December Night Sky
D.W.Q.M.: Duke Juliano: "There's this man in Florence claims that by arranging ground glasses in a certain order, it's possible to see the moon and stars as large as your hand."
Marco: "Is that a good thing?" (from the Fourth Doctor story, the Masque of Madragora)
AstroAlert: A Solar Minimum Surprise - Major Solar Flares
Okay, I thought about just summing this up, but I won't do it a bit of justice, so this is a copy of the email alert I got from Cary Oler at the Solar Terrestrial Dispatch:
MAJOR X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE ALERT
The Sun has produced a solar minimum surprise! At 10:35 UTC on 5
December, a new solar region now beginning to rotate around the eastern
solar limb produced a powerful class X9.0 solar flare. The region in question
appears to be quite large and was relatively quiet until today's
significant outburst. Such powerful outbursts are not uncommon for the solar
minimum in which we currently reside. Indeed, it is known that large and
potentially volatile sunspots can form at any phase of the sunspot cycle and are
not confined to periods near the peak in the sunspot activity cycle.
This particular solar event is not expected to produce any
significant effects here at the Earth. But there is a fair chance that during the
next several days, the Earth will be impacted by a weak flanking portion of
the coronal mass ejection that was almost certainly involved with this
eruption. Additional stronger impacts will certainly be possible during the next
two weeks, particularly if this region maintains a level of volatility. As
a result, people interested in watching for the Aurora Borealis ("Northern Lights") should keep a close eye on conditions during the next two weeks, just in case this new sunspot complex musters the strength to produce additional strong coronal mass ejections with a more direct trajectory towards the Earth.
SWEET. ;)
The rest of today's astronomy post is brought to you by Sky & Telescope
December Sky Events (all times EST, unless otherwise noted.)
December 3rd: The nearly full moon crosses the Pleiades.
December 4th: Full Moon
December 7th: Earliest sunset of the year.
December 9th: Looking east after 10 or 11pm, notice the wanning Moon with Saturn just below it. Farther below Saturn is the fainter Regulus.
December 10th: Jupiter, Mercury and Mars are gathered in a tight bunch (only about 1 degree wide) deep in the glare fo the sunrise.
December 13th: Geminid meteor show peaks
December 21st: the Winter Solstice occurs at 7:22pm, EST. (yay, winter!)
Geminid Meteor Shower
The Geminids are one of the two best, most reliable meteor showers of the year. The best time to watch will be from about 9 or 10 pm on the night of the 13th, until about 1 or 2am, when the moon rises. Unlike last month's Leonids, the radiant for the Geminids will be high in the sky all night long. :) Yay! The Geminid meteor shower is unusual, as rather than being associated with a comet, it's associated with an asteroid-Phaethon. The origins of the Geminds had remained a mystery until Phaethon was discovered in 1983.
Now that winter is coming, Orion is the most dominant constellation in the sky, with the Big Dipper taking a back seat until spring. Look just left of Orion, and you can spot the Gemini twins. :)
Clear skies and happy viewing!
Marco: "Is that a good thing?" (from the Fourth Doctor story, the Masque of Madragora)
AstroAlert: A Solar Minimum Surprise - Major Solar Flares
Okay, I thought about just summing this up, but I won't do it a bit of justice, so this is a copy of the email alert I got from Cary Oler at the Solar Terrestrial Dispatch:
MAJOR X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE ALERT
The Sun has produced a solar minimum surprise! At 10:35 UTC on 5
December, a new solar region now beginning to rotate around the eastern
solar limb produced a powerful class X9.0 solar flare. The region in question
appears to be quite large and was relatively quiet until today's
significant outburst. Such powerful outbursts are not uncommon for the solar
minimum in which we currently reside. Indeed, it is known that large and
potentially volatile sunspots can form at any phase of the sunspot cycle and are
not confined to periods near the peak in the sunspot activity cycle.
This particular solar event is not expected to produce any
significant effects here at the Earth. But there is a fair chance that during the
next several days, the Earth will be impacted by a weak flanking portion of
the coronal mass ejection that was almost certainly involved with this
eruption. Additional stronger impacts will certainly be possible during the next
two weeks, particularly if this region maintains a level of volatility. As
a result, people interested in watching for the Aurora Borealis ("Northern Lights") should keep a close eye on conditions during the next two weeks, just in case this new sunspot complex musters the strength to produce additional strong coronal mass ejections with a more direct trajectory towards the Earth.
SWEET. ;)
The rest of today's astronomy post is brought to you by Sky & Telescope
December Sky Events (all times EST, unless otherwise noted.)
December 3rd: The nearly full moon crosses the Pleiades.
December 4th: Full Moon
December 7th: Earliest sunset of the year.
December 9th: Looking east after 10 or 11pm, notice the wanning Moon with Saturn just below it. Farther below Saturn is the fainter Regulus.
December 10th: Jupiter, Mercury and Mars are gathered in a tight bunch (only about 1 degree wide) deep in the glare fo the sunrise.
December 13th: Geminid meteor show peaks
December 21st: the Winter Solstice occurs at 7:22pm, EST. (yay, winter!)
Geminid Meteor Shower
The Geminids are one of the two best, most reliable meteor showers of the year. The best time to watch will be from about 9 or 10 pm on the night of the 13th, until about 1 or 2am, when the moon rises. Unlike last month's Leonids, the radiant for the Geminids will be high in the sky all night long. :) Yay! The Geminid meteor shower is unusual, as rather than being associated with a comet, it's associated with an asteroid-Phaethon. The origins of the Geminds had remained a mystery until Phaethon was discovered in 1983.
Now that winter is coming, Orion is the most dominant constellation in the sky, with the Big Dipper taking a back seat until spring. Look just left of Orion, and you can spot the Gemini twins. :)
Clear skies and happy viewing!
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