SLIGHT CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters say there is a slight chance of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms today as Earth enters a high-speed stream of solar wind. The gaseous material is flowiing from a southern hole in the sun's atmosphere. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
CHINA'S NEW SPACE STATION: Yesterday, China's new Tiangong space station flew over Beijing. Boyang Liu was waiting with an 11-inch telescope and used it to photograph the orbiting outpost:
"Looking through the eyepiece, I could almost feel it in 3D," says Liu.
A still frame from the video shows wide solar arrays, a robotic arm, a science lab, a crew module, and two spacecraft (Tianzhou 4 and Shenzhou 14) waiting at docking ports--almost all added within the past year. The International Space Station is still much larger, but China is catching up.
The growing station is now about as bright as a 1st magnitude star when it flies overhead in the night sky. To see it, visit Heavens Above and select Tiangong for local flyby predictions.
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A SPRITE ABOVE THE PLEIADES: Sprites are an exotic form of lightning that fly up from the tops of thunderstorms. On July 27th, Donato Lioce of Valensole, France. photographed one leaping all the way over the Pleiades:
"An incredible thunderstorm was underway when I took the picture," says Lioce. "With one camera I captured a red sprite just above the Pleiades star cluster. With a second camera, equipped with a longer lens, I caught a close-up view of the very same sprite (inset). It was super lucky!"
"The picture has been taken close to the French village of Valensole," says Lioce, "but actually the storm and the sprite were over Italy more than 200 km away." It turns out, that is the perfect distance for catching sprites.
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"I LOVE YOU FOREVER" MOONSTONE PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the "I Love You Forever" Moonstone. This one hitched a ride to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon on May 13, 2022:
You can have it for $162.95. The moonstone's sterling silver infinity wrap is inscribed with the words "I love you forever." It makes a great anniversary or birthday gift. The moonstone comes with a greeting card showing the pendant in flight, telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again.
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