| BEHOLD THE SUN:
Would you like to see fiery prominences and new-cycle sunspots
with your own eyes? On sale now: Personal
Solar Telescopes. |
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MONDAY MORNING: Waking
up before dawn to go to work? Grab your coffee and dash outside.
In the eastern sky, Mercury and an incredibly-slender crescent Moon
are side-by-side, beaming through the first glow of sunrise. (Binoculars
may be required to find the Moon.) It's a nice way to start the
day: sky map.
ORIONIDS STILL ACTIVE:
Amazingly, the Orionid meteor shower is still
active. Four days after the shower's nominal peak, worldwide observers
are still counting
10+ meteors per hour during the dark hours before
sunrise. On Oct. 25th, Thomas O'Brian witnessed "a fireball
exploding and leaving a smoke trail that drifted for more than 22
minutes." He photographed the smokey debris floating over the
countryside near Aspen, Colorado:
Click
to launch a 0.6 MB movie
This ongoing display is caused by a trail of dusty
debris from Halley's Comet crossing the October portion of Earth's
orbit. Until further notice, keep an eye on the pre-dawn sky; you
might see an Orionid!
2008
Orionid Meteor Gallery
[IMO meteor counts]
[2006 Orionids]
THE FACE OF THE SUN:
You've heard of the Man in the Moon. Now
behold the Face of the Sun:
The picture was taken this morning by SOHO's extreme ultraviolet
telescope. The dark eyes and laughing mouth are coronal holes, places
in the sun's atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up and allows
solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing from the mouth
should hit Earth on or about Oct 29th, possibly sparking geomagnetic
storms around the Arctic Circle. High-latitude sky watchers should
be alert for auroras.
Oct.
2008 Aurora Gallery
[Previous Octobers: 2007,
2006, 2004,
2003, 2002,
2001,
2000]
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