COMET PAUSE: Comet Lulin is approaching Earth and brightening, but it can't compete with the Moon. For the next few mornings, bright moonlight will spoil the view as Moon and comet cross paths in the constellation Virgo. Additions to the gallery may slow, but only temporarily; the Moon will be out of the way in plenty of time for Comet Lulin's closest approach to Earth on Feb. 24th: sky map. SOLAR FLARE: Yesterday, Feb. 10th at 2310 UT, Earth-orbiting satellites detected a B1-class solar flare. Normally, such a small eruption would pass unremarked, but during this deep solar minimum, it's a relatively big event. NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft photographed the probable blast-site shortly before and after the eruption: Image credit: STEREO-B Extreme Ultraviolet Telescope [larger image] The source of the explosion appears to be a collapsing (or erupting) magnetic filament. The filament was present before the flare, absent afterward. Higher-cadence imagery from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) may confirm or refute this idea; however, those images have not yet been beamed back to Earth. Stay tuned for updates. VIRTUAL REALITY MOON HALO: "Two nights ago, my sister-in-law Katy phoned me at 1 o'clock in the morning to say that there was 'a big crazy circle around the Moon,'" reports Laurent Laveder of Quimper, France. "I went outside to look and she was right: the sky was hazy, the Moon was very high and circled by a bright 22° ice halo." Click on the image to experience the halo as if you were there yourself: Virtual Reality Moon Halo Laveder explains how he created the VR halo: "I took many pictures with my Canon 30D and a fisheye lens. Then I stitched the images together into a 360° panoramic view, which we are able to spin around using Quicktime VR." If it's cold where you live, be alert for more halos tonight. The Moon is bright and northern skies are icy--perfect conditions for the real thing. more images: from Zoltan Goda of Baja, Hungary; from Dick McGowan of Lake Perry, Kansas; from Rafael Schmall of Kaposfo, Hungary; from Tyler Burg of Omaha, Nebraska; from Phillip Chee of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada; from Daniele Cipollina of Arquata Scrivia (AL) Italy; from John McConnell of Maghaberry, Northern Ireland; February 2009 Aurora Gallery [Previous Februaries: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003, 2002] Explore the Sunspot Cycle |