Did
you miss the auroras? Next time get a wake-up call. Sign
up for SpaceWeather
PHONE.
AURORA
WATCH: A
solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth's magnetic
field on Dec. 28th or 29th possibly triggering a geomagnetic
storm. Northern sky watchers should be alert for auroras.
PHASES
OF VENUS: Like
the moon, Venus has phases: full, gibbous, half, crescent.
"Wah!"
of Hong Kong has photographed them all. "I have been
shooting Venus for two years, from Dec. 2003 to Dec. 2005,
and I've combined the best
images to create this animation."
In
Wah's cinematic masterpiece, we see the size and shape
of Venus change (from Earth's point of view) as Venus
circles the sun. The highlight of the film is its midpoint,
when the planet appears directly in front of the sun--the
historic 2004 transit
of Venus. "I
am so happy that this project is finally and successfully
finished!" says Wah.
Venus,
however, is not finished. Look for it just above the southwestern
horizon at sunset: sky
map. To the unaided eye, Venus is merely a bright
pinprick. A small telescope reveals its true form: a beautifully
slender crescent.
SOLAR
PROMINENCE: Even
when the sun is "quiet," it's still pretty active.
What else would you expect from a 1027-ton
roiling nuclear explosion? Just yesterday, Mila
Zinkova of San Francisco, California, photographed
this beautiful prominence
leaping over the sun's limb:
A
picture of Earth is inserted for comparison.
Prominences
like these can dance along the limb for days at a time.
Got a safely-filtered solar telescope? Take a look.
AN
EXPLOSION ON THE MOON: The
2005 Taurid meteor shower, responsible for many fireballs
on Earth, produced even more spectacular fireworks
on the moon. NASA scientists witnessed a Taurid hitting
the moon and exploding like 70 kg of TNT: full
story.