NEW AND IMPROVED: Turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a field-tested global satellite tracker. The Satellite Flybys app now works in all countries. | | | EQUINOX SKY SHOW: Northern Spring begins on Saturday, March 20th. To celebrate the occasion, Nature is putting on an equinox sky show. Look west after sunset for a close encounter between the crescent Moon and the Pleiades star cluster. It's a beautiful view, especially through binoculars, and a nice way to experience the equal night. NORTHERN LIGHTS: A CME that was supposed to hit Earth's magnetic field on March 18th didn't. Either it missed, or the cloud is approaching so slowly that the ultimate impact could be negligible. No matter. Last night, the skies over Norway turned green anyway: "It was a beautiful night for watching the auroras, especially with the crescent moon low on the horizon!" reports photographer Hanneke Luijting of Tromsø, Norway. "We took a thermos of hot chocolate and watched from the shelter of a (roofless) hut." The source of the display was a run-of-the-mill undulation in the solar wind. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for more lights in the nights ahead as the solar wind continues to blow. March Northern Lights Gallery [previous Marches: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003] HUGE PROMINENCE: For the 4th consecutive day, a magnificent prominence is arching over the sun's northwestern limb. Rogerio Marcon sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Campinas, Brasil: The view through the eyepiece of a solar telescope is spectacular--and dynamic. The prominence is slowly moving, twisting and turning in a way that reportedly mesmerizes observers. "This time lapse video shows the prominence's double rotational vortex motion on March 18th," says Marcon. Snap out of it! This prominence may be big, but it won't last forever. Eventually, the structure's underlying magnetic fields will dissipate--or grow unstable and erupt. Readers with solar telescopes should take a look before it goes. more images: from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, KY; from Erika Rix of Zanesville, OH; from Peter Desypris of Athens,Greece |