Tuesday 25 September 2012

2012 09 25 Class C3.6 flare and C1.7 Earthbound HD

  
Best viewed with window expanded.
Class C3.6 flare and C1.7 Earthbound with auroras on the 28, 29, and 30th September. Forecast: Auroral activity will be quiet. Weather permitting, quiet displays will be visible directly overhead from Barrow to Fort Yukon and visible low on the horizon from Fairbanks to as far south as Nome, Talkeetna and Whitehorse, Canada.
Also a new comet has been found.
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Thursday 20 September 2012

2012 09 20 The Quiet Sun HD

  
The sun is quiet ….  The sun is flat-lining ….. the sun is dead.   …..   How often have we heard any of those words? Not just from amateur astronomers, sun gazers grumbling beneath their breath, oh no, right to the deep thinkers, the astro-physicists. Really? Yes Really!

 

But what exactly does all this mean? Me and you could be looking at the sun and see a few activities going on and get somewhat confused at the grumbles of the experts that the sun is inactive, dead even. We could well see a coronal mass ejection or a filament eruption or even Mercury saying hello to the sun as Venus smiles back her vixen smile.

To understand this anomaly we would have to pay close attention to the frowns and shifting eyes of the sun gazer himself.  More specifically where his/her pointer is pointing at for hours on end. A specific sunspot with a specific ID (gamma beta) so close but still no cigar the awaited “delta” waiting for that particular sunspot to go gamma beta delta and deliver some healthy class M or class X flares.

That according to the serious astronomer is the difference between an active and a dead sun.

Saturday 15 September 2012

September 15 2012 A Filament Eruption & Asteroid Flyby [HD]

   I know I know - I should not be doing videos and data calculations right now (doctor's orders, bed rest and getting ready for my upcoming surgery) but it is food for my hunger, besides it is something interesting, with a little flyby heebijeebies and asteroid slamming into Jupiter and it's all happening in our own back yard. How could I possibly not bring this to you. Smiles.


A filament eruption occurred Sept. 13, around 0600 UT, between AR 11566 and 11567. It was accompanied by a relatively slow CME (v -- 400 km/s) as estimated by STEREO COR2 observations. At the time this message is prepared, no LASCO observations are yet available. From the COR data only, it looks like the bulk of the CME is directed northward. We, therefore, do not expect geomagnetic effects from this event, and the overall geomagnetic activity is likely to be quiet for the next 48 hours.

Today, an asteroid as wide as three football fields is flying past Earth. At closest approach, 2012 QG42 will be 2.8 million km (7.4 lunar distances) away, so there is no danger of a collision. Nevertheless, it is close enough for backyard astronomers to track using large amateur telescopes; the space rock is glowing like a 14th magnitude star.
Please note: The asteroid is not one football field in size and growing as mentioned by some on YouTube. It is the size of 3 football fields and since it is an inanimate object it is physically impossible to keep on growing.