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VOLCANO WATCH:
Seismic activity continues at Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano and
geologists say an eruption could occur at any moment. The last time
an Alaskan volcano blew its top (Kasatochi in August 2008), about
a million tons of ash and sulfur dioxide flooded the stratosphere,
causing fantastic
sunsets around
the northern hemisphere and possibly
reducing
Earth's temperature by a fraction of a degree. More SO2
is in the offing. Stay tuned for updates.
SUNSET SKY SHOW:
For the past two nights, sky watchers around the world enjoyed a
brilliant sunset conjunction between Venus and the crescent Moon.
"At the Philippus Lansbergen public observatory, we had more
than 60 visitors admiring the display," reports Jan Koeman
of Middelburg, The Netherlands:
Next month, it's going to happen again--only better. During last
night's conjunction, the Moon and Venus were separated by about
3o. On Friday, Feb. 27th, the Moon will
pass less than 1o from Venus. For reasons not fully understood
by astronomers or psychologists, a 1o pair is much
prettier than a 3o pair, so the next conjunction is going
to be special.
Whet your appetite with a few more photos: from
Daniel Chang of Hong Kong; from
Steuckers Dominique of Holsbeek, Belgium; from
Quentin D. of Le Havre, Normandy, France; from
Sangku Kim of Pyeongtaek, South Korea; from
Tyler Burg of Council Bluffs, Iowa; from
Mahdi Zamani of Tehran, Iran; from
Mark Seibold of Portland, Oregon; from
Wienie van der Oord iof the Negev desert, Israel; from
Minghelli of L'Escarène, Alpes Maritimes, France; from
Patrick Jablonski of Normandie, France; from
Mike O'Leary of El Cajon, California; from
Eleazar Sánchez of Shanghai, China; from
Hal Schade of Rio Dulce, Guatemala;
SKI HALOS: What
do you do when you see a skier flying through a sundog? Simple.
Execute a hockey stop, take off your gloves, extract a digital camera
from the folds of your snow suit, and--click!--photograph the split-second
encounter:
Skiing photographer Ivar Matheson did everything right on Jan.
27th when he took the picture above. "I was at the Åre ski
resort in Sweden. It was a sunny day and the air was filled with
ice crystals. This gave rise to an impressive display of luminous
sun halos, sundogs, sub-sundogs, subsuns, upper and lower sun pillars
and tangent arcs." The complete collection is a must-see.
Going skiing? Be alert for "ski
halos"--and practice your hockey stop!
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