On October 23rd there will be a partial eclipse of the Sun. Got clouds? No problem. The event will be broadcast live on the web by the Coca-Cola Science Center. | | | INCREASING CHANCE OF FLARES: NOAA forecasters have raised the odds of an M-class solar flare today to 40%. The likely source is sunspot AR2182, which has tripled in size since yesterday. Because the sunspot is near the sun's western limb, however, its flares may not be geoeffective. Solar flare alerts: text, voice PICK THE WINDOW SEAT: At this time of year, only a few weeks after the equinox, Northern Lights are almost always visible somewhere around the Arctic Circle. "Last night I was flying to Europe from Calgary and I strategically selected the window seat hoping for a show," reports traveler Christy Turner. This is what she saw: "Boy did I luck out!" she says. Indeed she did. During her flight, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) around Earth tipped south. South-pointing IMFs pry open a crack in Earth's magnetosphere, allowing solar wind to pour through and ignite auroras. Will it happen again tonight? NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of polar geomagnetic storms--good enough odds to pick the window seat. Aurora alerts: text, voice Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery LUNAR ECLIPSE RECORDED BY SOLAR ARRAY: During a lunar eclipse, the normally-bright full Moon darkens as it passes through the shadow of Earth. Millions of sky watchers witnessed this beautiful dimming on Oct. 8th. David Boatwright of Californiia experienced the eclipse in a different way. His solar array browned out: "My home has a 4.5 kW photovoltaic solar system on its roof," he explains. "During the day it produces a good amount of electricity. It even produces a couple of volts from ambient light at night. A full Moon will increase it to nearly 4 volts DC when overhead." "Pictured above is a screen shot of the power output from my system. As you can see, it recorded the lunar eclipse. The voltage was cut in half during totality. From 3:30am to 4:30am PDT, the DC voltage dropped from 4 volts to 2 volts and then back up to 3 volts at the conclusion of the eclipse. I believe the 1 volt difference, before vs. after the eclipse, is due to the Moon being lower in the sky when the eclipse ended." "By the way, I was watching the eclipse in my backyard as this voltage drop was occurring," he says. Realtime Eclipse Photo Gallery Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Realtime Comet Photo Gallery Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On Oct. 10, 2014, the network reported 9 fireballs. (9 sporadics) In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] Potentially Hazardous Asteroids ( PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. On October 10, 2014 there were potentially hazardous asteroids. Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | |