SpaceWeather.com Archive — Wed, Oct 18, 2023

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GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH (G1): A magnetic filament connected to sunspot AR3467 erupted on Oct. 16th, hurling a CME into space. It is not heading directly for Earth. However, a NASA model suggests it might deliver a glancing blow late on Oct. 19th. If so, the off-target CME could cause a minor G1-class geomagnetic storm. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text

THE SHADOW OF THE MOON: When the Moon passed in front of the sun on Oct. 14th, it cast its shadow upon the Earth. NOAA's GOES-16 satellite photographed the region of darkness racing diagonally across North America:

As anyone inside that shadow knows, it wasn't very dark. This was an annular eclipse, so the Moon never completely covered the sun. A ring of fiery sunlight hung out around the circumference of the lunar disk, filling the shadow with a glow akin to twilight.

Observers of total eclipses experience much darker shadows with concentrated, inky-black cores. Here's an example photographed from the stratosphere during the August 21, 2017, total eclipse:

That video comes from an Earth to Sky Calculus cosmic ray balloon. We launched an identical balloon during the Oct. 14, 2023, annular eclipse and saw what GOES-16 saw. There was indeed a shadow, but it was broad and lacked the inky core of a true total eclipse.

Realtime Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery
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ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE PENDANT: This pendant has touched the shadow of the Moon. The students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched it to the stratosphere on Oct. 14, 2023, during the annular solar eclipse. The handmade pendant was 78,500 feet high when the Moon's shadow arrived and wrapped it in a cool twilight-like darkness:

You can have it for $129.95. The pendant left Earth from Nevada's Valley of the Moon, a remote area filled with the scent of sage and herds of wild horses. Indeed, no fewer than three mustang families approached the launch team during the eclipse to see what was going on. It was a magical experience.

The students are selling space pendants to pay the helium bill for their cosmic ray ballooning program. Each one comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its trip to the stratosphere and back again.