Where's Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name of that
star? Get the answers from mySKY--a
fun new astronomy helper from Meade. CRACKLING
SUNSPOT: Decaying sunspot
980 is surprising observers with some intense last gasps of
activity. "I caught a C-flare in mid-eruption
on Jan. 7th," says Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland. NOAA
forecasters estimate a 5% chance of even more powerful M-class
flares today. Monitoring is encouraged.
ASTEROID
FLYBY: On Jan. 10th, asteroid 2005 WJ56
will fly past Earth only 2.6 million miles away. There's no danger
of a collision, but the kilometer-wide space rock will be close
enough for amateur astronomers to photograph as it glides through
the constellation Taurus glowing like an 11th magnitude star.
Last night in Sonnenbuehl, Germany, Martin
Wagner caught the asteroid passing through the glare of 2nd-magnitude
Beta Aurigae:
"It was very easy to see with my 10-inch Newtonian
telescope and
a Starlight XPress MX7C CCD camera," he says. "Across
a small part of Earth's surface, the asteroid actually eclipsed
the star, which winked out for about a second."
Tonight is another good time to look. "On Jan.
8th at 23:30 UTC, the asteroid can be found less than 1o
northwest of the bright star cluster M36," notes reader Gunnar
Glitscher of Darmstadt, Germany. [ephemeris]
[3D
orbit]
FIRST LIGHT:
A new solar cycle has begun and already it has produced its first
light--an outbreak of auroras on Jan. 5th. "It was a nice flowing
display that persisted for an hour and a half," reports photographer
Calvin Hall of Palmer, Alaska. "A Great Horned Owl would hoot
when the auroras were most active."
The lights were sparked by a solar wind stream that hit Earth late
on Jan. 4th. Our planet is still inside the stream, which means
more auroras are possible tonight. High-latitude sky watchers, when
the owl hoots, look up!
January
2008 Aurora Gallery
[World
Map of Aurora Sightings]
[aurora alerts] [Night-sky
Cameras]
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