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METEOR
SHOWER: The University of Western Ontario
meteor radar is picking up strong
returns from the Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower,
which peaks on July 28th and 29th. Sky watchers (particularly
in the southern hemisphere) should be alert for meteors between
about 10 pm and dawn. "Visual rates could be as high
as 20 per hour (about half the
radar rate)," notes Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid
Environment Office, "although glare from the nearly full
Moon will make the fainter meteors difficult to see."
TOWERING
BLAST: Yesterday, a magnetic filament curling
over the southeastern limb of thee sun became unstable and
erupted. The blast produced a towering curlicue prominence
that "Dr Seuss would have loved," says Alan Friedman,
who sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Buffalo,
New York:
"It towered more than 200,000 miles above
the stellar surface," says Friedman.
Astronomers around the world watched the structure
twist, curl, and eventually fling itself into space over a
six hour period. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory had the
best view of all. Onboard cameras recorded an IMAX-quality
movie of the event ... coming soon to a theatre near you?
NASA is planning an IMAX movie about SDO, and this eruption
will probably make the cut. Until then, enjoy these
previews: 9
MB movie, 15
MB slow-motion movie.
more images: from
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from
David Evans of Coleshill, North Warwickshire, UK; from
Steve Rismiller of Milford, Ohio; from
A. Cote, S.Berube and J.Stetson of South Portland, Maine;
from
Patrick Bornet of Saint Martin sur Nohain, Nièvre, France;
SUMMER
LIGHTS: A high speed solar wind stream is
buffeting Earth's magnetic field, and this is causing geomagnetic
activity around the poles. Zoltan Kenwell of Edmonton, Alberta,
witnessed this display on July 27th:
"It was a beautiful night on the Alberta
prairies," says Kenwell. "Aurora activity was subtle,
but definitely present. The full Thunder Moon was lighting
up the canola fields and the arrival of a
few noctilucent clouds just put the icing on the cake!"
High-latitude sky watchers should remain
alert for auroras as the solar wind continues to blow.
more images: from
Vincent Calkins of St. Albert, AB Canada
Solar
Eclipse Photo Gallery
[NASA: South
Pacific Eclipse] [animated
map]
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