Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 17, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 17, 2014

-As the stars come out, face north and look very high overhead for Cassiopeia, oriented now like a flattened letter M. As the night proceeds, the M swings down in the northwest and tilts sideways.

-NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Jan. 17th when a minor CME is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for moonlit auroras.

-Winter is unfolding around the northern hemisphere. As temperatures drop, pillars of light are springing up from ground. Janis Satrovskis of Valmiera, Latvia, photographed this specimen on Jan. 14th.

Light pillars are a common sight around northern cities in winter. Urban lights bounce off ice crystals in the air, producing tall luminous columns sometimes mistaken for auroras. Usually the ice crystals are natural, such as snow flakes, but in this case the atmospheric optics were artificial.

"The amazing phenomenon was created by snow blowing machines," explains Satrovskis. "These are our first days with temperatures below zero and ski resorts are making snow. A slight breeze carried manmade snow over the city, creating a spectacular view."

Light pillars are springing up in cold cities around the world. Is yours one of them?

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 17, 2014

Source:
Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra. This deep view of the gorgeous island universe includes observations from Hubble, along with ground based data from the European Southern Observatory's very large telescope units, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's Subaru telescope, and Australian Astronomical Observatory photographic data by D. Malin. About 40,000 light-years across, M83 is popularly known as the Southern Pinwheel for its pronounced spiral arms. But the wealth of reddish star forming regions found near the edges of the arms' thick dust lanes, also suggest another popular moniker for M83, the Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. Arcing near the top of the novel cosmic portrait lies M83's northern stellar tidal stream, debris from the gravitational disruption of a smaller, merging satellite galaxy. The faint, elusive star stream was found in the mid 1990s by enhancing photographic plates.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 18, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 18, 2014

-This the Big Dipper's time of year to swing up from the low north-northeast after dusk, to stand on its handle in the northeast by about 9 p.m.

-Jupiter's Great Red Spot transits Jupiter's central meridian around 10:15 p.m. EST.

-A minor CME expected to hit Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 17th is late, but NOAA forecasters still think it is coming. They estimate a 40% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Jan. 18th in response to the tardy impact. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

-Luminous halos around the Moon are nothing unusual, especially in wintertime Finland where the air is so often filled with ice. Crystals of frozen H2O catch the moonlight and bend it into a circular ring of light. A few nights ago, however, Sauli Koski of Muonio, Finland, witnessed a halo that was not circular, but elliptical.

"On Jan. 15th, the weather changed. As the temperature dropped from -7C to -37C, there were all kinds of ice halos to photograph," says Koski. "The best and rarest were these elliptical forms that lasted more than 20 minutes."

Although physicists have been studying ice halos for decades, not all are understood. "Elliptical halos are one of the puzzles," says atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley. " We can simulate them by invoking hexagonal plate-like crystals topped by almost flat pyramid faces. However, the simulations do not fit very well and such crystals are unphysical. Crystal facets like to form along planes where there are lots of atoms or molecules – almost flat pyramids do not fit the bill at all. Perhaps some peculiar distorted snowflake types instead?"

"These mysteries all add to the spice of halo observing, the beautiful, the unexpected, the unexplained, something new!"

-A sunspot approaching from just behind the sun's southeastern limb is crackling with solar flares. The explosions are registering C2 to C8 on the Richter Scale of Flares even though they are partially eclipsed by the edge of the sun. In Athens, Greece, amateur astronomer Peter Desypris photographed the flying debris from one of the explosions.

"Indeed, something big appears to be on the way," says Desypris.

The sun's rotation is slowly turning the active region toward Earth. During the weekend its core should emerge into plain view for a better evaluation of its flare-producing potential. Stay tuned for updates.

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 18, 2014

Source:
This big, bright, beautiful Full Moon rose over Lick Observatory Wednesday night. Traditionally a full moon in January might be called the Wolf Moon. But this moon reached its full phase on January 16, 4:54 UT, within about 2 hours of apogee, the most distant point in its elliptical orbit around planet Earth. That also makes it the smallest full moon of 2014. Of course the difference in apparent size between the largest and smallest full moons is hard to see, because the difference in distance between lunar apogee and perigee, or closest point in the Moon's orbit, is only about 50,000 kilometers, while the Moon's average distance is around 385,000 kilometers. Though not by much, this apogee's full moon was also the smallest full moon of the last 1,000 years. It will keep that distinction until a slightly smaller full moon occurs close to apogee in 2154.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 19, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 19, 2014

-Sirius twinkles brightly after dinnertime below Orion in the southeast. Around 8 or 9 p.m., depending on your location, Sirius shines precisely below fiery Betelgeuse in Orion's shoulder. How accurately can you time this event for your location, perhaps using a plumb bob or the vertical edge of a building? Sirius leads early in the evening, Betelgeuse leads later. Welcome to pre-telescopic astronomy.

-A phalanx of new sunspots rotating over the sun's southeastern limb was expected to boost solar activity this weekend. So far, however, the spots have not produced strong flares. Solar activity is low.

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 19, 2014

Source:
Billions of years from now, only one of these two galaxies will remain. Until then, spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 will slowly pull each other apart, creating tides of matter, sheets of shocked gas, lanes of dark dust, bursts of star formation, and streams of cast-away stars. Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the larger galaxy on the left, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the right. In the most recent encounter that about peaked 40 million years ago, the smaller galaxy is swinging around counter-clockwise, and is now slightly behind the larger galaxy. The space between stars is so vast that when galaxies collide, the stars in them usually do not collide.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 20, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 20, 2014

-Jupiter's moon Io crosses Jupiter's face from 8:07 to 10:22 p.m. EST, with its tiny black shadow (much more visible in a telescope) following 23 minutes behind. Later, Jupiter's Great Red Spot transits the planet's central meridian around 11:54 p.m. EST.

-Venus (about magnitude –4.4) is now plain to see low in early dawn; look east-southeast. It too is becoming higher every day.

-In a telescope Venus is a very thin, large crescent following its inferior conjunction on January 11th.

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 20, 2014

Source:
How large do things appear when far away? When peering across the universe, the answer can actually tell us about its average gravitational history and hence its composition. Toward this goal, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III (SDSS-III) has measured slight recurring density enhancements in galaxy densities up to six billion light years away (redshift 0.7), when the universe was about half its current age. These density ripples are known as baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) and are expected to emerge from the early universe at a known size scale. BOSS's measurements of this size scale indicate a strong universe component of dark energy, and so bolsters previous indications of this unusual composition. Pictured above is an artist's illustration depicting exaggerated BAOs in the distant universe.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 21, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 21, 2014

-The waning gibbous Moon rises around 11 tonight, then Mars and Spica follow up below it in the next hour and a quarter. By dawn Wednesday morning (the 22nd) the three are posing in the southwest, with Spica and Mars to the Moon's left and upper left as shown below.

-Jupiter's Great Red Spot transits around 7:45 p.m. EST.

-High-latitude auroras are possible on Jan. 21st when Earth crosses through a fold in the heliospheric current sheet. This is called a "solar sector boundary crossing," and NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% chance of polar geomagnetic storms when it occurs.

-On Jan. 5th, Earth passed directly between the sun and Jupiter. Astronomers call this an "opposition" because the sun and Jupiter were on opposite sides of the sky. "Jupiter's opposition is always an opportunity for beautiful pictures of moons transiting Jupiter, sometimes directly in front of their own shadows," says John H. Rogers, Jupiter Section Director of the British Astronomical Association. "Observers have produced some fine examples from the opposition earlier this month." Some of the best are collected here.

News Posted Today:
January 20, 2014
The End of Rosetta's Big Sleep


Astro Picture of the Day:
January 21, 2014

Source:
Did you see the big, bright, beautiful Full Moon last Wednesday night? That was actually a Micro Moon! On that night, the smallest Full Moon of 2014 reached its full phase only a few hours from lunar apogee, the time of its the most distant point from Earth in the Moon's elliptical orbit. Of course, last year on the night of June 22, a Full Super Moon was near perigee, the closest point in its orbit. The relative apparent size of January 15's Micro Moon is compared to the June 22 Super Moon in the above composite image digitally superimposing telescopic images from Perugia, Italy. The difference in apparent size represents a difference in distance of just under 50,000 kilometers between apogee and perigee, given the Moon's average distance of about 385,000 kilometers. How long do you have to wait to see another Full Micro Moon? Until March 5, 2015, when the lunar full phase will again occur within a few hours of lunar apogee.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 22, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 22, 2014

-The waning Moon rises around midnight tonight very close to Spica, with Mars shining to their upper left. By dawn on the 23rd they move over to the southwest, with Mars now to the Moon's upper right as shown above.

-Algol is at minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.3, for a couple hours centered on 1:20 a.m. Thursday morning EST (10:20 p.m. Wednesday PST). Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten.

-For the past 24 hours, solar activity has been low. However, two sunspots facing Earth, AR1957 and AR1959, have 'beta-gamma' magnetic fields that harbor energy for M-class solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of M-flares on Jan. 22nd.

-Earth is entering a stream of solar wind blowing almost 600 km/s (1.3 million mph), and this is sparking auroras around the Arctic Circle. Just after nightfall on Jan. 21st, Harald Albrigtsen photographed the display over Kvalųya, Tromsų, Norway.

"I caught the auroras just before the clouds arrived," says Albrigtsen, "so it was a lucky shot."

More lucky shots are possible on Jan. 23 when a CME is expected to deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field, adding to the effect of the solar wind stream already here.

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 22, 2014

Source:
Yes, but can your blizzard do this? In Upper Michigan's Storm of the Century in 1938, some snow drifts reached the level of utility poles. Nearly a meter of new and unexpected snow fell over two days in a storm that started 76 years ago tomorrow. As snow fell and gale-force winds piled snow to surreal heights; many roads became not only impassable but unplowable; people became stranded; cars, school buses and a train became mired; and even a dangerous fire raged. Fortunately only two people were killed, although some students were forced to spend several consecutive days at school. The above image was taken by a local resident soon after the storm. Although all of this snow eventually melted, repeated snow storms like this help build lasting glaciers in snowy regions of our planet Earth.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 23, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 23, 2014

-Last-quarter Moon tonight (exact at 12:19 a.m. Friday morning EST). The Moon rises around 1 a.m. local time. To its upper right is the Mars-Spica pair, and rising to its lower left more than an hour later is Saturn. By dawn on the 24th they're lined up horizontally in the south to southwest.

-Jupiter's Great Red Spot transits around 9:23 p.m. EST.

-On Tuesday January 21st astronomers first noticed an 11th-magnitude supernova in the galaxy M82 in Ursa Major. It's in the evening sky in reach of amateur telescopes, and it may not be done brightening yet. Leonard Ellul-Mercer photographed it from his observatory in Malta on Jan. 22nd.

-Although it is 12 million light years away, M82 is considered to be a next-door neighbor of the Milky Way. Indeed, this is the nearest supernova to Earth since SN 1993J exploded 21 years ago. The relative proximity of the blast makes it an attractive target for astronomers to study. Light curves from previous supernovas of this type suggest that the fireball could continue to brighten for the next two weeks.

News Posted Today:
January 22, 2014
Bright Supernova in M82


Astro Picture of the Day:
January 23, 2014

Source:
This lovely starfield spans some seven full moons (about 3.5 degrees) across the heroic northern constellation of Perseus. Just right of center it holds the famous pair of open or galactic star clusters, h and Chi Perseii. Also cataloged as NGC 869 (right) and NGC 884, both clusters are about 7,000 light-years away and contain stars much younger and hotter than the Sun. Separated by only a few hundred light-years, the clusters are both 13 million years young based on the ages of their individual stars, evidence that they were likely a product of the same star-forming region. Always a rewarding sight in binoculars, the Double Cluster is even visible to the unaided eye from dark locations. Not seen in binoculars though, and not often depicted in telescopic images of the region are faint clouds of reddish ionized hydrogen gas found throughout this remarkable cosmic skyscape. A color composite, the image includes narrowband data to enhance emission from the hydrogen clouds. Visible toward the upper left of the wide field of view is another, smaller open star cluster, NGC 957, also of similar age, distance, and possibly related to the more famous Double Cluster in Perseus.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 24, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 24, 2014

-Mercury has become easy to see; look for it low in the west-southwest as twilight fades. Don't confuse it with twinkly Fomalhaut off to its left in the southwest. Mercury is beginning its best evening apparition since last June for mid-northern skywatchers.

-The Moon rises around 2 a.m. Saturday morning the 25th with Saturn glowing just 1° or 2° from it (as seen from the Americas). They're high in the south together by dawn, as shown here.

News Posted Today:
January 23, 2014
"Dwarf Planet" Ceres Exhales Water


Astro Picture of the Day:
January 24, 2014

Source:
Astronomers really don't find supernovae by looking for the arrows. But in this image taken January 23rd, an arrow does point to an exciting, new supernova, now cataloged as SN 2014J, in nearby bright galaxy M82. Located near the Big Dipper in planet Earth's sky, M82 is also known as the Cigar Galaxy, a popular target for telescopes in the northern hemisphere. In fact, SN 2014J was first spotted as an unfamiliar source in the otherwise familiar galaxy by teaching fellow Steve Fossey and astronomy workshop students Ben Cooke, Tom Wright, Matthew Wilde and Guy Pollack at the University College London Observatory on the evening of January 21. M82 is a mere 12 million light-years away (so the supernova explosion did happen 12 million years ago, that light just now reaching Earth), making supernova SN 2014J one of the closest to be seen in recent decades. Spectra indicate it is a Type Ia supernova caused by the explosion of a white dwarf accreting matter from a companion star. By some estimates two weeks away from its maximum brightness, SN 2014J is already the brightest part of M82 and visible in small telescopes in the evening sky.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 25, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 25, 2014

-Algol is at minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.3, for a couple hours centered on 10:09 p.m. EST. It takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten.

-Jupiter's Great Red Spot transits Jupiter's central meridian around 11:01 p.m. EST.

-With no sunspots actively flaring, the sun's x-ray output has flatlined. Solar activity is low and likely to remain so for the rest of the weekend.

-The students of Earth to Sky Calculus are only hours away from launching another space weather balloon. The launch, slated for midday Pacific time on Jan. 25th, is the latest in a series of suborbital balloon missions designed to study the effects of solar activity on Earth's upper atmosphere. Today's flight samples a period of low solar activity, the opposite of their previous flight, which flew into the teeth of an S2-class solar radiation storm. The storm data they gathered on Jan. 8th is found below.

The curve traces the amount of ionizing radiation encountered by the balloon during its 2 hour flight. During the ascent, an onboard x-ray/gamma-ray sensor measured doses 25 times greater than at ground level. The peak occured at the entrance to the stratosphere in a zone known as the "Pfotzer Maximum." Named after physicist George Pfotzer, who discovered the peak using balloons and Geiger tubes in the 1930s, the Pfotzer Maximum is produced by energetic particles hitting Earth's atmosphere, creating a spray of subatomic debris at high altitudes. The Earth to Sky campaign aims to find out, among other things, how the Pfotzer Maximum moves around in response to solar storms.

This weekend's flight will repeat the Jan. 8th experiment using the same equipment while no solar radiation storm is in progress.

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 25, 2014

Source:
On January 25 (UT) 2004, the Opportunity rover fell to Mars, making today the 10th anniversary of its landing. After more than 3,500 sols (Mars solar days) the golf cart-sized robot from Earth is still actively exploring the Red Planet, though its original mission plan was for three months. This self-portrait was made with Opportunity's panoramic camera earlier this month. The camera's supporting mast has been edited out of the image mosaic but its shadow is visible on the dusty solar panels arrayed across the rover's deck. For comparison, a similar self-portrait from late 2004 is shown in the inset. Having driven some 39 kilometers (24 miles) from its landing site, Opportunity now rests at Solander Point at the rim of Endeavour Crater.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Did some performance updates on the opening post so that it hopefully doesn't take as long to load. Archives were moved to subsequent pages.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 26, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 26, 2014

-This is the frigid time of year when the Little Dipper (mostly dim) hangs straight down from Polaris shortly after dark. Look due north.

-Northern sunspot AR1957 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares. The region's persistant quiet, however, suggests the odds of an eruption are low. NOAA forecasters estimate a 15% chance of M-flares on Jan. 26th.

-Yesterday, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launched a suborbital helium balloon from Bishop, California, and recovered the payload hours later from a nearby canyon. The goal of the mission was to measure high-energy radiation levels in the stratosphere. Those data are being reduced now. The students also captured panoramic images of California's epic drought. So much for the Golden State. The landscape of California is remarkably brown as the driest winter in more than a century unfolds. The drought is so bad that the city of Bishop, where the students go to school, looks like a settlement on the planet Mars. Image is below.

"Up and down California, from Oregon to Mexico, it's dry as a bone," comments JPL climatologst Bill Patzert. "To make matters worse, the snowpack in the water-storing Sierras is less than 20% of normal for this time of the year." Indeed, the towering Sierras, only sparsely covered by crusty month-old snow, lack their usual white reflectance in many of the group's edge of space photos. Not much water will be flowing from those peaks to urban areas when the snow melts in spring. Water rationing and wildfires are likely this summer.

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 26, 2014

Source:
It was a quiet day on the Sun. The above image shows, however, that even during off days the Sun's surface is a busy place. Shown in ultraviolet light, the relatively cool dark regions have temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius. Large sunspot group AR 9169 from the last solar cycle is visible as the bright area near the horizon. The bright glowing gas flowing around the sunspots has a temperature of over one million degrees Celsius. The reason for the high temperatures is unknown but thought to be related to the rapidly changing magnetic field loops that channel solar plasma. Large sunspot group AR 9169 moved across the Sun during 2000 September and decayed in a few weeks.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 27, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 27, 2014

-In the dawn Tuesday morning the 28th, make a point to look low in the southeast to catch Venus with the waning crescent Moon to its right, as shown at lower right. A telescope shows that Venus too is a crescent!

-The southeastern limb of the sun is crackling with C- and M-class solar flares. These explosions herald the return of old sunspot AR1944, which produced many strong flares earlier this month. For the past two weeks AR1944 has been transiting the farside of the sun. An uptick in solar activity is possible as it returns to the Earthside this week.

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 27, 2014

Source:
There is a road that connects the Northern to the Southern Cross but you have to be at the right place and time to see it. The road, as pictured above, is actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy; the right place, in this case, is dark Laguna Cejar in Salar de Atacama of Northern Chile; and the right time was in early October, just after sunset. Many sky wonders were captured then, including the bright Moon, inside the Milky Way arch; Venus, just above the Moon; Saturn and Mercury, just below the Moon; the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds satellite galaxies, on the far left; red airglow near the horizon on the image left; and the lights of small towns at several locations across the horizon.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 28, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 28, 2014

-Algol is at minimum brightness for a couple hours centered on 7:00 p.m. EST. In Wednesday's dawn, look for the eerily thin waning crescent Moon below Venus now. They're low in the southeast, as shown here.

-China's moon rover, the Jade Rabbit, which made an historic landing in Sinus Iridum (the Bay of Rainbows) on Dec. 14th, is in trouble. Night is falling over the rover's landing site, and the rover should be going into hibernation to preserve power. China's space agency is reporting, however, that a "mechanical anomaly" may be interfering with the hibernation process. If so, the Jade Rabbit might not survive the extreme cold (-180 C) it is about to experience during two weeks of lunar night. Even if the rover fails, the mission is a success for China, which has joined the exclusive club of nations that have landed on the Moon.

-Active sunspot AR1944, which produced many strong flares earlier this month, has returned from a two-week trip around the farside of the sun. It announced itself on Jan. 27th with an M4-class solar flare, shown here in an extreme UV image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

According to tradition, sunspots that circle around the farside of the sun and re-appear are re-numbered. The new name of AR1944 is AR1967. That's how we shall refer to it from now on.

Although AR1967 decayed during its absence, it is still potent. NOAA forecasters estimate a 5% chance of X-flares and a 50% chance of M-flares on Jan. 28th. Explosions probably won't be Earth-directed, however, because the active region is still near the sun's southeastern limb.

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 28, 2014

Source:
M83 is one of the closest and brightest spiral galaxies on the sky. Visible with binoculars in the constellation of Hydra, majestic spiral arms have prompted its nickname as the Southern Pinwheel. Although discovered 250 years ago, only much later was it appreciated that M83 was not a nearby gas cloud, but a barred spiral galaxy much like our own Milky Way Galaxy. M83, pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope in a recently released image, is a prominent member of a group of galaxies that includes Centaurus A and NGC 5253, all of which lie about 15 million light years distant. Several bright supernova explosions have been recorded in M83. An intriguing double circumnuclear ring has been discovered at the center of of M83.

[Spenner]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Awesome, I got a great view of venus this morning on my way to a work meeting that I was 12 hours early for.

Also I'm listening to an album with M83 on the cover of it as I post this too, cool.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 29, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 29, 2014

-Jupiter this month turns the Winter Triangle into a bigger, brighter Winter Diamond. Its bottom is Sirius, its two side corners are Betelgeuse and Procyon, and Jupiter forms its top. The diamond tilts leftward in early evening and stands vertically in the south around 10 p.m. (depending on your location).

-Earth is entering a stream of solar wind blowing almost 500 km/s or 1.1 million mph. First contact on Jan. 28th sparked tall curtains of light around the Arctic Circle. Harald Albrigtsen captured this picture of the display from Skulsfjord, Tromsų, Norway.

"At first there was little auroral activity, but being patient paid off," says Albrigtsen. He photographed the explosion of light using a Nikon D600 digital camera set at ISO 3200 iso for 3 seconds.

Arctic photographers, take note of those settings because more auroras are on the way. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% to 40% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Jan. 29-30 as Earth moves deeper into the solar wind stream.

-Big sunspot AR1967 near the sun's southeastern limb is crackling with solar flares. As Jan. 29th unfolds it is producing an average of one impulsive M-class explosion every two hours.

So far, none of the explosions has been Earth-directed, but future flares will be as the sunspot continues its slow turn toward our planet. NOAA forecasters have doubled the odds of an X-class flare in the next 24 hours to 10%. Meanwhile, M-class flares seem almost certain as the crackling continues.

The primary dark core of AR1967 is twice as wide as Earth. This makes it an easy target for small telescopes equipped with solar filters. This morning at the Langkawi National Observatory in Malaysia, astronomer Karzaman Ahmad photographed the sunspot using an 11-inch Celestron." I wanted to take a closer look at the monster numbered AR1967," says Ahmad. "It is impressive."

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 29, 2014

Source:
What if a rock that looked like a jelly donut suddenly appeared on Mars? That's just what happened in front of the robotic Opportunity rover currently exploring the red planet. The unexpectedly placed rock, pictured above, was imaged recently by Opportunity after not appearing in other images taken as recently as twelve Martian days (sols) before. Given the intriguing mystery, the leading explanation is somewhat tame -- the rock was recently scattered by one of the rover's tires. Even so, the rock's unusual light tones surrounding a red interior created interest in its composition -- as well as causing it to be nicknamed Jelly Donut. A subsequent chemical analysis showed the rock has twice the abundance of manganese than any other rock yet examined -- an unexpected clue that doesn't yet fit into humanity's understanding of the Martian geologic history. Opportunity, just passing its 10-year anniversary on Mars, continues to explore the Murray Ridge section of the rim of 22-kilometer wide Endeavor Crater.

[Bluearrowll]

Re: Terry's Astronomy Thread.

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
January 30, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
January 30, 2014

-On Thursday, Jan. 30th, the Moon will eclipse the sun for almost 2.5 hours. You have to be in space to see it. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory s set to record the "lunar transit," which begins at 1331 UTC or 8:31 EST. A simulation shows that approximately 90% of the sun will covered. SDO is solar powered, so mission controllers have charged-up the spacecraft's batteries to endure the blackout. Stay tuned for images during the eclipse!

Astro Picture of the Day:
January 30, 2014

Source:
Fixed to a tripod and looking east across the Kennedy Space Center's Turn Basin, a camera captured these star trails as a series of short exposures over a three hour period on the evening of January 23rd. Positioned just a few miles from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, it also captured a spectacular night launch of an Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite TDRS-L. Creating the trails, the apparent motion of the stars through the sky is just a reflection of the daily rotation of planet Earth on its axis. But that rotation is also the reason the rocket streak follows a path arcing east across the Atlantic. Launching toward the east, in the direction of Earth's rotation, adds the rotation velocity to the rocket and reduces the fuel needed to reach orbit. A little ironically, TDRS-L is destined for a geostationary orbit. From there, 36,000 kilometers or so above the equator, it's orbital period will match Earth's rotation and the satellite will hang motionless in planet Earth's sky.