Quote:
Originally Posted by Dronak
I was just stopping by when I came across this thread. Cool idea. FWIW, I've got a PhD in astronomy. That doesn't make me an expert in every area of the field though, and I'm not currently working in the field (I try to keep up, but it can be tough), but I can try to answer questions and such if you have them. Just note that I'm not a regular visitor here anymore, so responses might take a while. If you want to make sure I see something, sending a PM should give me an e-mail notification, so I'll know to check here. Thanks, and I'm glad to see the general interest in astronomy here!  |
That's awesome to hear, I will definitely be in contact with you, cheers! Always nice to see people in the field.
Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
September 21, 2014
What's in the sky tonight?
September 21, 2014
-On Sept. 23th the sun will cross the celestial equator heading south, marking the end of northern summer. That's good news for high-latitude sky watchers because, for reasons researchers do not fully understand, auroras love equinoxes. At this time of year when the seasons are changing, even gentle gusts of solar wind can spark a nice display of Northern Lights. Harald Albrigtsen took the picture on Sept. 19th from Kvaløya, Norway. There was no geomagnetic storm predicted that night, and indeed no CME struck our planet. Instead a relatively minor fluctuation in the magnetic orientation of the solar wind sparked the display.
NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Sept 21st, and the probability of Arctic auroras is probably even higher than that.
-Sky watchers in parts of California are finding that, suddenly, they can view sunspots without a solar telescope. Smoke from the epic King Fire is providing a natural filter. David Wheat photographed the fiery sunset from Tuolumne CA. "Notice the 3 sunspots on the upper left of the solar disk " points out Wheat.
The fire, which began a week ago in a canyon east of Sacramento, has ballooned in size to 80,000 acres, larger than the city of Portland. Dense smoke has grounded planes and choked the air for hundreds of miles around the blaze--including a Sierra peak where the headquarters of Spaceweather.com is located. Because the fire is only 10% contained, fiery sunsets will likely continue for days to come.
Astro Picture of the Day:
September 21, 2014
Source:
How would Saturn look if its ring plane pointed right at the Sun? Before August 2009, nobody knew. Every 15 years, as seen from Earth, Saturn's rings point toward the Earth and appear to disappear. The disappearing rings are no longer a mystery -- Saturn's rings are known to be so thin and the Earth is so near the Sun that when the rings point toward the Sun, they also point nearly edge-on at the Earth. Fortunately, in this third millennium, humanity is advanced enough to have a spacecraft that can see the rings during equinox from the side. In August 2009, that Saturn-orbiting spacecraft, Cassini, was able to snap a series of unprecedented pictures of Saturn's rings during equinox. A digital composite of 75 such images is shown above. The rings appear unusually dark, and a very thin ring shadow line can be made out on Saturn's cloud-tops. Objects sticking out of the ring plane are brightly illuminated and cast long shadows. Inspection of these images is helping humanity to understand the specific sizes of Saturn's ring particles and the general dynamics of orbital motion. This week, Earth undergoes an equinox.