AURORA ALERTS: Did you miss the Northern Lights of June 14th? Next time get a wake-up call from Space Weather PHONE. | | | PROMINENCE ALERT: A massive prominence has just popped up over the sun's southeastern limb: image. It's taller than a planet and moving very rapidly. This is a nice target for backyard solar telescopes; if you have one, take a look! more images: from Didier Favre of Brétigny sur Orges, France; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from Hank Bartlett of Newburgh, Ontario; from Mark Seibold of Portland, Oregon; from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky; from Emiel Veldhuis of Zwolle, the Netherlands SUNGRAZING COMET: Note to comets: Don't get too close to the sun. Yesterday, June 16th, one did and suffered the consequences, disintegrating as the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) looked on: Click to play a 1 MB movie The comet goes in but nothing comes out. It's what usually happens when fierce sunlight beats down on the fragile, icy nucleus of a kamikaze comet. This one was probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after the 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet 2000+ years ago. Every day, one or two fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate. Most are too small to see, but occasionally a big one catches our attention--all the more reason to keep an eye on the sun. LUNAR PROJECTION: Backyard astronomer Dan Bush of Albany, Missouri has found a new way to show off the Moon. "Last Saturday, June 14th, I projected an image of the Moon from the eyepiece of my 20-inch Dobsonian onto a white piece of cardboard," he explains. The result was quite pleasing: Photo details: Nikon D70, Nikkor 18-200mm, 25s, f/4.2 at 32.0mm, ISO 400 "The moon image is reversed since it is a reflection," he says. "You can see many craters including Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows) at the top." Readers, the Moon will be full this Wednesday night. Grab your telescope and a piece of cardboard and head for the nearest sidewalk. Passersby will enjoy the show. more images: from Doug Zubenel of De Soto, Kansas; May 2008 Aurora Gallery [Aurora Alerts] [Night-sky Cameras] |