A SUDDEN CHANGE IN BLUEWALKER 3: For months sky watchers have been waiting for AST SpaceMobile's Bluewalker 3 (BW3) satellite to unfurl its huge antenna. That might be happening now. This morning in Arizona, Paul Maley witnessed a sudden change in BW3's brightness. "It came directly overhead 40 minutes before sunrise and reached naked eye brightness at +1 magnitude," says Maley. This is 50 to 100 times brighter than previous similar passes. The satellite could become brighter still as the unfurling proceeds. For local flyby times check Heavens Above.
A SUNSPOT WITHIN A SUNSPOT: Fans of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy will understand what this means: "Sunspot AR3141 reminds us of Zaphod Bebblebrox." The sunspot is sprouting a little version of itself on its shoulder. The circled region in this magnetogram is, essentially, an extra sunspot:
The extra magnetic poles are in close proximity to AR3141's primary core, an arrangement which makes the ensemble unstable (also like Zaphod). Analysts call this a 'delta-class' magnetic field; it poses a threat for strong X-class solar flares. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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A BIG BRIGHT CLOUD ON MARS: If you look at Mars through a telescope this week, you might be surprised by what you see--a bright blue cloud of ice. Michael Karrer photographed it on Nov. 7th from his backyard in Austria:
"Mars is no longer dusty and the north pole has dense cloud cover - very impressive despite the planet's modest diameter of 15.8 arcseconds," he says.
Karrer photographed the North Polar Hood, a giant cloud of water ice that forms over the Martian north pole during winter. Why blue? That's the color of sunlight scattered from very tiny crystals of ice (smaller than the wavelength of light itself) floating in the cloud.
"It was easy to see through my 14-inch Celestron telescope," adds Kerrer. "And it's about to get even easier."
Mars is approaching Earth for a close encounter on Dec. 1, 2022. Between now and then, Mars will double in brightness to magnitude -1.9 (brighter than Sirius) and increase in size to 17.2 arcseconds. Look for the Red Planet and its blue hood rising in the east after sunset in the constellation Taurus: sky map.
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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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