RING OF FIRE SOLAR ECLIPSE: This weekend, Saturday, Oct. 14th, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, producing a "ring of fire" annular eclipse. The narrow path of annularity stretches across both North and South America--with a partial eclipse visible from almost every point on both continents. Eclipse maps and glasses are available from GreatAmericanEclipse.com.
'DELTA SUNSPOT' FACES EARTH: Sunspots are giant islands of magnetism floating on the surface of the sun. Usually their magnetic poles are well separated, plus (+) and minus (-) far apart. However, there is a sunspot now facing Earth with multiple poles mixed up and jostling together:
The magnetic classification of AR3460 is 'beta-gamma-delta.'
This magnetic map from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the magnetic architecture of sunspot AR3460. It has many magnetic poles with + and - pressed together in close proximity. This could lead to magnetic reconnection and a strong, Earth-directed solar flare. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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CRYOVOLCANIC COMET 12P: Some people look at this week's outburst of cryovolcanic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks and see the Millennium Falcon. Bill Williams of Florida's Chiefland Astro Village sees a different spaceship. "The Romulan Warbird flies again!" he says. He took this picture on Oct 9th:
"It is fascinating to see Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks 'come alive' again, sporting peculiar horns and symmetrical knots around the comet coma," he says.
This is the second time in 2023 that Comet 12P has erupted and--bafflingly--produced a spaceship-like silhouette. The first time in July was nearly identical. According to Richard Miles of the British Astronomical Association, "the two 'horns' may be caused by a peculiarly-shaped cryovolcanic vent with some sort of blockage causing material to be expelled with a weird flow pattern."
This comet could cause a sensation next year. It is falling toward the sun and expected to become a naked-eye object only a few days before the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Sky watchers in the path of totality could look up and see a spaceship-shaped outburst for themselves.
more images: from Eliot Herman at the Utah Desert Observatory
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HANDMADE SOLAR ECLIPSE PENDANT: The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are about to try something never done before--to photograph the shadow of an annular solar eclipse from the stratosphere. On Oct. 14th, they'll launch a cosmic ray research balloon equipped with cameras to photograph the shadow zone of an eclipse over Nevada. You can support the flight by buying a handmade Annular Solar Eclipse Pendant:
It's yours for $129.95. The students launched this pendant from the eclipse zone in a Nevada test flight on Sept. 24, 2023. Floating at an altitude 118,767 feet above Earth’s surface, it made contact with space, experiencing temperatures as low as --59 C.
Buy the pendent now and for no additional charge we will fly it back to the stratosphere during the annular eclipse. Just make a note in the COMMENTS BOX of your shopping cart: "Fly my pendant again!"
Note: We have photographed the shadow of an eclipse before. Here's what the total eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, looked like from the stratosphere over the Nebraska-Wyoming border:
Total eclipses make deep black shadows, in this case blacking out more than 70 miles of terrain. What does the shadow of an *annular* eclipse look like? We hope to find out. It should be fuzzier around the edges, and not nearly as dark in the middle. An overview from the stratosphere could provide a unique picture.
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