Daily Archives: January 20, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. January 20, 2014

Seven sunspot groups were reported by NOAA today. Three more groups still have no NOAA numbers. Two of these unnumbered groups rapidly emerged yesterday in the SW and SE quadrants of the Sun, and another group appeared from behind the east solar limb. No flares were observed in any of the unnumbered groups yet, although the dynamic sunspot group in the SE quadrant may become flare-productive. All the flares in the past 24 hours occurred in the NOAA AR 1959, the strongest of them being the C3.4 flare peaking at 02:20 UT today. We expect further flaring activity on the C-level, with M-class flares possible but unlikely.  The Earth is currently inside a slow (around 300 km/s) solar wind flow with weak to average (3-4 nT) interplanetary magnetic field magnitude. We expect quiet geomagnetic conditions in the coming hours. Tomorrow we expect the arrival of a fast flow from a  low-latitiude coronal hole in the northern hemisphere. Active geomagnetic conditions will be possible.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + SBIG 8300s + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 01/20/14
Time UT: 18:00
Exposure 0.8 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer!

  

Related posts:

  1. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 13, 2014
  2. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 19, 2014
  3. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 14, 2014
  4. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 15, 2014

Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from SDSS-III

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Illustration Credit: Zosia Rostomian (LBNL), SDSS-III, BOSS
Explanation: How large do things appear when far away? When peering across the universe, the answer can actually tell us about its average gravitational history and hence its composition. Toward this goal, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III (SDSS-III) has measured slight recurring density enhancements in galaxy densities up to six billion light years away (redshift 0.7), when the universe was about half its current age. These density ripples are known as baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) and are expected to emerge from the early universe at a known size scale. BOSS’s measurements of this size scale indicate a strong universe component of dark energy, and so bolsters previous indications of this unusual composition. Pictured above is an artist’s illustration depicting exaggerated BAOs in the distant universe.

NASA APOD 20-Jan-2014

Related posts:

  1. The Scale of the Universe – Interactive
  2. Extrasolar Super-Earth Gliese 1214b Might Hold Water
  3. The Sun Online and solar activity. December 8, 2013
  4. Nearby Cepheid Variable RS Pup

Jellyfish Nebula

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The Jellyfish Nebula is seen dangling tentacles from the bright arcing ridge of emission left of center. In fact, the cosmic jellyfish is part of bubble-shaped supernova remnant IC 443, the expanding debris cloud from a massive star that exploded. The Jellyfish Nebula is about 5,000 light-years away. At that distance, this image would be about 100 light-years across.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Teleskop Service 10″ Newton F4.8
Imaging cameras: Atik 383L+
Mounts: Astro-Physics Mach 1 GTO
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Teleskop Service TS Starscope Refractor 90/900mm
Guiding cameras: Orion StarShoot Autoguider
Software: PixInsight 1.8
Filters: Baader Planetarium Ha 7nm, Baader Planetarium SII 8nm, Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm

Autor: Pekka Simell

AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI

20 January 2014

We select the best works of amateur astrophotographers with details of equipment, shooting processing etc.

Related posts:

  1. The Wall NGC 7000: North America Nebula
  2. IC 443, Jellyfish Nebula, Sharpless 248
  3. Jellyfish Nebula in the constellation Gemini
  4. Jellyfish Nebula: Galactic supernova remnant

The Sun Online and solar activity. January 19, 2014

There are currently eight numbered sunspot groups on the solar disc, and the most active one is the NOAA AR 1959. The strongest of 8 C-class flares observed in last 24 hours was C6.0 flare (peaking at 12:04 UT of January 18) which also originated from the NOAA AR 1959 currently situated close to
the East solar limb. We expect more C-class flares and possibly also an isolated M-class flare.The solar wind speed is about 290 km/s. The interplanetary magnetic field is still stable with the magnitude between 2 and 3 nT. The low-latitude coronal hole in the northern hemisphere has reached the central meridian early on January 18.  We expect arrival of the fast solar wind on January 20-21. The CME-driven shock wave, associated with a partial halo CME (limb event) on January 16, could be also expected on January 20-21. We expect quiet to possibly unsettled geomagnetic conditions in the next 48 hours.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + SBIG 8300s + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 01/19/14
Time UT: 15:00
Exposure 0.8 sec.

With SPONLI Space is getting closer!

  

Related posts:

  1. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 18, 2014
  2. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 2, 2014
  3. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 14, 2014
  4. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 13, 2014