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URSID
METEOR SHOWER: A
flurry of meteors may emerge from Ursa Minor (the Little
Dipper) on Dec. 22nd between 18 and 23 hours UT when Earth
runs into a filament of debris trailing comet 8P/Tuttle.
Meteor forecaster Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute
anticipates as many as 39 meteors per hour, best seen
from Europe and Asia. Reference: IAU Electronic Telegram
#773.
AURORAS
FROM SPACE: How
bright were the auroras of Dec. 14th? As bright as city
lights and easily seen from space. A US Air Force DMSP
satellite took this picture from orbit 830 km above the
United States:
The
bright arc stretching from Montana to Maine is the aurora
borealis. In many places it completely overwhelms the
city lights below.
"The
DMSP satellite has the ability to detect auroral light
at night," says Paul
McCrone of the Air Force Weather Agency at Offutt
AFB in Nebraska. "These images are mosaics of various
DMSP overflights on Dec.
12-13, Dec.
13-14, and Dec
14-15. The Dec. 14th image is quite striking."
December
2006 Aurora Gallery
Updated: December 18th
GOODBYE...
and thanks for all the X-flares. Sunspot 930 announced
itself on Dec. 5th with one of the strongest
flares in years--an X9, followed by an X6 on Dec.
6th, an X3 on Dec. 13th, and an X1 on Dec. 14th. Not bad
for solar minimum!
Now
the spot is gone. The slow spin of the sun carried it
over the sun's western limb this morning--but not before
one last flare:
Photo details:
Coronado
PST and a Canon
XTI digital camera.
"Today
sunspot 930 said a nice goodbye," reports photographer
Mila
Zinkova of San Francisco, California. "There
was C2 flare
at the limb with a nice ring-shaped prominence. The prominence
changed shape and brightness constantly--very pretty."
SPACE WEATHER
SPACE WEATHER
