INCREASING CHANCE OF FLARES: NOAA forecasters have boosted the odds of an M-class solar flare today to 40% (plus a 10% chance of X-flares). Two sunspots, AR3140 and AR3141, have unstable 'beta-gamma' magnetic fields. If either explodes, the flare will be geoeffective. Both sunspots are facing Earth. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
BLUEWALKER 3 SIGHTINGS: Evidence is mounting that AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 satellite has unfurled its its huge antenna. Multiple observers have seen the satellite shining like a 1st magnitude star--a 50-fold increase in brightness compared to just a few days ago. Paul Maley of Arizona saw it in bright morning twilight on Nov. 11th, and Gary Dowdle of Texas caught it just before sunrise on Nov. 12th:
"The satellite was very low in the northeastern sky, about 16.5 degrees above the horizon," says Dowdle. "Nevertheless, it was easily visible to the naked eye at magnitude +2 just below the handle of the Big Dipper."
Paul Maley saw it again on Sunday morning, Nov. 13th. "It came out of Earth's shadow at magnitude +3 then steadily brightened to magnitude +1," he says. "Its visual profile remains unchanged over the last 3 days. The spacecraft appears completely stable with no signs of tumbling."
BlueWalker 3 is a revolutionary communications satellite designed to provide cell phone service from space. To detect weak cell phone signals from Earth's surface it needs a very large antenna. BlueWalker 3's is about the size of a squash court:
Astronomers have worried that BlueWalker 3 could become one of the brightest objects in the night sky, reflecting bright beams of sunlight into telescopes on the ground below. Those fears have not been fully realized. If the satellite is really only as bright as a 1st magnitude star, then it would be no worse than, say, China's Tiangong space station or the ISS.
It may be too soon to relax, though. While this is only a single satellite for now, Bluewalker's maker AST SpaceMobile plans to launch more than 100 larger satellites called BlueBirds. These satellites could be more than twice the size of BlueWalker 3 and much brighter. Flocks of Bluebirds could ruin a lot of astronomical observations.
Set against this detriment to astronomy is the good these satellites could do by providing emergency services and cell phone connectivity to remote areas. AST SpaceMobile explains.
You can help monitor BlueWalker 3. Morning and evening flybys are currently happening over the USA. Check Heavens Above for local flyby times and let us know what you see.
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DOUBLE-V OVER THE MOON: This is rare during the day. It's super rare at night. When the Moon came up over the Netherlands on Nov. 12th, Peter Paul Hattinga Verschure saw a luminous double-V form in the sky:
"Shortly after moonrise this striking spot of light developed 22 degrees above the low Moon in the northeast," says Verschure. "It appeared to be the combination of two V-shaped arcs."
These are ice halos. The lower 'V' is a upper tangent arc created by moonlight shining through pencil-shaped ice crystals. The upper 'V' is a rare Parry arc created by similar kinds of ice crystals, but... To make the Parry arc, the crystals had to be horizontal, not rotate, and have two faces horizontal, too. It sounds improbable, and it is.
Parry arcs are rare even during the day when sunlight improves their visibility. They're almost unheard of at night. "I believe this kind of Parry arc by moonlite has never been seen before in the Netherlands," says Verschure.
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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.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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