Daily Archives: June 20, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. June 20, 2014

Six sunspot groups were reported by Catania today. Only three C-class flares took place during the past 24 hours, and all of them occurred in the Catania sunspot group 89 (that, together with the Catania sunspot group 90, constitutes the NOAA AR 2093). The strongest flare of this time interval was the C5.0 flare peaking today at 11:20 UT. The flare was accompanied by coronal dimmings and a post-eruption arcade indicating the eruption of a CME. However, no coronagraph data are available at the moment to confirm the CME occurrence. We expect further flaring activity on the C-level, mostly from this sunspot group, with an M-class flare being possible but not very likely. A partial halo CME was detected by  SOHO/LASCO on June 19, first appearing in the LASCO C2 field of view at 19:24 UT (first frame after a long data gap). The CME had the angular width of around 190 degrees and projected plane-of-the-sky speed of around 400 km/s. The CME was produced by the eruption of a filament to the north of the Catania sunspot groups 89 and 90 (together constituting the NOAA AR 2093), starting around 14:25 UT as seen by SDO/AIA. The eruption was also accompanied by coronal dimmings and a post-erution arcade. It was followed by a perhaps related C4.0 flare peaking at 19:24 UT in the Catania sunspot group 89. This flare was, in turn, accompanied by a narrow CME first appearing in the LASCO C2 field of view at 19:48 UT. This narrow CME is not expected to arrive at the Earth. An interplanetary disturbance associated with the  partial halo CME is expected to arrive at the Earth late on June 23 or early on June 24, most probably only with a glancing blow. It may result in active to perhaps minor storm geomagnetic conditions. The Earth is currently inside a slow (around 430 km/s) solar wind flow with slightly elevated (around 6 nT) interplanetary magnetic field magnitude. The geomagnetic conditions are quiet and are expected to remain so.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 +  Imaging Source DMK  + LX75
Processing: Photoshop, Avistack 300 frames
Date: 06/20/14
Time UT: 16:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

Observatory Sponli

  

Related posts:

  1. The Sun Online and solar activity. June 16, 2014
  2. The Sun Online and solar activity. January 21, 2014
  3. The Sun Online and solar activity. June 12, 2014
  4. The Sun Online and solar activity. June 15, 2014

Rio at Night 

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Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)

In this night skyscape setting stars trail above the western horizon over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a venue for the 2014 World Cup. Gentle arcs from the bright, colorful stars of Orion are near the center of the frame, while the starfield itself straddles planet Earth’s celestial equator during the long exposure. Of course, trails from more local lights seem to create the strident paths through the scene. Air traffic smears an intense glow over an airport at the far right, while helicopters fly above the city and boats cruise near the coast. Striping the waterfront are tantalizing reflections of bright lights along Rio’s central beaches, Botafogo and Flamengo. Near the horizon, the brightest fixed light is the famous Cristo statue overlooking Rio at night.

APOD NASA 20-Jun-14

Related posts:

  1. How to Identify that Light in the Sky 
  2. That Night over Half Dome
  3. Night Hides the World
  4. The Terraced Night

Southern Cross and Coalsack Dark Nebula

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The Coalsack Dark Nebula (or simply the Coalsack) is the most prominent dark nebula in the skies, easily visible to the naked eyeas a dark patch silhouetted against the southern Milky Way.   The Coalsack is located at a distance of approximately 600 light years away from Earth, in the constellation Crux.  The Coalsack is not present in the New General Catalogue and in fact does not have an identification number (outside of the Caldwell Catalogue, in which it is C99).
In Inca astronomy this nebula was called Yutu meaning a partridge.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 L (at f/3.2 135mm)
Imaging cameras: Canon 5D Mark II
Mounts: CELESTRON CG5-ASGT
Software: PixInsight, BinaryRivers BackyardEOS, Lightroom
Frames:14x5min ISO800

Author: Cory Schmitz
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI
20 June 2014

Related posts:

  1. The Dark Horse Nebula
  2. The Southern Cross
  3. Rho Ophiuchi
  4. IC 2944: Running Chicken Nebula