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METEOR SHOWER UPDATE:
The Orionid meteor shower is subsiding, but
it's not done yet. International observers are still reporting
as many as 25 Orionids per hour as Earth exits the debris
stream of Halley's Comet. Readers, if you are up before dawn,
keep an eye on the sky for last-minute Orionids. [sky
map] [gallery]
GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY:
High-latitude sky watchers should be alert
for Northern Lights. A sharp gust of solar wind hit Earth
on Oct. 21st, and the Arctic Circle is still ringing with
geomagnetic activity. "[We had a] stunning display of
active auroras last night," reports Thomas Hagen, who
sends this picture from Tromsø, Norway:
"The entire
sky turned green and stayed green for much of the night,"
adds Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway.
The solar wind gust that sparked the display is interesting
because it likely originated with a spotless explosion in
the Sun's southern hemisphere on Oct. 17th: movie.
The blast hurled a faint coronal mass ejection (CME) toward
Earth. Normally, CMEs reach Earth in only 2 or 3 days, but
this one took a leisurely 4 days to cross the Sun-Earth divide.
Why so long? Since solar
minimum began in ~2007, solar physicists have noticed
that CMEs have been moving in slow motion. They take a long
time to get here, and they don't hit very hard when they arrive.
Nevertheless, this one managed to spark some nice auroras.
Browse the gallery
for more.
October
2009 Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Octobers: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2004, 2003,
2002, 2001]
LOOK
AT THE MOOOOON: "Last night while traveling
through the Black Forest, we saw some cows on a hill with
the crescent Moon behind," says German photographer Achim
Schaller. "I laid down on the meadow with my Nikon
D700 and photographed the close encounter."
Another close encounter is just around the corner.
The Moon is moving away from the cows of the Black Forest
and toward the king of planets. Look for Jupiter and the Mooooon
side by side on Monday evening, Oct. 26th: sky
map.
2009
Orionid Photo Gallery
[full
story] [sky
map] [previous years: 2006,
2008]
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