting just as the eclipse began. On the other hand, it was a great place to see the lunar eclipse mirage. Oscar Martín Mesonero photographed the phenomenon from Muxía, Spain:
"We could only see the lunar eclipse for a few minutes before sunrise," says Mesonero, "but what an amazing few minutes it was. The Moon was stretched into fantastic shapes just before it sank into the waves of the Atlantic."
This is an inferior mirage. It's caused by layers of relatively warm air just above the sea surface. These layers refract and bend the lunar disk. As the real Moon sinks down toward the horizon, an inverted image of the Moon pops up out of the waves. Mesonero caught them meeting in the middle.
Take a closer look at this image. It shows mirrored craters on either side of the meeting point. The lower image of the Moon is called the "inferior" image--hence "inferior mirage."
Got a picture of the eclipse? Submit it here
Realtime Eclipse Photo Gallery
GIFTS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE: Christmas is coming. Are you looking for a far-out gift? Check out the Earth to Sky Store. It's filled with unique items that have flown to the edge of space onboard cosmic ray research balloons.
Carried aloft by giant helium balloons, these unique gifts have flown above 99.7% of Earth's atmosphere, experiencing space-like blasts of cosmic rays, extreme cold, and a wild ride parachuting back to Earth after the balloon explodes. Even Amazon doesn't carry items this far out.
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Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
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