Probable solar flare today
 

Watch for aurora tonite

There's a sunspot that is one of the biggest in years it's 40,000 x 80,000 km across

Kinda puts the size of earth in perspective huh?

They say this is visible to the naked eye when looked at with proper equipment

Sounds interesting to watch. Any idea what time would be best?

Thanks

Anytime after dark,usually best in predawn times

Yesterday there was a good size flare which blacked out alot of shortwave stuff til about last night
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Asteroid Close Passage Nov 8
 

While you are looking for auroras, keep an eye out for:

An aircraft carrier-sized asteroid, a little over four football fields in diameter, is heading toward Earth and it will pass closer to our planet than the moon.

NASA has classified the asteroid as a “potentially hazardous object” and it will pass to within .8 lunar distances on November 8. It is the closest approach to Earth of an object this size in over 30 years.

What would happen if an asteroid this size crashed into Earth?

It would result in a 4,000 megaton blast, magnitude 7.0 earthquake and - if it falls into the ocean - could cause a 70-foot high tsunami within 60 miles of the crash site, according to an expert at Purdue University.

However, this space rock poses no threat of an Earth collision for at least the next 100 years, according to NASA’s Near Earth Object Program.

So what’s the big deal?

Encounters of objects this large this close to our planet won't happen again until the year 2028 when an asteroid will pass near Earth to within .6 lunar distances.

It will also provide a rare opportunity for amateur astronomers to directly observe an asteroid with optical telescopes.

The asteroid will approach Earth from a sunward direction and it will be a daylight object until the time of its closest approach on November 8. The best time to see the asteroid will be after the hours of 4 pm EST (21:00 UTC).

As predicted a X1.9 class flare erupted at 4:30 this afternoon. This one will leave a mark. If the skies are clear you should see some Aurora tonite.

Recommend you put your tin foil hat on :hee:

The flare that hit Mercury last night was supposed to have evacuated all atmosphere temporarily and actually swept ROCKS off the surface into space. YIKES. I'm interested to see what their orbiter machine says.

We are roughly 2 years from peak of this solar cycle. Since the start of this cycle has been so far off as far as timing I believe this cycle may be one of the biggest ever as far as CME's directed towards Earth. This just based on my observations of this over the last 35 years of watching. There's been alot of speculation on this but the general consensus is we could see some serious geomagnetic storms over the next few years.

Enough to wipe out stuff like electric grids and satellites.

There is an INCREDIBLE filament that has been on the sun for about the past week. This is over 1 MILLION miles long. It's longer than here to the moon 3 times.

http://www.spaceweather.com/images20...filament_2.jpg

There's been alot of VERY unusual activity in the last week. While there are tons of sunspots right now there has been little activity to support flares. There is also currently one of the largest prominences off the face that has ever been recorded. I would have figured with this many sunpots right now alone that we'd be having semi daily flares. The strongest this week was a M1 which is pretty weak.

Love looking at pictures like that.

That filament stretches across almost the entire face of the sun now. Ultraviolet view. COOL pic.

http://www.spaceweather.com/images20...1/filament.jpg

Salty forgot you don't do PM's: what site do you get these pictures in hi-res? they would make good wallpapers. I usually use Hubble pictures......

Only 2 sites I watch

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Homepage

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

Looks like the Nexus is coming!

repent the end is near :hee:

seriously the soho bird is one of the most interesting inventions ever.

You are such a NERD! :p

Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Movie taken by the SDO bird yesterday of a cme coming off the sun. WAAAAAY cool to be able to actually watch this. Video is of course sped up. You get the idea.

http://www.spaceweather.com/images20...file_small.mov

We are dead nuts in line for a large cme tomorrow. We had a glance of a flare yesterday. Today one shot off directly at us.

Tin foil hat time laddies :alien:

3-day GOES Proton Flux Monitor

If tomorrow night is clear you will probably see some au.

phil here's another neat pic. A Great Day on the Sun!

We're in a huge solar wind storm right now. Possible Au tonite. I saw the space station this morning. Very clear.

Highly probable X class flare today or tomorrow and this is aimed directly at us. Could be big. Real big. This sunspot has multiplied in size by 4x in the last 24 hours
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Curious. Have any of the last warnings occurred?

Oh yea they sure have some of the flares have been less than forecasted but they're getting so good at watching/correlating the stuff that it makes the local wxman look like a schmoe well more than usual :)

Sometime in the next year you will see a big ramp up from these c/m class flares that happen once or twice a month to constant daily events. The ones to watch for are the x class those are bad if they're aimed directly at us like this one currently is
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

And as fast as it grew to what looked like a monster flare. Bummer. That sunspot was huge. Easily dwarfed Earth.

"SUBSIDING SUNSPOT: After three days of meteoric growth, sunspot AR1363 has reversed course and is beginning to decay. As its magnetic field relaxes, the active region poses a subsiding threat for strong flares. It's not dead yet, though, as this snapshot shows:"

Check out this movie of a solar flare hitting Mercury:

Mysterious planet-sized object spotted near mercury | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Ignore all the BS about being a cloaked ship hiding behind the planet, read the explanation: once the scientist "photoshop" the image everything is as expected.

Sorry, just heartburn.

Hey Ted happy Kwanzaa
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Got a hilarious one for you. :hihi:

scott@?

Yep
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

M storm incoming today that's almost an X which is worst. This sunspot is directly pointed at us.

Awesome photography from the Moon/Venus conjuncture the other night. Buzz that's a screen shot

Moon Venus Conjunction

Put it on your calendar RARE EVENT:

June 5: Rare transit of Venus across the sun
The passage of Venus in front of the sun is among the rarest of astronomical events, rarer even than the return of Halley's Comet every 76 years. Only six transits of Venus are known to have been observed by humans before: in 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and, most recently, in 2004.
The next one will occur in the year 2114. When Venus is in transit across the solar disk, the planet appears as a distinct, albeit tiny, round black spot with a diameter just 1/32nd of the sun. This size is large enough to readily perceive with the naked eye.

it's been a weird day

will the fish like it? :huh: