BIG SUNSPOT ALERT: A big new sunspot (AR3590) is emerging from the farside of the sun. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory can see it rotating over the sun's northeastern limb. The sunspot's planet-sized dark cores are inset in this magnetic map of the sun's surface:
Right now the sunspot is crackling with minor C-class solar flares. We don't yet know if it is capable of anything stronger. Because of the sunspot's location near the edge of the sun, its magnetic map is severely foreshortened. Potentially-explosive mashups of + and - magnetic polarities won't reveal themselves until the sunspot rotates more fully toward Earth.
Meanwhile, take a look! This sunspot is so big you can see it using eclipse glasses with no magnification. Small telescopes with solar filters will reveal a very photogenic active region. Submit your images here. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
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ELLIPTICAL MOON HALO: Moon halos (rings of light around the Moon caused by ice crystals in the air) are supposed to be circular. "Last Friday I looked out the window and saw a Moon halo--but it was not round at all," says Lauri Kangas of Amethyst Bay, Ontario, Canada:
What he saw (and photographed above) was a circumscribed halo. "It was the most elliptically-shaped circumscribed halo I have ever seen," says Kangas.
The circumscribed halo is a rarer sight than the more common 22º circular halo. It appears when moonlight is refracted by long pencil-shaped ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. These little frozen "pencils" slowly rain down from the clouds. Aerodynamic friction aligns them parallel to the ground, and when the alignment is almost perfect the circumscribed halo appears. For this reason, it is a rare sight indeed.
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18K GOLD "LOVE YOU TO THE MOON" LOCKET: This is a very special locket. It's heart-shaped, plated with 18K gold, and we will fly it again during this year's total eclipse of the sun. Keep reading...
On Jan. 26, 2024, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched this locket to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon. At the apex of the flight, it floated 111,535 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California:
Buy it now for $149.95, and we'll fly it again--FOR FREE--during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. The students will be launching multiple balloons from the path of totality in Texas. Your pendant will go along for the ride, touching the shadow of the Moon at the edge of space. (Simply type "FLY IT AGAIN" in the comments box at checkout.)
The locket, which opens to hold a personal photo or other small item, comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the edge of space.
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