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. .
SUN ON FIRE: "Today
the southeastern limb of the sun looks like it is burning,"
says Cai-Uso Wohler who took
this picture
from his backyard in Bispingen, Germany. The sun has been blank
for days; "I hope this activity means there will be a sunspot
coming around the limb soon." Amateur astronomers with solar
telescopes are encouraged to monitor the situation.
ANOTHER FIREBALL:
"After seeing the September 13th New
Mexico fireball on spaceweather.com, I was surprised to catch
a very bright fireball here in Texas just two nights later,"
reports Tom King who operates
an all-night, all-sky camera near Watauga, Texas, not far from Dallas/Fort
Worth. "In the video,
you can see where the meteor is bright enough to illuminate a power
pole and trees!"
Click to view the video.
"The gain control of the camera is slow to recover, so the
pole and trees appear illuminated after the fireball is gone,"
he continues. "The fixed lights in the images are street lights."
King notes that the Dallas/Fort Worth area is badly light
polluted, yet his camera is doing a good job catching meteors.
After the fireball at 1:06 am CDT, he recorded "another more
typical meteor 8 minutes later (video),
then 2 more during the remainder of the morning."
UPDATE: In Arkansas,
astrophographer Brian Emfinger
reports: "I have had my camera shooting all night the last
few nights and I have noticed quite a few meteors--including these
two bright ones on Sept. 16th. The rate is definitely above
normal." Tracing the meteors back to their point of origin
reveals a possible radiant on the outskirts of the constellation
Camelopardalis: diagram.
Is a shower underway? Sky watchers, please be alert for more "Camelopardalids"
in the nights ahead.
RAINBOW UNDERFOOT:
"Last week, we took a helicopter ride
to see lava flowing from the Kilauea
volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii," says photographer Mila
Zinkova. "But before we reached the
lava we saw a beautiful rainbow. It seemed to me that it made
a complete circle beneath the heliocopter." (continued
below)
more images: #1,
#2, #3,
#4
Indeed, with the sun overhead and no ground to interrrupt the 'bow
below, a complete 360-degree rainbow was on display underneath the
chopper. If only Mila had had her fisheye lens!
"Hawaii with its fine rain showers mixed with brilliant sun
is ideal for rainbows,"
notes atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. "The only problem
is that the sun is often too high! Rainbows are always directly
opposite the sun and when the is high in the sky the rainbow top
dips
below the horizon where you cannot see it. The solution? Climb a
mountain or hire a helicopter for a better view."
Cowley adds that if you're not in Hawaii, "a lawn
sprinkler does a good job, too"
September
2007 Aurora Gallery
[August 2007 Aurora Gallery]
[Aurora Alerts]
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