What's in the sky tonight?
November 1, 2013
-Fomalhaut, the Autumn Star, shines at its highest in the south after dinnertime at this time of year. Fomalhaut is often called "lonely" because it's so far from any other 1st-magnitude star. It's in the bottom right of the Great Water: the enormous expanse of autumn sky filled with dim water-themed constellations.
-As expected, a coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth's magnetic field during the early hours of Oct. 31st, Halloween. The impact, however, was not strong enough to spark a geomagnetic storm or widespread auroras. Instead, unexpectedly, auroras appeared before the impact. Observing from Troms, Norway, Chris and Becki Nation photographed this spooky scene on Oct. 30th. "AMAZING display last night!" says Chris. "We had a 360 degree light show. It was absolutely breathtaking and we didn't know which way to point the camera."
Becki adds, "we are a family of 6 utter Aurora Addicts: Chris, Becki, Aurora 10, Oceanna 8, Lyrica 3 and Caspian 1. We are currently planning a 4 month road trip in our camper van to Lapland this season from our home in the south of the UK. Things are about to get very green."
But not right away. The geomagnetic field is expected to be mostly quiet for the next 3 days (Nov. 1 - 3).
Astro Picture of the Day:
November 1, 2013
Source:
Frightening forms and scary faces are a mark of the Halloween season. They also haunt this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape covering nearly 3 degrees on the sky in the constellation Cygnus, this portion of the eastern Veil spans only 1/2 degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12 light-years at the Veil's reassuring estimated distance of 1,400 light-years from planet Earth. In the composite of image data recorded through narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen atoms in blue-green hues. In the western part of the Veil lies another seasonal apparition, the Witch's Broom.