Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that star? Get the answers from mySKY--a fun new astronomy helper from Meade. VENUS & JUPITER: Wake up at dawn on a Sunday morning? Tomorrow you'll be glad you did. Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon are gathering in the southeast for a sight so eye-opening you might not even go back to bed. Set your alarm and take a look: sky map. AURORA WATCH: " I've never seen anything like it," says Patrick Collins who witnessed a swirling storm of auroras over Central Labrador, Canada, last night: "There were rapid changes in colour, flowing like blowing snow through a forest or eddies swirling in a river," he says. "The auroras covered more than 75% of the sky. It was unreal!" More displays of this sort are in the offing tonight. The solar wind stream which sparked Collins' auroras is still blowing and causing high latitude geomagnetic storms: aurora alerts. more images: from Panu Lahtinen of Ivalo, Finland; from Niels Giroud of Seltjarnarnes, Iceland; from Fredrik Holm of Reykjavik, Iceland; NACREOUS FEBRUARY: The first sunset of February revealed iridescent nacreous clouds over Reykjavík, Iceland. Fredrik Holm took this picture on Feb. 1st using his Canon 30D: February is beginning much as January ended when sky watchers noticed a puzzling abundance of nacreous clouds around the arctic circle. Also known as "Mother of Pearl" clouds, nacreous clouds are peppered with tiny ice crystals that blaze with iridescent color when struck by light from the setting sun. It is these crystals that make nacreous clouds rare: they require exceptionally low temperatures of minus 85 Celsius (-120 F) to form. Nacrous clouds float 9 to 16 miles high, curling and uncurling hypnotically as they are stretched in and out by atmospheric gravity waves. Is this to be a "Nacreous February"? Stay tuned. 2008 Nacreous Cloud Gallery [Night-sky cameras] [Nacreous Basics] |