Monday, November 15, 2004

Spectacular skies at night

This is better than a lunar eclipse, but harder to access. I knew someone who organized a vacation around a trip to Alaska for the purpose of seeing the Aurora Borealis. Recent sun-spot activity has produced spectacular shows that have been seen and photographed as far south as Tennessee and North Carolina.

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids: "THE SHOW IS OVER ... FOR NOW: Sunspot 696 has vanished, carried over the sun's western limb by our star's 27-day rotation. Last week the 'spot hurled several coronal mass ejections toward Earth, sparking intense geomagnetic storms and auroras. Could it happen again? Sunspot 696 will be back in two weeks, if it lasts that long, after transiting the far side of the sun. "

The gallery of photos is wonderful.
Coming up Friday night is the Leonid meteor shower. Past shows have been impressive.

No comments: