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MONDAY NIGHT SKY SHOW:
When the sun sets on Monday, Oct. 26th, go
outside and look south. Jupiter and the Moon are converging
for a beautiful conjunction. The bright pair can been seen
even through thinly-clouded skies and city lights. Don't miss
it: sky map.
photos: from
M. Raşid Tuğral of Ankara, Turkey; from
Azhy Chato Hasan of Erbil city, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
BIG SUNSPOT:
The sun is showing signs of life. Over the weekend, sunspot
1029 emerged and it is crackling with B-
and C-class solar flares. Amateur astronomer Gianluca
Valentini of Rimini, Italy, took this picture just hours ago:
"Incredible size and structure for this
sunspot after such a long time of mini-events--maybe the sun
really means business this time!" says Valentini.
In Ocean Beach, California, Michael Buxton made
a movie of the active region: play
it. "My girlfriend and I watched the magnetic fibrils
around the sunspot as they surged and swirled," he says.
"It was a wonderful area of activity."
The sunspot's magnetic polarity identifies it as a member
of new Solar Cycle 24. If it continues to grow at this
rate, sunspot 1029 could soon become the biggest sunspot
of 2009. Readers with solar
telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.
sunspot images: from
Emiel Veldhuis of Zwolle, the Netherlands; from
Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY; from
Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from
Steve Rismiller of Milford, Ohio; from
Fabio Mariuzza of Biauzzo, Italy; from
J. Maciaszek, J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from
Etienne Lecoq of Mesnil Panneville, Normandy, France;
from
Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from
Emiel Veldhuis of Zwolle, the Netherlands; from
Vahan Yeterian of Lompoc California; from
Fabio Acquarone of Genova, Liguria, Italy; from
Jan Timmermans of Valkenswaard, The Netherlands;
NORTHERN
LIGHTS: A solar wind stream hit Earth on
Oct. 24th and sparked geomagnetic storms around the Arctic
Circle. "The auroras were extremely active with fast-moving
curtains of green, blue and red," reports Niels Giroud
of Mo i Rana, Norway, who recorded the scene using a Nikon
D200:
Coming just a week before Halloween, the display
was appropriately spooky-looking. But it can't hold a pumpkin's
candle to the Halloween
storms of 2003 when blood-red Northern Lights startled
sky watchers as far south as Florida and Texas. A movie from
NASA recalls the ghoulish tale: 6
MB or 32
MB mpeg.
UPDATED:
October
Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Octobers: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2004, 2003,
2002, 2001]
2009
Orionid Photo Gallery
[full
story] [sky
map] [previous years: 2006,
2008]
Explore
the Sunspot Cycle |
