QUIET WITH A CHANCE OF FLARES: Solar activiy is low, but the quiet could be short-lived. Big sunspot AR3141 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that habors energy for strong M-class solar flares. Any explosions today (NOAA says there is a 15% chance) will be geoeffective as the sunspot is directly facing Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
CHINA'S SPACE STATION IS COMPLETE: China has just completed construction of the Tiangong space station. The final piece was added on Oct. 31st when an 18-meter lab module named Mengtian ("Dreaming of the Heavens") reached orbit. Its addition almost doubled the volume of the station, giving China a major outpost in Earth orbit.
On Nov. 8th, Tiangong flew over Manorville, New York, where amateur astronomer Philip Smith was waiting with his backyard telescope:
"The space station has changed shape since I last saw it," says Smith. "Now it looks like a big letter T."
Smith has been monitoring Tiangong since China started building the space station in April 2021. He put together a composite of photos he has taken to show its rapid growth:
In little more than 18 months, Tiangong has expanded from a small core barely able to fit a crew of three astronauts to a roomy, modern facility as large as Russia's Mir space station from the 1980s.
You can see Tiangong for yourself. It's almost as bright as the planet Mars. Observers in the USA are favored this week with a series of bright passes in the pre-dawn sky. Check Heavens Above for local flyby times (Tip: Click on Tiangong.)
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SPRITES FROM HURRICANE NICOLE: Florida is bracing for the arrival of rare November Hurricane Nicole. Two days ago when the intensifying storm was passing Puerto Rico, Frankie Lucena pointed his cameras above the cloudtops and captured a sprite:
"This sprite appeared over one of the outer bands that was generating lots of lightning," says Lucna. "By the way, the outer bands are the best places to look for sprites. Back in 2016, I captured a bunch of sprites in one of the outer bands of Hurricane Matthew. Nicole is strengthening so there could be more sprites in the coming days." Here's where to look.
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WHERE NO CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT HAS GONE BEFORE: You cannot buy a rare Capt. Kirk space ornament on Amazon. But you can get one from the Earth to Sky Store. On Oct 9, 2022, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched Capt. Kirk to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. Here he is floating 109,620 feet high:
You can have it for $99.95. The students are selling Kirk ornaments to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Made by Hallmark in the 1990s, the ornament comes with a greeting card showing the captain of the Enterprise in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.
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