INCOMING SOLAR WIND STREAM: A stream of solar wind is approaching Earth. ETA: Feb. 26-27. The gaseous material is flowing from an equatorial hole in the sun's atmosphere, and it could spark a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm when it arrives. Aurora alerts: SMS Text.
ACTIVITY IN THE SUN'S SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE: A new sunspot is emerging in the sun's southern hemisphere (AR3236) and it is crackling with flares. Here it is during the early hours of Feb. 24th throwing a cloud of dark plasma into space:
The debris from this explosion will miss Earth, passing well south of our planet. However, the growing sunspot merits watching as it passes through the Earth strike-zone this weekend. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
SUNSET SKY SHOW: The 3-day mutual conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon witnessed by sunset sky watchers around the world is over. This is how it ended on Feb. 23rd:
"The Moon rose above the planetary duo of Jupiter and Venus to create a beautiful line in the western sky," says Petr Horálek, who took the picture from Thoddoo, Maldives. "Cirrus clouds appeared and beautifully magnified the dramatic colors of sunset. It was a very romantic moment."
The Moon is exiting, but the show's not over. Venus and Jupiter are still converging. At closest approach on March 1st, they will be just 0.5 degrees apart--a beautiful pairing and one of the best astrophoto-ops of 2023. Look west at sunset and submit your photos here.
more images: from Iryna Mosiiash of Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine; from Martin McKenna of Beaghmore, Co. Tyrone, N. Ireland; from Soumyadeep Mukherjee of Dhanbad, India; from Kurt Varmuza of Vienna, Austria; from Carl Blesch of Bradenton, Florida; from Vladimir Nerush of Vladimir Oblast, Russia
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SOLAR ECLIPSE CRYSTAL PYRAMID: On Aug. 21, 2017, during the Great American Solar Eclipse, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched 11 space weather balloons from the path of totality. The armada soared into the stratosphere, touching the shadow of the Moon more than 100,000 feet above Earth's surface. This pyramid hitched a ride:
You can have it for $159.95. With the sun, Earth, and Moon perfectly aligned, the faces of the 5-sided crystal caught the reflection of the eclipsed sun. Watch the video! The pyramid comes with a gift card showing the crystal floating at the top of Earth's atmosphere and passing through the Moon's shadow. The interior of the card tells the story of the flight and confirms that this gift has been to the edge of space and back again.
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