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. . SPACE WEATHER WORKSHOP: Researchers are converging on Boulder, Colorado, this week for a major scientific workshop on solar physics and space weather forecasting. Topics range from explosions on the sun to magnetic storms on Earth--and everything in between. Stay tuned for highlights. PARTIAL ECLIPSE: Yesterday when the sun rose over South America, something was missing--a piece of the sun! Erwin Sandoval Vargas took this picture from Coyhaique, Chile: It was a partial eclipse: The new Moon passed in front of the sun, just off-center, covering more than half of the solar disk over Chile. Maximum eclipse (75%) occurred in the remote Drake Passage between Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula: map. At first, clouds over Coyhaique acted as a natural filter allowing onlookers to behold the eclipse with the unaided eye. But as the clouds parted, people had to look away; the solar crescent was painfully bright. Vargas continue taking pictures, however, using a CD as a makeshift sunblock. Quick thinking saved the shot. more images: from Xavier Bertou of San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina (Patagonia); from Samuel Leite Guimarães of Uberlândia, Brazil; from Jan Hattenbach at the Pichu Pichu volcano in Peru; from Guilherme Grassmann of Americana, Brazil; from Joerg Schoppmeyer at the Marriott Sao Paulo Airport Hotel. RASTERED MOON: When the moon rose over Borken, Germany, on Aug. 29th, veteran astrophotographer Günther Strauch could hardly believe his eyes. "The Moon looked like I was seeing it through a glass of water." There were waves, ripples, bands and even bits of Moon floating off the top: Photo details: Canon 20D, 100 ASA, Refractor Vixen 100/1000mm. What caused this extraordinary moonrise? Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "Between sunset and dawn the ground is cooled by radiation into space. The cold earth in turn cools air in contact with it to make a temperature inversion - the stuff of mirages," says Cowley. "Here the 'mock-mirages' made by multiple weak and thin inversion layers have split the rising moon into thin bands and ripples. We know that the air layers had waves in them because the ripples are present even though the moon is well above the horizon. The large black split is cloud." "Look out for distorted moonrises," he urges. "You might even see a lunar green flash." more images: #1, #2, #3, #4 September 2007 Aurora Gallery [August 2007 Aurora Gallery] [Night-sky Cameras] |