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Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
October 16, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
October 16, 2014

-For the second day in a row, auroras are dancing around the Arctic Circle. The lights were sparked by a minor CME impact on Oct. 14th and amplified on Oct. 15th when Earth passed through a fold in the heliospheric current sheet. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of continued polar geomagnetic storms on Oct. 16th.

-A sunspot capable of powerful eruptions is about to rotate onto the Earthside of the sun. It announced itself on Oct. 14th by hurling a spectacular CME over the sun's southeastern limb:

The underlying explosion was hidden behind the southeastern edge of the sun. Even in eclipse, however, the blast registered M2 on the Richter Scale of Solar Flares. The actual rating must have been must higher, perhaps even X-class.

Astro Picture of the Day:
October 16, 2014

Source:
This Rosetta spacecraft selfie was snapped on October 7th. At the time the spacecraft was about 472 million kilometers from planet Earth, but only 16 kilometers from the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Looming beyond the spacecraft near the top of the frame, dust and gas stream away from the comet's curious double-lobed nucleus and bright sunlight glints off one of Rosetta's 14 meter long solar arrays. In fact, two exposures, one short and one long, were combined to record the dramatic high contrast scene using the CIVA camera system on Rosetta's still-attached Philae lander. Its chosen primary landing site is visible on the smaller lobe of the nucleus. This is the last image anticipated from Philae's cameras before the lander separates from Rosetta on November 12. Shortly after separation Philae will take another image looking back toward the orbiter, and begin its descent to the nucleus of the comet.