Cards,
flowers, chocolate... what's missing? The heavens. Spaceweather
PHONE for Valentine's Day.
WEEKEND
RINGS:
This weekend Saturn is at its closest to Earth: 762 million
miles. It thus looks bigger and brighter both to the naked
eye and through a telescope than it will at any other
time in 2007. Look for Saturn rising in the east at sunset
and soaring nearly overhead at midnight: sky
map.
DOUBLE
FLARE: An
Iridium flare
is unforgettable. Sunlight hits a flat surface on one
of the Iridium satellites and--wow!--it looks like a supernova.
Make
that two supernovas. Last night, Chris
White witnessed a double Iridium flare over the Church
of St. Peter in Mendota Heights, Minnesota:
Photo details: Canon
350D, 32mm
lens, f/4, 800ASA, 14s
"The
flares came from two Iridium satellites, numbers 59 and
96," explains White. "Less than 1 second elapsed
between the two flashes, in fact I saw no noticeable delay
at all."
There
are 66 active and 13 spare Iridium satellites swarming
around Earth in six different polar orbits. What are the
odds of catching two bright glints from two different
satellites within one second? It must not be as rare as
it sounds. On the same night in Raron, Switzerland, Peter
Heinzen photographed two flares one almost-on-top
of the other: image.
And in St. Paul, Minnesota, Tony
Bombardo photographed the same pair that Chris White
saw: image.
Would
you like to see an Iridium flare, or two? Visit Heaven's
Above for local predictions.
FARSIDE
OF THE SUN:
An active sunspot may be coming. On Feb. 5th, helioseismic
holography revealed a seemingly-large active region
on the sun's farside:
Photo
details: Canon
350D, Tamron
19-35mm lens, 800 iso, 30 seconds
And
today, a coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed over the
sun's eastern limb: movie.
Are the two observations connected? We'll know more in
a few days. The sun's rotation should carry the farside
spot over the eastern limb on Feb 12th or 13th, giving
us a better
view of its size and explosive potential. Stay tuned.
SPACE WEATHER
SPACE WEATHER
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