POSSIBLE CME IMPACT ON MAY 10th: A magnetic filament on the sun erupted May 7th, hurling a CME into space. NOAA analysts say it might deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on May 10th. This is a low confidence forecast. Minor geomagnetic storms are possible if/when the CME arrives. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE: On Sunday, May 15th, the full Moon will pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a total lunar eclipse. This NASA animation shows how the Moon will turn red for almost 85 minutes:
Other time zones: UT, EDT, CDT, MDT, PDT
The eclipse will be widely visible from the Americas on May 15th; and Africa and Europe on May 16th: visibility map.
There's a chance that this eclipse will be affected by the eruption of the Tonga volcano on January 15th. During a lunar eclipse, most of the light illuminating the Moon passes through Earth's stratosphere where it is reddened by scattering. Volcanic ash from Tonga reached an altitude of 30 kilometers, deep into the stratosphere, with a total mass of 400 million kilograms. The volcano's lingering exhaust could shade the eclipse, making it a deeper darker red than usual.
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MOLTEN SUNRISE: Yesterday, when the sun rose over the east coast of Spain, some of the sun seemed to drip back into the sea. Jordi L. Coy photographed the phenomenon from Alicante:
It's a mirage, of course. The water offshore was warmer than the morning air above it, creating a temperature gradient in the low atmosphere. This, in turn, dragged some of the solar disk back into the Bay--a mirage called "the omega sun."
Note the dark spot near the right edge of the solar "disk." That's sunspot AR3004. It's being miraged, too.
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RARE MR. SPOCK MUG: It's the logical way to wake up in the morning: Coffee in a rare Mr. Spock mug. On March 21st, this unique ceramic collector's item flew to the stratosphere onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus 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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