Autumn is here, and it's a wonderful time for stargazing. Find out what's up from Spaceweather PHONE.
SOLAR WIND: Earth is exiting a solar wind stream that caused beautiful auroras when it first hit on Nov. 9th and 10th. The next such display is at least a week away unless sunspot 923 intervenes with an Earth-directed flare.
FIND THE SUNSPOT: It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's a sunspot? Yesterday, Mila Zinkova of San Francisco took this picture of the setting sun: (continued below)
Among the birds are "two brown pelicans (one diving), two more birds so far away we can't see what kind they are, and finally sunspot 923," says Zinkova. "Can you find the sunspot?"
A second photo taken through her Personal Solar Telescope revealed the black heart of the sunspot in detail: take a look.
Bonus: Transit of Mercury Photo Gallery
ALASKAN PILLAR: Deep in the interior of Alaska, Keane Richards paused to watch the sun set on Nov. 4th when, suddenly, a luminous pillar appeared:
The sun is behind the snowy branch. More images: #1, #2, #3
"This was one of the best sun pillars I've seen," says Richards. "Small snowflakes from high clouds seemed to cause it."
"These are really lovely images," says atmospheric oprics expert Les Cowley. "Large plate shaped ice crystals fluttering and wobbling as they drifted down through the cold clear air made this lower sun pillar. Wobbly crystals blur most halos but they make sun pillars taller and better."