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. GREEN
COMET: Grab your binoculars.
Pretty green Comet Linear VZ13 is gliding through the constellation
Draco this week. It's too dim for the naked eye, but "it was
quite easy to see even in a 7x35 binocular," reports Doug
Zubenel of De Soto, Kansas: photo.
To find the comet, go outside after sunset and face north; the comet
lies just a few star hops from Polaris. [sky
map] [ephemeris]
[3D
orbit]
more images: from
John Chumack of Yellow Springs, Ohio; from
Günther Strauch of Borken, NRW, Germany.
SUNSPOT 963: Over the weekend
a new sunspot emerged and "it is a beauty," says Gianluca
Valentini of Rimini, Italy, who photographed the active region
this morning:
The sunspot's two dark cores are each larger than Earth, and they
are connected by an unstable magnetic field that crackles with C-class
solar flares. The eruptions have been entertaining onlookers. "I
watched in amazement for hours as the magnetic loops swayed back
and forth," says Larry Alvarez
of Flower Mound, Texas. He made a movie of the action using his
SolarMax90
solar telescope. Click on the snapshot to watch:
See the movie: Small
(600 kb gif) or Large
(6 MB avi)
Meanwhile in Zanesville, Ohio, the sunspot almost made artist Erika
Rix late for her brother's wedding. "I just couldn't tear
my eyes away from the eyepiece," she explains. "One eruption
reminded me of a rock plopping in the water." Using Strathmore
paper and white Conte' crayon, Erika sketched what she saw: image.
"As a last minute gift idea, I framed the first sketch of this
sequence and gave it as a wedding present....starting their new
lives together with a bang."
The show continued on July 8th when the International Space Station
flew in front of the sun with sunspot 963 as backdrop:
Photo details:
Meade 8"
LX90GPS, Orion solar filter, Philips SPC900NC webcam
David Lerner took the
above photo from an abandoned driving range near Vincetown, New
Jersey. "I saw something flash across the screen," he
says. "I opened up the video file and was THRILLED to see I
had captured both the ISS and sunspot 963. Imagine my delight to
later discover I captured 3
frames of the space station passing by."
more images: from
Milan Antos of Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic; from
Pavol Rapavy of Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia; from
Howard Eskildsen of Ocala, Florida; from
Len Marek of Parma, Ohio; from
Guenter Kleinschuster of Feldbach, Austria; from
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from
John M Candy of Whitely Bay, north Tyneside, UK; from
Jean-Marc Lecleire of Torcy, France.
2007 Noctilucent Cloud Gallery
["Noctilucent
Cloud"--the song] [Night-Sky
Cameras]
|
