Solar Eclipse this weekend

Space Weather News for May 18, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE: On Sunday, May 20th, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, producing a “ring of fire” solar eclipse visible across the Pacific side of Earth from China to the United States. Observing tips, visibility maps, and links to live webcasts may be found at http://spaceweather.com.

Sadly the eclipse cannot be seen from New Zealand where I am….

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Big Sunspot Crackling with Flares and Radio Bursts‏

RADIO-ACTIVE SUNSPOT: Huge sunspot AR1476 is crackling with M-class solar flares and appears to be on the verge of producing something even stronger. The sunspot's 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field harbors energy for X-class flares, the most powerful kind. Radio operators are recording strong bursts of shortwave static from the sunspot as it turns toward Earth. Visit http://spaceweather.com for sample recordings and forecasts.

SUNSPOT TELESCOPE: AR1476 looks magnificent through a properly-filtered telescope. Explore Scientific's White Light Solar Observing System is perfect for sunspot watching, and it's available now in the Space Weather Store: http://www.shopspaceweather.com/explore-scientific-white-light-solar-observer-system.aspx

  • 2 weeks ago
8bitfuture: Biggest full moon of the year, see it tonight. The Lunar perigee is tonight (May 6), where the Moon reaches it’s closest point of orbit with Earth. At 221,802 miles from Earth the Moon will be about 15,300 miles closer than average.Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee). Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon’s orbit. The Moon appears biggest just after Moon rise, while it is low in the sky.

8bitfuture:

Biggest full moon of the year, see it tonight.

The Lunar perigee is tonight (May 6), where the Moon reaches it’s closest point of orbit with Earth.

At 221,802 miles from Earth the Moon will be about 15,300 miles closer than average.
Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee).

Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon’s orbit.

The Moon appears biggest just after Moon rise, while it is low in the sky.

(Source: Daily Mail)

  • 3 weeks ago
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Meteor Shower and Super Moon‏

Space Weather News for May 3, 2012
Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. The shower peaks this weekend on May 5th and 6th. Glare from a perigee full Moon--a "Super Moon"--will interfere with the display. Nevertheless, observers especially in the southern hemisphere could still see dozens of meteors during the hours before local sunrise on May 6th. More information about the shower and live audio from a meteor radar may be found onhttp://spaceweather.com

  • 3 weeks ago
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chibird: The only things I’ll remember in life are all the special moments I had. It’s no question you should still work hard so you can live well in the future, but it’s important to break out of routine whenever you get the chance and do something new. ^__^ No, I am absolutely not advocating some ridiculous lifestyle change of doing crazy things and partying all night every night. That’s not my idea of fun. Just don’t work so hard that you leave your best years behind without doing things that make you happy. In my eyes, living life to the fullest is a balance of the little things that make you smile every day and the big things that will last a lifetime, but how you interpret it is up to you.

chibird:

The only things I’ll remember in life are all the special moments I had. It’s no question you should still work hard so you can live well in the future, but it’s important to break out of routine whenever you get the chance and do something new. ^__^

No, I am absolutely not advocating some ridiculous lifestyle change of doing crazy things and partying all night every night. That’s not my idea of fun. Just don’t work so hard that you leave your best years behind without doing things that make you happy. In my eyes, living life to the fullest is a balance of the little things that make you smile every day and the big things that will last a lifetime, but how you interpret it is up to you.

  • 1 month ago
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incomprehensibleuniverse:

What is the Size of the Universe?

We need to account for the expansion.
Astronomers have recently estimated a lower limit to the size of the universe to be roughly 78 billion light years in diameter. In this video I try to explain how that’s possible.

  • 1 month ago
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High-res photo 8bitfuture: So every Thursday and Friday my Tumblr feed starts to fill up with information that “___ has reblogged your photo: Biggest full moon in 19 years this Saturday.” Just to make it clear, that was meant for March 2011 only, and I really should have put a date on it! Every week though it gets hundreds more likes and reblogs from people excited about “the full moon this Saturday”. Ha, sorry! But thanks a lot to the 44,666 people who’ve passed it on so far…

8bitfuture:

So every Thursday and Friday my Tumblr feed starts to fill up with information that “___ has reblogged your photo: Biggest full moon in 19 years this Saturday.”

Just to make it clear, that was meant for March 2011 only, and I really should have put a date on it! Every week though it gets hundreds more likes and reblogs from people excited about “the full moon this Saturday”.

Ha, sorry! But thanks a lot to the 44,666 people who’ve passed it on so far…

(Source: 8bitfuture)

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The Return of Active Sunspot AR1429‏

Space Weather News for March 29, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

SUNSPOT SET TO RETURN: Sunspot AR1429, the source of many strong flares and geomagnetic storms earlier this month, is about to re-appear following a two-week trip around the backside of the sun. Although the sunspot has probably decayed since its heyday, there are signs that it might still be a potent source of solar activity. Checkhttp://spaceweather.com for images and updates as AR1429 rotates into view during the next ~24 hours.

  • 1 month ago

Sunset Sky Show Tonight

Space Weather News for March 25, 2012
http://spaceweather.com

SUNSET SKY SHOW: A month ago, Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon aligned beautifully for evening sky watchers around the world. Tonight it’s happening again. On March 25th and 26th, the three will form a bright celestial triangle in the western sky at sunset.   Check http://spaceweather.com for photos and observing tips.

NEW ADDITIONS: Thirty-five new and unique types of authentic meteorite jewelry have just been added to the Space Weather Store.  Browse the selection here: http://www.shopspaceweather.com/Meteorite-Jewelry.aspx

  • 2 months ago

(Source: procrastimotion)

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High-res photo ikenbot: Simeis 147 Copyright: Emil Ivanov

ikenbot:

Simeis 147

Copyright: Emil Ivanov

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"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

— Albert Einstein (via ikenbot)

(Source: physicsandchemistryrevision)

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High-res photo ikenbot: Ω Omega Sunset Image Copyright: Giuseppe Pappa Inferior mirage of astronomical objects is the most common mirage. Inferior mirage occurs when the surface of the Earth or the oceans produces a layer of hot air of lower density, just at the surface. There are two images, the inverted one and the erect one, in inferior mirage.They both are displaced from the geometric direction to the actual object. While the erect image is setting, the inverted image appears to be rising from the surface. The shapes of inferior mirage sunsets and sunrises stay the same for all inferior mirage sunsets and sunrises. One well-known shape, the Etruscan vase, was named by Jules Verne.[1] As the sunset progresses the shape of Etruscan vase slowly changes; the stem of the vase gets shorter until the real and the miraged suns create a new shape – Greek letter omega Ω. The inferior mirage got its name because the inverted image appears below the erect one. —Wiki

ikenbot:

Ω Omega Sunset

Image Copyright: Giuseppe Pappa

Inferior mirage of astronomical objects is the most common mirage. Inferior mirage occurs when the surface of the Earth or the oceans produces a layer of hot air of lower density, just at the surface.

There are two images, the inverted one and the erect one, in inferior mirage.They both are displaced from the geometric direction to the actual object. While the erect image is setting, the inverted image appears to be rising from the surface.

The shapes of inferior mirage sunsets and sunrises stay the same for all inferior mirage sunsets and sunrises. One well-known shape, the Etruscan vase, was named by Jules Verne.[1] As the sunset progresses the shape of Etruscan vase slowly changes; the stem of the vase gets shorter until the real and the miraged suns create a new shape – Greek letter omega Ω. The inferior mirage got its name because the inverted image appears below the erect one. —Wiki

  • 2 months ago
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High-res photo ikenbot: See How Earth’s Moon Evolved in New NASA Videos Image: This illustration shows the still-molten moon just after its formation about 4.5 billion years ago. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Two new NASA videos use the latest close-up imagery of the moon from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to reveal Earth’s natural satellite in a whole new light. One video zooms over the moon to reveal its most prominent features. Imagery from the spacecraft shows these lunar highlights in high-resolution detail, revealing deep craters, towering mountains, and even leftover equipment at the sites of NASA’s Apollo moon missions. This narrated “best-of” tour of the moon includes photos of Orientale Basin, Shackleton crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin, Tycho crater, Aristarchus Plateau, Mare Serenitatis, Compton-Belkovich volcano, Jackson crater and Tsiolkovsky crater. The second video uses Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos to animate the history of the moon from its formation around 4.5 billion years ago through today.

ikenbot:

See How Earth’s Moon Evolved in New NASA Videos

Image: This illustration shows the still-molten moon just after its formation about 4.5 billion years ago. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Two new NASA videos use the latest close-up imagery of the moon from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to reveal Earth’s natural satellite in a whole new light.

One video zooms over the moon to reveal its most prominent features. Imagery from the spacecraft shows these lunar highlights in high-resolution detail, revealing deep craters, towering mountains, and even leftover equipment at the sites of NASA’s Apollo moon missions.

This narrated “best-of” tour of the moon includes photos of Orientale Basin, Shackleton crater, South Pole-Aitken Basin, Tycho crater, Aristarchus Plateau, Mare Serenitatis, Compton-Belkovich volcano, Jackson crater and Tsiolkovsky crater.

The second video uses Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos to animate the history of the moon from its formation around 4.5 billion years ago through today.

  • 2 months ago
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High-res photo 8bitfuture: New research shows our Moon could one day have volcanoes. It’s long been known that the Moon has had a volcanic past, which is thought to have ended around three billion years ago. Now new research suggests that there is still molten magma deep inside the Moon, which could one day erupt again. New experiments show that the magma is currently too dense to rise to the surface. To come to that conclusion, a team at the University of Amsterdam produced copies of the moon rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions, and melted them at the exact temperatures and pressures found inside the Moon. The densities were then measured using X-ray beams. The team has suggested that although the magma is currently too dense to rise to the surface and form an active volcano, over time it will cool and become less dense that its surroundings. That lighter magma could one day form an active volcano, although the team is quick to point out it’s just a hypothesis and will need further testing.

8bitfuture:

New research shows our Moon could one day have volcanoes.

It’s long been known that the Moon has had a volcanic past, which is thought to have ended around three billion years ago. Now new research suggests that there is still molten magma deep inside the Moon, which could one day erupt again.

New experiments show that the magma is currently too dense to rise to the surface. To come to that conclusion, a team at the University of Amsterdam produced copies of the moon rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions, and melted them at the exact temperatures and pressures found inside the Moon. The densities were then measured using X-ray beams.

The team has suggested that although the magma is currently too dense to rise to the surface and form an active volcano, over time it will cool and become less dense that its surroundings. That lighter magma could one day form an active volcano, although the team is quick to point out it’s just a hypothesis and will need further testing.

(Source: esrf.eu)

  • 2 months ago
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