AURORA ALERTS: Did you miss the Northern Lights of June 25th? Next time get a wake-up call from Space Weather PHONE. | | | PLANETS ALIGN FOR THE 4th OF JULY: Look beyond the fireworks on 4th of July weekend. A trio of worlds is converging for a pretty sunset sky show: full story. NOCTILUCENT SWIRL: Once again, noctilucent clouds are active over Europe. On July 2nd, Peter Paul Hattinga Verschure of the Netherlands witnessed "a bright display, with rapid changes of form," including this electric-blue swirl: At one point "the display covered three-quarters of the sky," he says. "It was the most spectacular show of NLCs I've ever observed," adds countryman Henk Bril. "The early morning of July 2nd produced an eruption of activity that lasted until sunrise--even surpassing the zenith, which must be quite rare for my latitude (+51o N)." Nearby, Peter van Leuteren made this movie of the eerie clouds gliding overhead. "It was a bright and beautiful display," he says. 2008 Noctilucent Photo Gallery [NLC Tutorial] [Night-sky Cameras] EARTH AT APHELION: Earth's orbit around the sun is not a perfect circle, it's an ellipse, and on July 4th, Earth will be at the end of the ellipse farthest from the sun. Astronomers call this "aphelion." When we are at aphelion, the sun appears smaller in the sky (by 1.7%) and global solar heating is actually a little less (by 3.5%) than average. To commemorate the aphelion of 2008, last week Greek amateur astronomer Anthony Ayiomamitis photographed the sun setting behind the Portara, the entrance to the incomplete 2500-yr old Temple of Apollo on the Greek island of Naxos: "The white sun, virtually at aphelion, seemed to pass right through the Portara," says Ayiomamitis. "The presence of tourists in the foreground enriched the scene with the silhouettes they cast while marvelling the sunset." Even a little sun is a big beauty! more images: from Chris Kotsiopoulos on Naxos island, Greece; from Konstantinos Christodoulopoulos on the Greek island of Naxos June 2008 Aurora Gallery [Aurora Alerts] [Night-sky Cameras] |