Marianne's Heaven On Earth Aurora Chaser Tours Chasethelighttours.co.uk invites you to join them in their quest to find and photograph the Aurora Borealis. Experience the winter wonderland in the Tromsø Area. | | | POLAR GEOMAGNETIC STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Dec. 7th as Earth moves through a stream of fast solar wind. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for colorful auroras after nightfall. Aurora alerts: text or voice DAYTIME OCCULTATION OF VENUS: Today, people in North America saw something remarkable in the daytime sky: the crescent Moon passed directly in front of Venus and covered it. Moments before the second planet disappeared, David Pinsky of West Hollywood CA took this picture: "This was the view through my Canon Rebel T3i digital camera placed at the prime focus of a Celestron 5 inch Maksutov telescope," says Pinsky. Venus remained behind the Moon for more than an hour, then popped into view again on the opposite lunar limb. The convergence of the Moon and Venus were plainly visible to the unaided eye from Canada, Mexico, and 49 of 50 US States. Only Hawaii was left out. Browse the gallery for more beautiful views from the occultation zone: Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery ROCKET SIGHTINGS: On Sunday afternoon, 4:45 pm EST, Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral on a re-supply mission to the International Space Station. The ascending spacecraft and the booster stages of its Atlas V rocket were visible up and down the eastern seaboard of North America. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, Michael Boschat reports seeing "two fireball-like pieces moving parallel to each other, breaking up in the SSW at 5:57pm. The brighter one passing behind the trees was at least magnitude -12!" "Both of the fireballs had fragments falling off the front," he continues. "The brighter one was reddish in color; the dimmer one was blue. They took me by surprise." According to veteran satellite observer and orbits expert Ted Molczan, Boschat likely witnessed the re-entry of the 1st stage of the Atlas V rocket. "This map shows the NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) region where Stage 1 was intended to re-enter," says Molczan. "Facing SSW, as reported, Boschat would have been looking toward the south end of the region." NASA says the Cygnus spacecraft itself is in orbit and heading toward the station. It is carrying more than 7,000 pounds of science experiments and supplies, including Christmas presents for the crew, equipment for spacewalks and air tanks for the station's atmosphere. Browse the gallery for more sightings: Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery Realtime Comet Photo Gallery Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery Realtime Noctilucent Cloud Photo Gallery Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. Automated software maintained by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office calculates their orbits, velocity, penetration depth in Earth's atmosphere and many other characteristics. Daily results are presented here on Spaceweather.com. On Dec. 7, 2015, the network reported 20 fireballs. (11 sporadics, 4 sigma Hydrids, 3 Geminids, 1 Quadrantid, 1 November omega Orionid) In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point--Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). [Larger image] [movies] Potentially Hazardous Asteroids ( PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. On December 7, 2015 there were potentially hazardous asteroids. Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | Cosmic Rays in the Atmosphere | Situation Report -- Oct. 30, 2015 | Stratospheric Radiation (+37o N) | Cosmic ray levels are elevated (+6.1% above the Space Age median). The trend is flat. Cosmic ray levels have increased +0% in the past month. | Sept. 06: 4.14 uSv/hr (414 uRad/hr) | Sept. 12: 4.09 uSv/hr (409 uRad/hr) | Sept. 23: 4.12 uSv/hr (412 uRad/hr) | Sept. 25: 4.16 uSv/hr (416 uRad/hr) | Sept. 27: 4.13 uSv/hr (413 uRad/hr) | Oct. 11: 4.02 uSv/hr (402 uRad/hr) | Oct. 22: 4.11 uSv/hr (411 uRad/hr) | These measurements are based on regular space weather balloon flights: learn more. Approximately once a week, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus fly "space weather balloons" to the stratosphere over California. These balloons are equipped with radiation sensors that detect cosmic rays, a surprisingly "down to Earth" form of space weather. Cosmic rays can seed clouds, trigger lightning, and penetrate commercial airplanes. Our measurements show that someone flying back and forth across the continental USA, just once, can absorb as much ionizing radiation as 2 to 5 dental X-rays. Here is the data from our latest flight, Oct. 22nd: Radiation levels peak at the entrance to the stratosphere in a broad region called the "Pfotzer Maximum." This peak is named after physicist George Pfotzer who discovered it using balloons and Geiger tubes in the 1930s. Radiation levels there are more than 80x sea level. Note that the bottom of the Pfotzer Maximim is near 55,000 ft. This means that some high-flying aircraft are not far from the zone of maximum radiation. Indeed, according to the Oct 22th measurements, a plane flying at 45,000 feet is exposed to 2.79 uSv/hr. At that rate, a passenger would absorb about one dental X-ray's worth of radiation in about 5 hours. The radiation sensors onboard our helium balloons detect X-rays and gamma-rays in the energy range 10 keV to 20 MeV. These energies span the range of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | | a sponsor of SpaceWeather.com | | Web-based high school science course with free enrollment | | the underlying science of space weather | |