Autumn
is here, and it's a wonderful time for stargazing. Find
out what's up from Spaceweather
PHONE.
SOLAR
WIND:
Earth is exiting a solar wind stream that caused beautiful
auroras when it first hit on Nov. 9th and 10th. The
next such display is at least a week away unless sunspot
923 intervenes with an Earth-directed flare.
FIND
THE SUNSPOT:
It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's a sunspot? Yesterday,
Mila
Zinkova of San Francisco took this picture of the
setting sun: (continued below)
Among
the birds are "two brown pelicans (one diving), two
more birds so far away we can't see what kind they are,
and finally sunspot 923," says Zinkova. "Can
you find
the sunspot?"
A
second photo taken through her Personal
Solar Telescope revealed the black heart of the sunspot
in detail: take
a look.
Bonus:
Transit
of Mercury Photo Gallery
ALASKAN
PILLAR:
Deep in the interior of
Alaska, Keane Richards
paused to watch the sun set on Nov. 4th when, suddenly,
a luminous pillar appeared:
The sun is behind the snowy branch.
More images: #1,
#2, #3
"This
was one of the best sun pillars I've seen," says
Richards. "Small snowflakes from high clouds seemed
to cause it."
"These
are really lovely images," says atmospheric oprics
expert Les Cowley. "Large plate
shaped ice crystals fluttering and wobbling as they
drifted down through the cold clear air made this lower
sun
pillar. Wobbly crystals blur most halos but they make
sun pillars taller and better."
SPACE WEATHER
SPACE WEATHER
