Cards, flowers, chocolate... what's missing? The heavens. Spaceweather PHONE for Valentine's Day.
HEART NEBULA: After observing today's quiet sun through his solar telescope, and not seeing much, Oregon artist Mark Siebold's thoughts turned elsewhere--to the Heart Nebula (IC 1805) in the constellation Cassiopeia. He quickly made this pastel sketch to share as a Valentine greeting to spaceweather readers. Happy Valentine's Day!
AURORA WATCH: Sky watchers from Scandinavia to Alaska should remain alert for auroras tonight. A high-speed solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field, causing mild but beautiful geomagnetic storms.
In the Swedish Lapland, Patricia Cowern reports: "I was woken at 2 o'clock this morning by a Space Weather Alert. Then I woke my houseguests to show them what was going on outside."
Photo details: Canon 10D, 20mm lens, 30 secs, 400 asa
"It was a wonderful hour of Northern Lights. My guests from England came here to see the auroras--but it had been cloudy all week. Now, just one day before going home, they are extremely happy."
ICE HALOS: Sometimes cold is good. Yesterday in Tracy, Minnesota, the winter clouds parted to reveal a lovely ice halo around the sun:
"This picture was taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5700," says Lois Reinert.
"The cold weather that we have been having in this area is good for producing frost crystals and sundogs," says photographer Lois Reinert. In one picture she took, bright specks mark the location of individual ice crystals floating in mid-air. These are called diamond dust, and they produce some of the most spectacular halos on Earth.
So, if it's cold where you live, look around the sun. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you find there.