Daily Archives: June 22, 2014

The Sun Online and solar activity. June 22, 2014

Only one C-class flare took place in the past 24 hours: the C1.0 flarepeaking at 19:46 UT on June 21 in the Catania sunspot group 89 (that, together with the Catania sunspot group 90, constitutes the NOAA AR 2093). It was accompanied by small coronal dimmings and a post-eruption arcade, but the associated CME (if any) was weak and narrow, so we do not expect it to arrive at the Earth. We expect flaring at the C-level in the Catania sunspot group 89 and in an unnumbered sunspot group that appeared from behind the east limb yesterday evening. The Earth is currently inside a slow (around 370 km/s) solar wind flow with average (around 5 nT) interplanetary magnetic field magnitude. The geomagnetic conditions are quiet and are expected to remain so until June 24, when we expect the arrival of the ICME associated with the partial halo CME on June 20, which may result in active to minor storm conditions.
SIDC

Equipment: Coronado 90 +  Imaging Source DMK  + LX75
Processing: Photoshop
Date: 06/22/14
Time UT: 16:00
Exposure 1/500 sec.

Observatory Sponli

  

Related posts:

  1. The Sun Online and solar activity. June 21, 2014
  2. The Sun Online and solar activity. June 20, 2014
  3. The Sun Online and solar activity. June 12, 2014
  4. The Sun Online and solar activity. June 6, 2014

Persistent Saturnian Auroras 

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Image Credit: J. Clarke (Boston U.) & Z. Levay (STScI), ESA, NASA
 

 Are Saturn’s auroras like Earth’s? To help answer this question, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Cassini spacecraft monitored Saturn’s South Pole simultaneously as Cassini closed in on the gas giant in January 2004. Hubble snapped images in ultraviolet light, while Cassini recorded radio emissions and monitored the solar wind. Like on Earth, Saturn’s auroras make total or partial rings around magnetic poles. Unlike on Earth, however, Saturn’s auroras persist for days, as opposed to only minutes on Earth. Although surely created by charged particles entering the atmosphere, Saturn’s auroras also appear to be more closely modulated by the solar wind than either Earth’s or Jupiter’s auroras. The above sequence shows three Hubble images of Saturn each taken two days apart.

APOD NASA 22-Jun-14

Related posts:

  1. Time-Lapse Auroras Over Norway
  2. Cassini Spacecraft Crosses Saturn’s Ring Plane
  3. A Solar Eclipse from the Moon
  4. Orion and Aurora over Iceland

Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)

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The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a nearby galaxy, and a satellite of the Milky Way.

History:
The very first recorded mention of the Large Magellanic Cloud was by the Persian astronomer `Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (later known in Europe as “Azophi”), in his Book of Fixed Stars around 964 AD.

The next recorded observation was in 1503–4 by Amerigo Vespucci in a letter about his third voyage. In this letter he mentions “three Canopes, two bright and one obscure”; “bright” refers to the two Magellanic Clouds, and “obscure” refers to the Coalsack.

Ferdinand Magellan sighted the LMC on his voyage in 1519, and his writings brought the LMC into common Western knowledge. The galaxy now bears his name.

Announced in 2006, measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope suggest the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds may be moving too fast to be orbiting the Milky Way.

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 L
Imaging cameras: Canon 5D Mark II DSLR
Mounts: CELESTRON CG5-GT
Software: PixInsight, BinaryRivers BackyardEOS
15 x 5minute exposures
ISO800 f/3.2 135mm
Calibrated with Dark (25) / Flat (30) / Bias (100)

Author: Cory Schmitz
AstroPhotography of the day by SPONLI 22 June 2014

Related posts:

  1. Large Magellanic Cloud
  2. Large Magellanic Cloud
  3. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)
  4. Small Magellanic Cloud