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Would you like to see fiery prominences and new-cycle sunspots
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Solar Telescopes. |
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AURORA WATCH: A
solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and causing
intermittant geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers around the Arctic
Circle should be alert
for Northern Lights: gallery.
NEW-CYCLE SUNSPOT:
A "new-cycle" sunspot belonging
to Solar Cycle 24 has emerged near the sun's northeastern limb.
Sunspot 1005 has a two dark cores (one of them busily fragmenting)
and a simple bipolar magnetic field that poses no threat for solar
flares. "It's a lovely little group of spots," says Pete
Lawrence, who sends this picture from his backyard observatory in
Selsey, UK:
This is the third time in as many weeks that a new-cycle sunspot
has interrupted the year's remarkable run of blank
suns. The accelerating pace of new-cycle sunspot production
is an encouraging sign that, while solar activity remains very low,
the sunspot cycle is unfolding more or less normally. We are not
stuck in a permanent solar minimum.
more images: from
Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana; from
Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY; from
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK; from
Wouter Verhesen of Sittard, The Netherlands; from
J. Fairfull and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from
Greg Piepol of Rockville, Md; from
Tibor Horvath of Hegyhatsal, Hungary;
A PIECE OF HISTORY:
Veteran satellite observer Ralf
Vandebergh is on a personal quest--to photograph the oldest
spacecraft in Earth orbit. "I started in the spring of 2008,"
he says. "My interest quickly turned to the Tiros
satellites (Television Infrared Observation System) from the
early 1960s; they are legendary as the first successful weather
satellites in history. I spent a lot of time during the summer trying
to catch one, but failed for a variety of reasons: clouds, unfavorable
passes, the intrinsic faintness of the satellite itself. However,
I never gave up trying and finally succeeded on Sept. 29th when
I caught a rare good pass of Tiros 2."
He photographed the vintage satellite using a 10-inch telescope
and placed the photo beside a similar snapshot the International
Space Station. "We've come a long way in 48 years!"
"Tiros 2 was about as bright as a 3rd magnitude
star," says Vandebergh. "It was amazing to see something
launched in the same year as the famous Echo
1 satellite (1960), with the difference that Echo 1 burned up
in the atmosphere in 1968 while Tiros 2 is still in Earth orbit."
Tiros 2 stopped working in 1961, but the satellite itself is intact.
"If we could travel to Tiros 2, we would find there two old
video cameras (one low resolution/one high resolution), a magnetic
tape recorder, and some infrared sensors." Images from Tiros
2 looked like
this.
Readers, the Satellite Tracker
is now monitoring Tiros 2. Check it out. You may be able to see
a piece of history flying over your own backyard tonight.
UPDATED:
Oct. 2008 Aurora Gallery
[Previous Octobers: 2007,
2006, 2004,
2003, 2002,
2001,
2000]
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