SATELLITE
FLYBYS APP: Turn your iPhone or iPod into
a field-tested satellite tracker! Spaceweather.com presents
the Satellite Flybys
app. |
|
|
SUNSET CONJUNCTION:
When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look southwest.
Jupiter and the 6% crescent Moon are having an eye-catching
close encounter. Catch them if you can before the sky fades
completely black. A bright conjunction framed by twilight
blue is an especially beautiful sight. [sky
map]
RING OF FIRE:
Last Friday when the Moon passed in front of the sun, the
lunar diameter was a little too small to completely cover
the star behind it. The mismatch produced a lovely ring of
fire:
"I took this picture from the shore of Weishan Lake
in the Shandong Province of China," says Xiang Zhan.
"We had some clouds, but fortunately the sun was able
to shine through the veil. The golden ring was very beautiful
over the frozen
lake below."
The Moon was so small because it was near the far point of
its elliptical orbit around Earth. It was, in other words,
an "apogee Moon" about 10% too small for totality.
The diminished diameter did not, however, diminish the beauty
of the event. Browse the gallery for proof:
UPDATED: Solar
Eclipse Photo Gallery
[World
Map of Eclipse Sightings]
A BURST OF NORTHERN
LIGHTS: On Jan. 15th, a burst of Northern
Lights startled observers around the Arctic Circle. "The
sky exploded over my head!" reports Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen,
who sends this picture from Bø in Vesterålen, Norway:
"The Northern Lights were insane," he says. "To
record them, I used a Nikon
D300 set at ISO1600 (f/3.5) for a 10 second exposure."
Arctic photographers may wish to take note of those settings,
because more auroras are on the way. A solar wind stream is
heading toward Earth and it could spark polar geomagnetic
storms when it arrives on Jan. 18th or 19th. Be alert for
auroras!
The display could intensify even more on Jan. 18th and 19th.
That's when a solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole
is expected to reach Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should
be alert for Northern
Lights.
UPDATED: January
Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Januarys: 2009,
2008, 2007,
2005, 2004,
2001]
|
