Metallic photos of the sun by renowned photographer Greg Piepol bring together the best of art and science. Buy one or a whole set. They make a stellar gift. | | | SPACE STATION FLYBY ALERT: The International Space Station is making a series of bright passes over North America this week. Sky watchers in the United States and Canada should be alert for evening flybys of the behemoth spacecraft. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker or consult your cell phone for flyby times. X-RAY ECLIPSE: Japan's Hinode spacecraft has beamed back a unique view of the Jan. 4th partial solar eclipse. While the people of Earth marveled at crescent sunrises and sickle-shaped sunbeams, Hinode's x-ray telescope captured a glorious ring of fire: From Hinode's point of view in Earth orbit, the Moon transited the sun almost dead center. The Moon was not, however, wide enough to cover the entire solar disk. Astronomers call this an "annular solar eclipse." Hinode's record of the event has little direct research value, but it does help calibrate Hinode's x-ray telescope and detectors. The apparent sharpness of the Moon's circular edge and the blackness of the lunar disk reveal much about the performance of the system. And, of course, it looks fantastic. UPDATED: Solar Eclipse Photo Gallery [NASA: Hinode Observes Annular Solar Eclipse] MORNING STAR: "There's only so much you can see from a hazy and light-polluted urban sky. And then there's Venus!" says photographer Ramiz Qureshi. "Here is the view from a congested street in Karachi, Pakistan, on the morning of Jan. 9th." "Venus was out-shining everything in the sky," he says. "City lights were no match for the morning star." Indeed, this is a good week to look for Venus, which is at greatest elongation (distance from the sun). The silvery planet rises two hours before the sun and hangs high in the eastern sky at dawn. As Qureshi's photo shows, dark skies are not required for a dazzling view. Set your alarm and take a look; it's a great way to start the day. January 2011 Aurora Photo Gallery [previous Januaries: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004] Potentially Hazardous Asteroids ( PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time. On January 11, 2011 there were 1179 potentially hazardous asteroids. Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach. | The official U.S. government space weather bureau | | The first place to look for information about sundogs, pillars, rainbows and related phenomena. | | Researchers call it a "Hubble for the sun." SDO is the most advanced solar observatory ever. | | 3D views of the sun from NASA's Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory | | Realtime and archival images of the Sun from SOHO. | | from the NOAA Space Environment Center | | the underlying science of space weather | |