ARCTIC AURORA SEASON BEGINS: Earth has entered a stream of high-speed (600 km/s) solar wind, sparking the first Arctic auroras of the season. Sightings in Finland and Sweden show the green glow of geomagnetic activity mixed with twilight blue from the fading Midnight Sun. Soon, Arctic skies will be completely dark and the show will really begin. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
A SUNSPOT BIG ENOUGH TO SEE FROM MARS: NASA's Mars Perseverence rover looks at the sun once a day to check the air for dust. A dim sun = lots of dust. Over the weekend, the rover found a large sunspot. This animation shows the behemoth crossing the solar disk Aug. 17th through 20th:
Perseverance's images of the sun come from its MASTCAM (stereo mast camera), which puts about 90 pixels across the solar disk. It takes a large sunspot to show up in these low-resolution images. Because Mars is orbiting over the farside of the sun, Perseverance can see approaching sunspots more than a week before we do. Consider this your 1-week warning: A big sunspot is coming. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
COMET NISHIMURA AND THE ESKIMO NEBULA: Hyperbolic Comet Nishimura continues to fall into the solar system. On Aug. 19th it passed by the Eskimo Nebula. Bill Williams captured the conjunction just above the roof of his house in Florida's Chiefland Astro Village:
"I read about newly-discovered Comet Nishimura (C/2023 P1) on Spaceweather.com, so I decided to take the challenge of capturing it--although my observatory roof slides east and usually blocks low altitude pre-dawn objects," says Williams. "However, I was thrilled yesterday morning when not only did Comet Nishimura show up but also the Eskimo Nebula just 18 arc minutes away!!"
"Astronomical twilight was already underway when I started observing, so to accelerate the capture I took 2-minute LRGB images (binned 3x3)," he continues. "I do not know what percentage of my telescope actually captured photons from the comet, but we got a nice view of the roof gable, too. A thin ion tail also showed up! You don't know unless you try!"
Comet Nishimura is visiting the inner solar system for the first and last time. When it passes by the sun inside the orbit of Mercury on Sept. 18th, the sun's gravity will slingshot it back into deep space. It is expected to become a naked eye object (3rd magnitude) in mid-September. Take a look! Sky maps: Aug. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. Ephemeris: from JPL.
more images: from Robert Forrest of Market Harborough, UK; from Graziano Ventre of Bellagio Via Lattea, Italy; from Johnny Barton of Robinson, TX
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
FANTASTIC DRAGON SPACE PENDANT: Are you looking for a far-out gift? Consider the Fantastic Dragon Space Pendant. This one hitched a ride onboard an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray research balloon, reaching an altitude of 117,524 ft:
You can have it for $124.95. The pendant is hand-crafted with colorful enamel inlaid on a hypoallergenic dragon exoskeleton. It makes a great gift for anyone who loves fantasy and dragonlore.
The students are selling space pendants to support their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the pendant 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
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter