Terry's Astronomy Thread.

[Bluearrowll]

Daily Suspicious0bserver's Weather Post:
October 8, 2014

What's in the sky tonight?
October 8, 2014

-Solar activity is low, and the quiet is likely to continue. Not one of the six sunspot groups on the disk of the sun has the type of unstable magnetic field that poses a threat for strong eruptions. NOAA forecasters estimate a scant 5% chance of M-flares on Oct. 8th.

-Altair is the brightest star high in the south at nightfall. Very far to its lower left (about six fist-widths) is Fomalhaut, almost as bright.

-As the total lunar eclipse ends and the moon sets over the North American continent, like almost all other lunar eclipses, there is a solar eclipse that joins it in 2 weeks. The October 23 partial solar eclipse also favours North America, and the further north in latitude you are, the better your chance of seeing it. The further west you are, the more likely you are to see the whole thing. Use this link to find out how much of an eclipse you will have! http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearc...p?Ecl=20141023 For those around the Toronto latitude, you are looking at a 50% cover at maximum eclipse. Toronto will see the eclipse as the sun sets.

Astro Picture of the Day:
October 8, 2014

Source:
Star cluster NGC 6823 is slowly turning gas clouds into stars. The center of the open cluster, visible on the upper right, formed only about two million years ago and is dominated in brightness by a host of bright young blue stars. Some outer parts of the cluster, visible in the featured image's center as the stars and pillars of emission nebula NGC 6820, contain even younger stars. The huge pillars of gas and dust likely get their elongated shape by erosion from hot radiation emitted from the brightest cluster stars. Striking dark globules of gas and dust are also visible across the upper left of the featured image. Open star cluster NGC 6823 spans about 50 light years and lies about 6000 light years away toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula).