SOUTHERN EXPLOSION ON THE SUN: Yesterday, Dec. 5th, a magnetic filament in the sun's southern hemisphere exploded. The swirling debris will probably sail well south of our planet. NOAA analysts are running computer models now to confirm the miss. Stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
AN ALIGNMENT OF PLANETS: When the sun goes down tonight, go outside and look southwest. Venus, Saturn and Jupiter are lined up in the twilight sky. Marek Nikodem sends this picture from Szubin, Poland:
This is a special week for the alignment because the Moon is joining the show. The action begins tonight when the thin crescent Moon passes by Venus for an exquisite conjunction. Each night the Moon will join a different planet: Dec. 6th Venus, Dec. 7th Saturn, Dec. 8th Jupiter. On Dec. 9th and 10th, the Moon and planets will stretch themselves into a dramatic straight line across the southwestern sky.
You don't need a telescope to see the show. Everything is visible to the naked eye even from brightly-lit cities. Try to catch the planets before the sunset sky fades completely black. Conjunctions framed by the colors of twilight are out of this world. Sky maps: Dec. 6, Dec. 7, Dec. 8, Dec. 9, Dec. 10.
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A SOLAR ECLIPSE IN ANTARCTICA: This is one of the rarest pictures in all of astronomy--a total eclipse of the sun in Antarctica. "It only lasted 40 seconds," says Andreas Moeller, who photographed the event on Dec. 4th from Union Glacier in Ellsworth Land:
"The sky was clear and wonderful, and we were able to spot shadow bands 12 minutes before totality," says Moeller. "Temperature during totality was about minus ~20°C."
Very few people witnessed the eclipse from the ground. A larger group flew in airplanes through the path of totality above the Weddell Sea. The Moon's shadow swallowing those aircraft produced some spectacular photos from the window seat.
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