Daily Archives: May 24, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. May 24, 2014

There were two low C flares during the past 24 hours. The brightest one was a C1.1 flare released by NOAA AR 12065, peaking at 9:13 UT on May 24. No new CMEs were observed. In the next 48 hours, the probability for C flares is high (85%) and for M flares around 20%, especially from NOAA AR 12071, 12072, 12073, and 12065.Over the last 24 hours, the solar wind speed as observed by ACE decreased from around 500 km/s to about 450 km/s. Meanwhile the magnitude of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) decreased from 12 to 3 nT. Geomagnetic conditions were active (K Dourbes = 4) from 18h until 23h UT on May 23, and there was a minor geomagnetic storm (K Dourbes = 5) from 23h until 1h UT. Quiet geomagnetic levels (K Dourbes < 4) prevailed over the rest of the last 24 hours. NOAA Kp was equal to 4 from 15h until 21h UT on May 23, and equal to 5 from 21h to 0h UT. Quiet geomagnetic levels are expected on May 24 and 25. Quiet geomagnetic conditions with active periods are possible on May 26, due to the expected arrival of a coronal hole high speed stream.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 + Imaging Source DMK + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 30 frames
Date: 05/24/14
Time UT: 18:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

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The Sun Online and solar activity. May 23, 2014

There were four low C flares during the past 24 hours. The brightest one was a C1.5 flare released by NOAA AR 12065 with peak time at 04:58 UT on May 23. No new CMEs were observed. In the next 48 hours, the probability for C flares is high (85%, from NOAA AR 12071, 12072, 12073, 12065, and 12066) and for M flares around 25%, especially from NOAA AR 12071 and 12065.Over the last 24 hours, the solar wind speed as observed by ACE was around 350 km/s until it suddenly jumped to about 500 km/s around 3h30 UT
on May 23. This was probably due to the arrival of a coronal hole high speed stream. Meanwhile the magnitude of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) had increased from 5 nT to about 12 nT. Over the past 24 hours,
geomagnetic conditions were quiet (K Dourbes between 1 and 3; NOAA Kp between 1 and 3) due to the IMF’s positive Bz angle. As an effect of the high speed stream, quiet geomagnetic levels (K Dourbes < 4) with active (K Dourbes = 4) to minor storm (K Dourbes = 5) periods are expected on May 23 and 24. Quiet conditions are expected on May 25.
SIDC

A Circumhorizontal Arc Over Ohio

Image Credit & Copyright: Todd Sladoje

Why would clouds appear to be different colors? The reason here is that ice crystals in distant cirrus clouds are acting like little floating prisms. Sometimes known as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc lies parallel to the horizon. For a circumhorizontal arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds are present. Furthermore, the numerous, flat,hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight in a collectively similar manner. Therefore, circumhorizontal arcs are quite unusual to see. This circumhorizon display was photographed through a polarized lens above Dublin, Ohio in 2009.
NASA APOD 24-May-14

Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light years from the Earth. In the sky of Earth, it spans 90′ by 40′, translates to an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. Like many nebulas, it appears pink in time-exposure color photos but is gray to the eye peering through binoculars or a telescope, human vision having poor color sensitivity at low light levels. The nebula contains a number of Bok globules (dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material), the most prominent of which have been catalogued by E. E. Barnard as B88, B89 and B296. It also includes a funnel-like or tornado-like structure caused by a hot O-type star that emanates ultraviolet light, heating and ionizing gases on the surface of the nebula. The Lagoon Nebula also contains at its centre a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (so named by John Herschel), which should not be confused with the better known Hourglass Nebula in the constellation of Musca. In 2006 the first four Herbig–Haro objects were detected within the Hourglass, also including HH 870. This provides the first direct evidence of active star formation by accretion within it.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Orion ED80T-CF
Imaging cameras: Nikon D7100
Mounts: Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 GT
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Orion 50mm mini guidescope
Guiding cameras: Orion Star Shoot autoguider (SSAG)
Focal reducers: TeleVue 0.8x Photo Reducer/Flattener TRF-2008
Software: Adobe Lightroom 5, StarTools64, PHD Guiding, Luc Coiffier DeepSkyStacker
Dates: Sept. 26, 2013
Frames: 6×300″ ISO800
Integration: 0.5 hours
Darks: ~6
Flats: ~6
Bias: ~6

Author: Vincent_Bellandi
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 24 May 2014

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