SATELLITE FLYBYS APP: Turn your iPhone or iPod into a field-tested satellite tracker! Spaceweather.com presents the Satellite Flybys app. | | | MONDAY MORNING SKY SHOW: This morning, the crescent Moon and red giant star Antares converged in the dawn sky for a beautiful conjunction. Click to view images of the display from John Stetson of Portland, Maine; from Robert T. Smith of Stoneville, NC; and from David of Hudson, Florida. BIG SUNSPOT: Sunspot 1040 is busy growing again. In only 24 hours, it has expanded from a barely visible "sun-speck" to a planet-sized active region with 15 dark cores and a tangled magnetic field. Steve Riegel sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Santa Maria, California: "On Sunday, the clouds opened up for some fantastic viewing," says Riegel. "I photographed the active region using a Lunt 60 solar telescope." Sunspot 1040 is a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Its appearance continues a recent trend of intensifying solar activity. NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of M-class solar flares during the next 24 hours. Stay tuned. more images: from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from James Kevin Ty of Manila, Philippines; from Matt Wastell of Brisbane, Australia; from Alcaria Rego of Almada, Portugal; from Monty Leventhal OAM of Sydney, Australia; from Karzaman Ahmad of Langkawi National Observatory, Malaysia; from Robert Arnold of Isle of Skye, Scotland; from Paul Schneider of Wilton, Connecticut; from J. Maciaszek, C. Cusack, J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Gianfranco Meregalli of Milano, Italy; from Javad Tasooji of Tehran, Iran; from Brian Colville of Cambray, ON, Canada. SUN PILLARS: Lately, luminous columns of light have been popping up all around the northern hemisphere. They are called "sun pillars," and they look like this: "I noticed this effect occuring as the sun neared the horizon on Sunday evening," says photographer Julian Mole of Bury Down, Berkshire, UK. "Despite having cold, numb fingers, I had to capture the scene!" He did that using a Canon 20D set at ISO 400 for 1/125 sec. Sun pillars appear when sunlight shines through plate-shaped ice crystals that flutter down from cold clouds like leaves falling from trees. Although they can be seen at any time of year, sun pillars are especially common during times of extreme cold--like now. Look for them around sunrise or sunset when the geometry is just right. more images: from Martin Popek of Nýdek, Czech republic; from John Napper of East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire, UK; from Andrea Douglass of Fleetwood, North Carolina; from Mark Urwiller of Omaha, Nebraska; from P-M Hedén of Tänndalen, Sweden; from John C McConnell of Maghaberry, Northern Ireland; January Northern Lights Gallery [previous Januarys: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2001] |