The Night Sky Guy

Aurora Time-Lapse Video

Skywatcher in Denmark created this beautiful video from 100 separate photos he took of the Northern Lights last night. check it out. Note; click on the # 2 at the lower left to see the video.

Forecasters are calling for35% chance of a second round of Auroras  to appear sometime late tonight (Aug.4)  into early morning hours.  A second Coronal Mass  Ejection that was launched by the Sun on Sunday will arrive at Earth within the next few hours, possibly sparking  more colourful displays. no guarantees what will happen but worth a peek through your window tonight!

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Update: Auroras Spotted Over Europe

Reports are coming in from Denmark and Norway that the Northern Lights show has started to appear there – where it is already late night. Check out the latest photo from Denmark skywatcher here.  Thanks to spaceweather.com from the heads up.

Here is the Aurora Oval as it appear LIVE to a satellite now over Northern America. The darker and bigger the red blob. the more intense and widespread the displays. Check to see if your area is under the aurora area.

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Aurora Alert Tonight

On Sunday morning the Sun’s entire Earth facing side erupted in activity which resulted in it belching out a supercharged cloud of particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) that has Earth in  its crosshairs. Tip of the hat to Spaceweather.com for breaking this story. The CME will be in two parts with the first section already having slammed into Earth’s magnetic field around 1:30 pm EDT today. It doesn’t look like it was a big eruption on the solar flare ‘richter’ scale – C class - but forecasters are calling on  45% chance of geomagnetic activity int  overnight hours tonight.

Snapshot from NASA satellite of August 1st solar blast

Best chance to spot the northern lights is to look towards your local northern horizon late night – usually around midnight. Those living in high latitude have a better chance of  seeing something than those living closer to the equator- this usually means that folks living in Canada and bordering states are better placed for even fainter, more commonly occuring auroras.  The display may be faint so if you are out in the dark countryside you have a better chance of catching it . What will it look like? Most likely it will appear as a green or pinkish glow with shimmering curtains of light that spread across the lower sky.  Of course clear skies help!

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Today: Watch Solar Eclipse LIVE

The new moon will glide in front of the sun’s disk beginning at 2:40 p.m. EDT, casting a  shadow on the Earth. The only land it will cross are  the Cook Islands, Easter Island, a few scattered atolls, and the western side of southern Chile and Argentina.

Check out the LIVE video of the eclipse from Easter Island (broadcast starts at about 4 pm about 5 minutes before totality….

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Northern Lights Show Possible

Sunday update: Latest forecast predicts a 25% chance of auroras when the CME hits later tonight. A large Coronal Mass Ejection (supercharged gas cloud) was thrown off the Sun Thursday that is heading towards Earth.  when it arrives at the end of the weekend there is a chance that it may produce colourful lights in the sky. Sunday and Monday nights are when current prediction call for the CM to arrive at our planet.  Will you get to see anything? The more northerly your location,  the better the chance you will see auroras.  Stay tuned for further updates.

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Ring of Fire Eclipse Today

Check out this nice montage of videos of this Friday’s spectacular solar eclipse as seen from African and Asian continents. This was be an annular solar eclipse – where the Moon’s smaller sillouette goes in front of the Sun. Once the two celestial objects line up, the our parent star appears as a brilliant annulus (ring), popularly referred to as the ‘Ring of Fire’.

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Longest Night of the Year

December Solstice at 12:47 pm EST today officially marks the beginning of the winter season. Check out my article explaining this astronomical event on The Weather Network website.

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Aurora Alert this Weekend

According to solar scientists a series of eruptions emanating from a group of sunspots (see image below) on Wednesday sent a billion ton cloud of charged particles hurling through interplanetary space towards Earth. No word yet if it will in fact trigger auroras but the chance is there and so the only way to know is to actually look at the sky tonight and Saturday night too.

Series of images taken by SOHO sun-watching satellite showing sunspots that triggered current Auroras alert

Best chance to spot the northern lights is to look towards your local northern horizon late night – usually around midnight. Those living in high latitude have a better chance of  seeing something than those living closer to the equator- this usually means that folks living in Canada and bordering states are better placed for even fainter, more commonly occuring auroras.  The display may be faint so if you are out in the dark countryside you have a better chance of catching it . What will it look like? Since it was a medium-small sized solar eruption it may manifest itself as a green glow with shimmering curtains of light that spread across the lower sky.

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Solar Eruption Heading To Earth

It appears that the Sun has belched a supercharged cloud of particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) that may have Earth in  its crosshairs. Tip of the hat to Spaceweather.com for breaking this story.

The solar eruption happened in the early morning hours today around a newly formed group of sunspots,  and indications are that it should slam into Earth’s magnetic field around December 18th. It doesn’t look like it was a big eruption on the solar flare ‘richter’ scale – C class - but might still cause some colourful auroras so folks living in high-latitude areas – like Canada should be on alert. At this point experts are waiting for more data to come in from Sun watching satellites about the blast itself to know exactly if it will hit Earth directly or will it be just a glancing blow.  Stay tuned for more details in the coming days.

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Luna Flirts with Virgo

Click image to enlarge

Early bird skywatchers Friday morning (Nov.11) can check out the spectacular waning crescent Moon pair up with the lead star of the constellation Virgo. The pair will be appear to be separated by about 4.5 degrees, which is equal to 9 full moon disks. Spica is a brilliant blue-white giant star about 260 light years away from Earth. Remember, that means that we see Spica as it was 260 years ago – the length of time it takes for its light to arrive at our planet.

This region of the sky is a pretty busy place with planets, the moon and even the Sun racing across Virgo at one point in the year. An imaginary line called the ecliptic – the pathway which the planets ,  the Sun and even the Moon follow, runs right through Virgo, and the other eleven zodiac constellations. In fact on October 16  every year the Sun has a close encounter, what is known in astronomical jargon – a conjunction – with Spica.

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned tomorrow for a viewer’s guide to the upcoming Geminid meteor shower. This sky show promises to be a real beauty!

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