Would you like to hear about solar flares--while they're flaring? Get instant alerts from SpaceWeather PHONE. STRAIGHT LINE: Tonight, when the sun goes down and the sky fades to black, step outside and look west. Venus has moved into a straight line with Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini. Photographer Tunç Tezel of Ankara, Turkey, sends this picture of an identical alignment on June 2, 1999. It's eye-catching celestial geometry: sky map. ACTIVE SUNSPOT: Sunspot 960, which emerged over the sun's eastern limb less than 24 hours ago, is big and crackling with solar flares. "This morning there was an M3-class flare and a nice magnetic loop coming out of the sunspot," reports Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany, who took this dramatic sequence of images using his Coronado SolarMax60: A similar flare on June 1st (1450 UT) caused a shortwave radio fadeout over Europe. In the Czech Republic, Mirek Najman captured the event in this plot of a fading 3.5 MHz radio beacon. Sunspot 960 shows no sign of quieting. Astronomers with solar telescopes should keep an eye on the active region, while shortwave radio listeners should remain alert for flare-triggered fadeouts and other propagation effects. Stay tuned for updates! more images: from Franck Charlier of Marines, France; from Jean-Christophe Dalouzy of Normandy, France; from B. Morrissette, C. Miller and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from John Nassr of Baguio, Philippines; from Joel Bavais of Cointe, Belgium; from Andreas Murner of Dortmund, Germany; from Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from Peter Paice of Belfast, Northern Ireland; from John C McConnell of Maghaberry Northern Ireland; from P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden; COCCINELLA SEPTEMPUNCTATA: Yesterday, when Martin Wagner of Sonnenbuehl-Genkingen, Germany, looked at the viewscreen of his Canon EOS 300D and saw the sunspot pictured below, "I thought a mega-flare was about to erupt!" (continued below) Photo details: Canon EOS 300D, 35-70mm Minolta lens, 400ASA, 1/200s But wait, the sun was blank yesterday. Sunspot 960 hadn't yet appeared. Where did this spot come from? Wagner zoomed out and discovered the answer: Click here. Clearly, there was no danger of a mega-flare. It is remarkable how the markings on a ladybug's back resemble sunspots, and the dappled texture of the shell looks like solar granulation. The species in Wagner's photo is Coccinella septempunctata, the 7-spotted ladybug, so now we know the sunspot number, too! |