Did
you sleep through the
auroras of Dec. 14th? Next time get a wake-up call:
Spaceweather
PHONE.
AURORA
WATCH: Sky
watchers from Scandinavia to Alaska should be alert for
auroras
on Jan. 16th. A solar wind stream will hit Earth and the
impact could cause a high-latitude geomagnetic storm.
DAYTIME
COMET: Comet
McNaught is now visible in broad daylight. "It's
fantastic," reports Wayne Winch of Bishop, California.
"I put the sun behind a neighbor's house to block
the glare and the comet popped right into view. You can
even see the tail!"
Just
hours ago, Mark Vornhusen took this picture of the comet
between clouds over Gais, Switzerland:
Photo details:
Nikon
D70 camera, 500 mm lens.
This
weekend is a special time for Comet McNaught because it
is passing close to the sun. Solar heat is causing the
comet to vaporize furiously and brighten to daylight visibility.
At magnitude -4 to -5, McNaught is the brightest comet
since Ikeya-Seki
in 1965.
The
secret to seeing McNaught: Get rid of the sun. You can
do this by standing in the shadow of a tall building or
billboard. Make a fist and hold it at arm's length. The
comet is about one fist-width (5 degrees) east of the
sun's position. Try it!
Warning:
Binoculars
dramatically improve the view of the comet, allowing you
to see structure within the tail . But please be super-careful
not to look at the sun. Direct sunlight through binoculars
can cause permanent eye damage.
Comet
McNaught Photo Gallery
[finder
chart] [ephemeris]
[realtime
images from space]
SUNSET
COMET MIRAGE: Last
night on a beach near San Francisco, Mila
Zinkova photographed something truly rare: a sunset
comet mirage.
"I
was lucky," she says. "Sky conditions were perfect
and I had a crystal-clear view of the horizon. When I
arrived at the beach I quickly noticed an inferior
mirage of some islands in the distance, followed by
an inferior
mirage of the setting sun." Comet McNaught followed
the sun, and it miraged, too:
Photo details:
Canon
XTI, 300 mm lens, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/20 sec exposure.
Inserts
show how the mirage developed: the real comet descends
from above while a phantom comet rises from the waves.
Eventually, the two merge. "It looks like the comet
was reflected in the water, but it is actually refraction
produced by temperature gradients in the air just above
the water."
"As
I watched the comet," says Zinkova, "it was
interesting to think that SOHO and I were watching the
comet at the same time. These pictures are not spectacular,
but I believe they are unique."
SPACE WEATHER
SPACE WEATHER
