NEW AND IMPROVED:
Turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a field-tested
global satellite tracker. The Satellite
Flybys app now works in all countries. |
|
|
EQUINOX
SKY SHOW: Northern Spring begins on Saturday,
March 20th. To celebrate the occasion, Nature is putting on
an equinox sky show. Look
west after sunset for a close encounter between the crescent
Moon and the Pleiades star cluster. It's a beautiful view,
especially through binoculars, and a nice way to experience
the equal night.
DRIED CODFISH:
Pictures of aurora borealis usually look best with a little
something extra in the field of view. Some photographers chose
mountains; others prefer the Moon and stars. Peter Van den
Eijnde might be the first to select dead fish:
"On March 18th, during a trip to Laukvik
in the Lofoten Islands of Norway, I took this picture of codfish
drying in the open air," he explains. "The aurora
seems to lend a hand in the process."
This has been an active week for Northern Lights
around the Arctic Circle, but the show is subsiding. NOAA
forecasters estimate only a 10% chance of geomagnetic activity
during the next 24 hours. Until the next storm, browse the
gallery:
March
Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Marches: 2009,
2008, 2007,
2006, 2005,
2004, 2003]
HUGE
PROMINENCE: For the 5th consecutive day,
a magnificent prominence is arching over the sun's northwestern
limb. Rogerio Marcon sends this picture from his backyard
observatory in Campinas, Brasil:
The view through the eyepiece of a solar telescope is spectacular--and
dynamic. The prominence is slowly moving, twisting and turning
in a way that reportedly mesmerizes observers. "This
time lapse video shows the prominence's double rotational
vortex motion on March 18th," says Marcon.
Snap out of it! This prominence may be big, but it won't
last forever. Eventually, the structure's underlying magnetic
fields will dissipate--or grow unstable and erupt. Readers
with solar
telescopes should take a look before it goes.
more images: from
Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from
Ingmar Glass of Weißenfeld, Bavaria, Germany; from
G.Harmon et al of South Portland, Maine; from
Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, KY; from
Erika Rix of Zanesville, OH; from
Peter Desypris of Athens,Greece; from
Rogerio Marcon of Campinas, Brazil;
|
