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STRATOSPHERIC CLOUD
ALERT: On the evening on Jan. 26th, sky watchers
in parts of England and the Netherlands witnessed
unusually colorful sunsets and prolonged twilights. Atmospheric
optics expert Les Cowley believes that "we are experiencing
an episode of Polar
Stratospheric Clouds (Type 1) as a result of unusually
low stratospheric temperatures. I saw them myself." High-latitude
sky watchers should be alert for these
clouds at
sunrise and sunset in the days ahead.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH
MARS: Tonight, a few hours after sunset, go
outside and look east. That bright orange star hanging halfway
up the sky is Mars having a
close encounter with Earth. The Red Planet is only 99
million km away and looks bigger through a telescope than
at anytime between 2008 and 2014. Here it is posing for Doug
Zubenel's 12.5-inch "PlanetCatcher" in Kansas:
"The view through the eyepiece was very nice,"
says Zubenel. "The northern polar cap and Aurorae Sinus
(a dark feature in the southern hemisphere of Mars) were easily
seen at 488X magnification."
Browse the links for more views
through the eyepiece: from
Mike Hood of Kathleen, Georgia; from
John Nassr of Baguio, Philippines; from
Jacob Bassøe of Copenhegen, Denmark; from
Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY; from
Sadegh Ghomizadeh of Tehran, Iran;
MINOR METEOR OUTBURST:
On the night of Jan. 20/21, a network of video cameras operated
by amateur astronomers in Finland caught a flurry of meteors
emerging from Ursa Minor, the Little Dipper. No bright displays
were expected that evening and, at first, astronomers weren't
sure what they had seen. "Then Esko Lyytinen realized
it was the gamma Ursae Minorids--a recently discovered 'minor
shower' that wasn't supposed to be so bright," says Peter
Jenniskens of the SETI Institute in California. This sky map
shows the meteor trails recorded by the video network:
Image courtesy Esko Lyytinen and Peter Jenniskens
Gamma Ursae Minorids are traced in blue. "Note how the
blue lines converge near a single radiant point," says
Jenniskens. Inset is an actual meteor captured by one of the
cameras.
The shower has attracted attention before. It was discovered
by Peter Brown and coworkers at the University of Western
Ontario, who have recorded gamma Ursae Minorid echoes for
the past five years using the Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar
(CMOR). But until now, the meteors were invisibly faint. According
to Jenniskens, 2010 marks the first bright outburst that could
be seen with the unaided eye.
"The source of this shower has not been identified,"
says Jenniskens. "It is probably a short-period comet
passing not far from Jupiter. The 11-day duration of the gamma
Ursae Minorids [in radar records] suggests that some significant
breakup occurred not too long ago and the comet may now be
hiding among the high inclination (i = 48.5 deg.) near-Earth
asteroid population."
Will this brightening shower make an even bigger splash next
year? No one knows, but Jenniskens plans to mark his calendar
for Jan. 20, 2011: Don't forget the gamma Ursae Minorids.
January
Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Januarys: 2009,
2008, 2007,
2005, 2004,
2001]
Solar
Eclipse Photo Gallery
[World
Map of Eclipse Sightings]
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