NEW AND IMPROVED: Turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a field-tested global satellite tracker. The Satellite Flybys app now works in all countries. | | | MOON AND MARS: Looking for Mars? Tonight the Red Planet is easy to find. It's that orange-colored "star" right beside the Moon. Look south after sunset: sky map. EMERGING SUNSPOT 1057: New sunspot 1057 is big and beautiful, and it has already unleashed a coronal mass ejection (CME, movie). The cloud is not heading toward Earth but future CMEs could be as the sunspot turns to face our planet this week. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments. SPRING SIGHTINGS: You know it's Spring when the International Space Station (ISS) streaks not only through the stars but also through the cherry blossoms: Amir H. Abolfath sends this "Spring sighting" from Tehran, Iran. He took the picture on March 22nd using a Canon EOS 5D. The ISS itself will blossom in April when the space shuttle pays a visit. Discovery is scheduled to leave Earth on April 5th for a two-week mission to deliver supplies and science experiments to the ISS. At the beginning and end of the mission, the shuttle and station will appear as double lights in the night sky; in the middle they will merge to form an ensemble of surpassing brightness. Monitor the Simple Satellite Tracker for flybys of your hometown. And don't forget, there's an app for that, too. FINNMARKSLOPET: You've heard of the Iditarod. But do you know about the Finnmarksløpet? "Finnmarksløpet is the world's northernmost sled dog race and the longest in Europe," explains Kerstin Langenberger of Finnmark, Norway. "It was held this year in mid-March. Every night auroras could be seen - it was awesome! "Most of the time I was busy helping at the race, but at the Sirma checkpoint I managed to photograph some auroras dancing right above a few of the teams that were having a few hours of well-deserved rest," says Langenberger. Indeed, March 2010 has been one of the busiest months in years for Arctic Lights. It's a sign that the sun is waking up from a long slumber. For the record, the 1019 km race was won on March 18th by Ralph Johannessen. He and his dogs crossed the finish line in only 5 days, 8 hours and 58 minutes ... under green skies, of course. March Northern Lights Gallery [previous Marches: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003] |