If the clouds hold off this evening, we should get a nice look at the International Space Station as it cruises by north and west of Baltimore.

If you want to see a 100 billion of your tax dollars in motion, look to the west at 8:26 p.m. EDT. Watch for a bright, steady, star-like object moving toward the northeast as it flies up the western side of the Appalachians. It will pass through the upward-pointing handle of the Big Dipper at about 8:28 p.m., at which point it will be about 500 miles from an observer in Baltimore.

From there the ISS will slide off to the northeast, over New England and New Brunswick, Canada, before disappearing at 8:31 p.m.

There are six crewmembers, including two Americans, on board as the station circles the globe once every 90 minutes. It's moving at about 17,500 mph, currently traveling at an altitude of about 240 miles. 

(NASA PHOTO: Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov works outside the ISS)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

Space Cadets! The International Space Station is back in the evening sky. If clouds are sparse enough, there’s a great opportunity tonight to watch it fly directly over Baltimore.

Watch for the star-like ISS and its crew of two Americans, three Russians and one Japanese rise above the southwest horizon at 8:45 p.m. EDT as they fly high over Georgia. ISS will reach the zenith (straight up) at 8:48 p.m. From there it will sail off to the northeast, fading out at 8:51 high over Nova Scotia.

(NASA PHOTO) 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: From the Sun's print edition, Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight. It’s most everybody’s favorite, thanks to the pleasant summer weather. Some clouds are likely. Worse, many of this year’s Perseids will be washed out by the glare of tonight’s full, Green Corn moon. But it’s still worth a try. Perseids are fast, bright and some leave persistent trails. Get as far as possible from urban lights. Best time to look is 2 to 4 a.m. Saturday. Then you can go home and sleep late.

And here's an online bonus. If you stay out a bit longer, at 4:33 a.m. the International Space Station will appear out of Earth's shadow, high in the northwest. A steady, star-like object, it  will move briskly toward the southeast, passing almost directly in front of the planet Jupiter, the brightest object in the southeastern sky. At 4:36 a.m., the station will fade from view.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: From the Sun's print edition, Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

The biggest solar eruptions to date of the current solar cycle have crossed the solar system and smacked into the Earth's magnetic field on Friday afternoon. The collision of solar particles with the Earth's atmosphere could trigger the aurora borealis, or "Northern Lights" tonight.

"My estimate is we will probably get aurorae in the northern tier of the U.S.," said Brian J. Anderson, a research physicist at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab near Laurel. "We might be able to see it in the Baltimore-Washington area if it [the magnetic field in the solar storm] turns due south."

That's not a guarantee, he cautioned. "If the magnetic field doesn't cooperate, this thing could be a dud... That happens half the time."

The sun is currently on the upswing of its 11-year solar activity cycle, and after a long, unusually quiet period at the solar "minimum," eruptions of solar particles and magnetic energy are becoming more common.

The website SpaceWeather.com reported that a large sunspot on the sun, numbered 1261, has hurled out three large flares in recent days, the latest on Thursday. The flares were imaged by NASA'a twin STEREO spacecraft. And as the blast of solar particles and magnetic energy, called a coronal mass ejection (CME) sped toward Earth, they were measured by the SOHO and Advanced Compositions Explorer (ACE) spacecraft.

"The first of these events, the plasma associated with it, the magnetic cloud, arrived yesterday at about 6 p.m.," Anderson said on Friday afternoon around 4 p.m. "The second one, the first hint of it arrived about two hours ago. Then the major piece of it arrived about an hour ago" as measured by instruments in geosynchronous Earth orbit and on the ground.

This kind of solar storm, rated a medium-sized "M-class" flare, can set the Earth's magnetic field ringing like a bell, accelerating ions and adding solar particles to the flow of energy around the planet. That can disturb the Earth's ionosphere and disrupt shortwave communications. It can also disrupt or disable communications and GPS satellites and electric grids. The solar blast can expand the Earth's atmosphere and bring down space junk from low orbits, and disturb the orbits of working satellites. It can also raise radiation levels aboard manned spacecraft and trigger northern lights in far northern and southern latitudes.

Analysts at the Goddard Space Flight Center said the CME has compressed the Earth's magnetic field on the sunward side of the planet to near the altitude of geosynchronous satellites, potentially exposing communications satellites to the solar wind. That could trigger outages. 

"We are seeing enhancement of the electric currents in the atmosphere as indicated by magnetic field readings in polar regions," Sullivan said. There may be more effects noted in the next day or two. "We're in the early stages of this event."

Cloudy skies and high humidity would, of course, make it impossible to observe any aurorae that do occur. But there will likely be more opportunities ahead.

"In a solar cycle there are perhaps 10 or 20 events of this size," Anderson said. "This is not a once-in-a-century type of thing. I'd say it's the first really strong one we're seeing out of this solar cycle."

Anderson is currently engaged in a research project called AMPERE, funded by the National Science Foundation. He is measuring solar-induced electric currents surrounding the Earth, using equipment on board 70 satellites flown by the Iridium satellite telephone system. In time, he said, he hopes the technology can be used to provide commercial interests, such as electric utilities, with site-specific warnings on potential impacts from solar storms.

(PHOTO: Top: Solar Dynamics Observatory, Aug. 4, 2011; Bottom: Aurora seen from Int'l Space Station, NASA/ISS, May 2010))

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

Keith Young, of Baltimore, wrote to me a while back with a poem he'd written. It was about the night sky, and how little of it we can see in these days of obsessive security concerns and excessive urban lighting. (Have your kids EVER seen the Milky Way? I wonder how many haven't.)

The fact is, we don't need all the night lighting we've installed. Much of it is wasted because it's directed upward, illuminating only the undersides of clouds and migrating geese, or sideways, lighting up the neighbors' bedroom. We've washed out the stars.

More full cut-off light fixtures would not only keep the lights aimed where they're needed and bring back the stars. They would also save us lots of electricity and loads of money. Most communities badly need better outdoor lighting ordinances. You can learn more about the issue from the International Dark Sky Association.

But I digress... Here's

(AFP PHOTO: Dimitry Kostyukov, Helmand Province, Afghanistan)

how Keith came to write his poem: 

"One night a while back I found myself fighting an episode of insomnia and sitting up in bed and having a million thoughts race uncontrollably through my head. One of those thoughts had to do with my misfortune of not being able to see some recent astronomical event because I live in the city.

"I was thinking of the words 'night' and 'city light' when all of a sudden I said to myself, 'those words rhyme!' and then ... began to compose a short poem about skywatching and urban light. When morning finally came I wrote down what I had remembered and later added a line or two and made a hundred or so revisions to create the final work that appears below."

And here it is:

Continue reading "Who remembers the Milky Way? " »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

NASA officials say they expect to be flying their P-3B Orion over Central Maryland today (Tuesday), part of their July air-pollution sampling campaign.

The notice says the four-engine turbo-prop will be in the skies over the Baltimore-Washington region from dawn until 1:30 p.m. The aircraft is expected to fly over I-95 between the Washington and Baltimore beltways.

So, first, if you see the plane buzzing the interstate at 1,000 feet, don't panic. It's the government, and everything is under control. And second, drop us a comment here and describe what you saw.

Are these flights really unsettlingly low? Or do they blend in pretty well with the usual approaches and departures for BWI-Marshall Airport? 

(PHOTO: NASA handout)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

The Sun's Jessica Anderson reported that the satellite launch went off Wednesday night just after 11 p.m. from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. A couple of people commented on the article as well as on this blog, sharing what they saw.

Anyone else see it last night? Tell us about it in the comments. 

Posted by Kim Walker at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

NASA's plans to send low-flying aircraft over the Baltimore-Washington area to measure air pollution levels have been postponed to allow more time to increase public awareness of the flights.

The first test flights of the Discover-AQ campaign were to have begun Monday morning, with a four-engine turboprop aircraft making passes over portions of I-95, the Baltimore Beltway and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Science flights are still set to begin July 1 and will continue through the month.

Parts of the day-long flights will be just 1,000 feet above the ground. And as they begin those low-level segments, pilots will be spiraling their Orion P3 airplane toward the ground from higher altitudes. That raised some concern that people on the ground, including motorists, might be startled or worried by the unusual maneuvers.

Rani Gran, a spokeswoman for the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, said NASA officials decided they "needed to create more awareness with the public."

So, NASA has invited local news media to BWI-Marshall Airport Tuesday for a "plane and pilot availability." That will yield more coverage of the flights on the evening news, and the added public awareness the space agency is seeking.

The first test flights are now scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the weather, which for now looks quite sunny.

The airborne air pollution measurements are part of Discover-AQ. It's an effort by NASA to improve the reliability of its satellite-based air quality monitoring, which has difficulty detecting pollutants near the ground.

By studying the movement of air pollutants on the surface and at various altitudes - and as it evolves during the day - NASA expects to be able to improve the air quality models used to process satellite data. That should improve air quality forecasts, and will also be used to inform the design of the next generation of satellites. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Preparations continue for Tuesday night's planned launch of a four-stage Minotaur 1 rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. But the forecast carries a 60 percent risk of showers and thunderstorms during the evening launch window.

If weather or some other issues scrub the launch attempt Tuesday evening, they'll try again nightly through July 10, except for a three-day window around the planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis from Cape Canaveral, in Florida. That's still scheduled for July 8. NASA's Wallops tracking systems are needed for shuttle launches, which fly up the East Coast.

Forecasters say the storms are due ahead of a cold front that's expected to cross the region Tuesday. That will bring us cooler (low 80s) and drier weather for the balance of the workweek. If so, a delayed launch would have a better shot at liftoff starting Wednesday night.  The weekend looks headed for the 90s, with a return of showers and storms, as high pressure moves off the coast. 

Once skies are clear and the Minotaur launch goes ahead, the rocket's climb toward orbit with an Air Force ORS-1 battlefield imaging satellite aboard could be visible from North Carolina to Massachusetts, and as far west as West Virginia. Here's our weekend story on the project, in case you missed it.

If you're not at the beach this week, and you can't make the drive down to Wallops Island on Virginia's Eastern Shore (or even if you can), you can follow the launch preparations via Webcast, Twitter and various other media. Here, on the jump, are the specifics, which didn't make it into Saturday's print story. 

(PHOTO: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport - MARS)

Continue reading "Weather problematic for Tuesday launch at Wallops" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

There will be a total eclipse of the moon on Tuesday, but unless you're living in eastern South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Southern or Southeast Asia, Australia or floating in the Indian Ocean, you won't see any of it.

Now, one person in a fine position to watch the eclipse is my old friend and regular WeatherBlog reader Jack Starmer, director and founder of HealthCare Nepal, who is currently leading a medical mission to that mountain republic.

He and his team should take a break from their work at 18:23 UT and watch the moon drift into the shadow of the Earth. The eclipse will become total at 19:22 UT, and end at 22:04 UT.

Should be a spectacular sight with the moonlight on the Himalayas.

For the rest of us, the next total lunar eclipse visible in full from the mid-Atlantic states will be on April 15, 2014.

(SUN PHOTO: Karl Merton Ferron, 2004)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

Marylanders headed for tonight's Flag Day celebrations at Fort McHenry (and anyone else who happens to be outdoors this evening) may get a glimpse of the International Space Station as it soars up the Eastern Seaboard. The flyover could come just after the fireworks display.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast calls for isolated thunderstorms, and "mostly cloudy" conditions Tuesday night. We may get a better look on Wednesday evening, when skies are expected to be only "parly cloudy." Here are the particulars:

TUESDAY: Stick around after the fireworks, and at 9:10 p.m. EDT, start looking for a bright, steady, star-like object rising above the southwest horizon. It will pass just below yellowish Saturn, climbing about halfway up the southeastern sky, above the rising almost-full moon at 9:13 p.m. From there, the ISS will fly off toward the east, disappearing at about 9:16 p.m.

WEDNESDAY:  If the weather fails to cooperate Tuesday night, try again Wednesday evening. Look for a slightly less bright ISS to appear above the southwest horizon at 9:41 p.m. EDT, climbing to about halfway above the northwest horizon by 9:44 p.m. From there it will drift off toward the northeast, disappearing at 9:47 p.m.

And as always, stop back here and share the experience.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

If predicted storm clouds hold off, tonight will be a good opportunity to step out and get your bearings in the night sky.

After 9 p.m. or so, look to the west as the crescent moon – just three days past new – begins to set. The two bright stars just above and to the right are Castor and Pollux, the heads of the Twins in Gemini.

High in the southeast is bright, orangey Arcturus, guardian of the Great Bear. Below Arcturus, and to the right, about halfway up the southern sky, is yellowish Saturn.

(SUN PHOTO: Karl Merton Ferron, 2001)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: From the Sun's print edition, Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

If skies are clear overnight, Marylanders may be able to catch the International Space Station and the shuttle Endeavour as they fly almost directly over Baltimore. It may be the last chance any of us ever gets to see a space shuttle in flight. After Endeavour, only one more flight is scheduled - Atlantis, in July.

Unfortunately, it will mean some lost sleep.

Look for the pair to appear almost directly overhead at 3:38 a.m. Tuesday morning. Because they will be passing over well before sunrise, they will not be in a position to reflect sunlight until they are high overhead. But they should appear, one after the other, just east of the zenith (straight up), in the middle of the constellation Cygnus, the Swan.

I'm not sure, at this writing, which will appear first - the ISS or Endeavour. But hedge your bets and be outside a minute or two early, just in case, and stick around a minute or two after the first goes by.  The ISS will be by far the brighter of the two.

From there. Endeavour and the ISS will head northeast, disappearing at 3:41 a.m. as they pass over Nova Scotia. The shuttle is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday.

Good luck.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

With Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter all gathered in tight formation in the dawn sky this month, the only naked-eye planet left to patrol the night sky is Saturn. Weather may spoil the view this weekend, but if and when skies clear, the planet is easily visible high in the southeast each evening. Look for a bright, yellowish object. If we get lucky tonight, look for Saturn about a hand’s width above the moon. It’s also a good time for a look through a telescope at Saturn’s iconic ring system.

(NASA PHOTO)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

Space Cadets! The forecast looks promising tonight for a good view of the International Space Station as it flies from high over the Great Lakes, across the Jersey Shore and out to sea.

Look for a bright, steady, star-like object, rising above the northwest horizon at 8:21 p.m. EDT. It will climb more than halfway up above the northeast horizon, passing through the handle of the Big Dipper at 8:24 p.m. Then it zips off toward the southeast at 17,500 mph, disappearing at 8:27.

(NASA PHOTO)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

This week stargazers have a rare chance to see a close pairing of the planets Jupiter and Mercury. Jupiter is the bright “star” already visible low in the west, about 45 minutes after sunset. Starting tonight, if skies are clear, Mercury should be visible as a dimmer “star” below and to the right of Jupiter. Each evening Mercury will climb nearer, passing Jupiter Tuesday evening — just 2 degrees apart. After that, Mercury climbs to Jupiter’s upper right, as the giant planet sinks slowly into the sunset.

(PHOTOS: Left, Jupiter, NMASA/ESA/Hubble; Right, Mercury, NASA/Johns Hopkins, APL)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

Space Cadets! If the clouds hold off tonight, we’ll see a really interesting flyover by the International Space Station. The ISS will rise above the northwest horizon at 7:23 p.m., moving toward the zenith (straight up). If our timing is right, the (dimmer) shuttle Discovery will appear just ahead of the ISS, as its crew prepares for landing Wednesday. The ISS will pass almost directly overhead at 7:26 p.m., then slip into the Earth’s shadow at 7:27, vanishing near the bright star Procyon.

(Above: NASA Photo)

UPDATE, Wednesday, 10:20 p.m.: Here's a 60-second exposure showing the shuttle Discovery passing over Catonsville on Tuesday evening. Thanks to Travis "the Shorts-Wearing Shoveler." Used with permission.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

Sky Watchers! (A reader told me she thought "Space Cadets!" was derogatory. What do you think?) The International Space Station will fly up the East Coast this evening under cold, but otherwise ideal conditions for viewing.

On this pass the ISS will rise out of the southwestern sky at 5:59 p.m. and climb about halfway above the southeastern horizon as it makes its way from the coast of southern Georgia, to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Look for it as it passes through the constellation Orion (photo) at 6:02 p.m., just below the bright star Betelgeuse on The Hunter's right shoulder. From there the station and its crew of six will pass below Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini. Then they will move off to the northeast, over the Nova Scotia coast before disappearing from our view at 6:06 p.m.

The seeing should be good, with cold, dry, clear skies.

UPDATE, 7 p.m.: Well, the station was pretty easy to see, even in very bright dusky skies. But, of course, no stars were visible until a half-hour later. Next time I need to pay more attention to sky brightness in these flyby forecasts. Anyone else get a look?  

NASA is preparing to launch the shuttle Discovery on Thursday afternoon to catch up with and resupply the ISS. It is the final flight for Discovery, and the third-to-last for the shuttle fleet before it's retired. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

If the clouds back off in time, tonight offers a nice opportunity to see a pleasing conjunction of the crescent moon and Jupiter. The moon is just four days past new, still a slender crescent, hanging in the west just after sunset. It’s at apogee tonight, 250,400 miles from Earth, its most distant this month.

Just to the left of the moon, that bright, star-like object is the giant gas planet Jupiter (photo). Uranus stands to Jupiter’s lower right, but is too dim to see.

(NASA/Hubble Space Telescope)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: From the Sun's print edition, Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

Found this note in my email this morning. Did anyone else spot this rush-hour meteor Wednesday evening?

"Frank, I saw a rather bright meteor this evening as I neared home on the west side of Baltimore.  I was driving East on I-70, about a half mile before I got to 695 when I saw the meteor around 10-15 degrees to my left from my direction of travel.  It appeared to be dropping almost straight down. 

"I saw it at about 6:18 PM.  There was nothing particularly notable about the meteor other than the time of day (when a lot of people are out driving) and the fact that it was pretty bright white.

"Anyway, I don't know if you got other reports of one but I figured if you did, you might be interested. -Perry Heinrich"

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Are you going to be up early Monday morning? If so, take a few minutes and step outside  for a look at the International Space Station as it makes a pass high over Baltimore.

If skies are clear, this one will lead the observer on a neat little tour of the early morning sky.

First thing you'll notice when you get outside is the planet Venus, the brilliant star-like object in the southeastern sky. It has been dazzling early risers for a couple of months now.

The waning moon will be hanging in the southwest. Watch in that general area at 6:14 a.m. as the ISS climbs up from the horizon. If the sun angles are right, its reflected sunlight will make it look like a bright star, moving quickly into the sky. If it's blinking or has colored lights, that's an airplane. Keep looking.

The station will pass almost directly in front of the moon, and then just to the right of Saturn. By 6:17 it will pass very close to a bright star called Arcturus in the constellation Bootes, near the zenith - straight up.

From there the ISS will move off to the northeast, passing close to another bright star called Altair, in the Summer Triangle, and through the nearby constellation Cygnus, the swan. That region of the night sky may be washed out by the gathering dawn.

By then the station and its crew of six, traveling at 17,500 mph, will have passed over Cape Cod and Nova Scotia before disappearing from our view at 6:20.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

Space Cadets! Step out tonight as the International Space Station makes a pass almost directly over Baltimore. Watch as it soars from high over Lake Michigan, to Ocean City and out to sea. If skies are dark enough and clear, the ISS will rise above the northwest horizon at 5:17 p.m. and be 218 miles over your head by 5:20 p.m. The station, with its crew of six, will seem to skim past the moon before fading out in the southeast at 5:23.  

(NASA PHOTO)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

High pressure and clearing skies provide some hope that Marylanders will get a look at the annual Quadrantid meteor shower tonight.

The Quadrantids are one of the best showers of the year. They'd be more popular than the Perseids in August if it weren't so darn cold out there. And the fact that they occur this year simultaneously with the New Moon means moonlight will not dim the view.

According to Guy Ottewell's Astronomical Calendar for 2011 (has yours arrived yet?), the Quadrantids are active from Jan. 1 until the 5th, peaking tonight at 60 to 200 meteors an hour under ideal seeing conditions - dark, rural and cloudless skies. They enter the atmosphere at about 25 miles per second. European observers will have the best view of this brief peak.

The Quradantids were so-named because they appear to radiate from the obscure constellation Quadrans Muralis, in the northeast after 11 p.m. Look just below the end of the handle of the Big Dipper. (NASA sky map at left)

All the Quadrantids will appear to fly away from that point in the sky. The radiant will be highest in the sky in the hours before dawn, making that the best time to look.

Until recently, the origin of the Quadrantid meteors was unknown. They are now believed to be the remnants a disintegrated comet called 2003 EH1.

Forecasters are calling for "partly cloudy" skies tonight, with partly sunny skies Tuesday. Overnight lows will be in the mid-20s at BWI. 

Colder temperatures are back for a while, with highs this week near 40 degrees- a shade below the long-term averages. Nighttime lows will sink to the mid-20s.

We'll see a couple of cold fronts slide by - a dry one late on Tuesday, followed by another on Friday. That one could spin up a coastal storm, and forecasters at Sterling have posted a 30 percent chance for snow on Thursday night, with more cold and windy weather behind it.  

As always, if you venture out to watch, stop back here and share the experience.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Forecasters predict partly cloudy skies for tonight's flyover by the International Space Station. But maybe we'll get lucky.

The giant tinkertoy is making an early evening appearance in dusky skies just northwest of Baltimore. Look for a bright, steady, star-like object rising above the western horizon at 5:03 p.m. EST as it tracks northeastward along the Appalachian mountain chain.  If it blinks, or has colored lights, it's an airplane. Keep looking. 

The ISS will climb more than halfway - 56 degrees - above the northwest horizon by 5:06 p.m., then slide off to the northeast, disappearing into the Earth's shadow at 5:10 p.m.

There are currently six people aboard the station, five men and one woman. There are two Russians, two Americans (including the lone female), a Latvian and an Italian. The station is larger than a five-bedroom house, and weighs more than 816,000 pounds. It is orbiting about 218 miles above the Earth, at a speed of about 17,500 mph.

As always, after you've dragged the kids and the neighbors out to watch, stop back here and leave a comment. Share the experience. 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

I came back today to two reports of a bright meteor visible from Maryland Tuesday evening, Dec. 28, 2010. Details are still very sketchy. But 25-or-so other people from Virginia to New England spotted something similar at about the same time, according to fireball reports to the American Meteor Society web site.

If you spotted it, too, we'd love to get your descriptions.

Please leave a comment, and describe where you were, the time and date you saw the meteor, the direction you were looking and the direction of the meteor's duration, movement and approximate angle above the horizon.  As an example: "Meteor moved from 40 degrees above the northeast horizon to 20 degrees above the southeast horizon before disappearing..."  (On the horizon is zero degrees; straight up is 90 degrees.) Also include any color, visible trail or sounds.

The first report to us came from G. Mitchell, who emailed us at 9:18 p.m. Tuesday:

"Spotted a large geren meteor tonight, approx, 6:50 p.m., moving east to west, lasting about 6 sec. with a shower of green sparks following my location 5 miles south of Pocomoke City, Md."

The second came from a former Evening Sun colleague, Charles "Hap" Hazard. Still trying to reach him directly, but he left a message Tuesday night reporting a "bright red" meteor that "shot across the sky."  Hazard was "near the Beltway and Reisterstown Road."

I need more detail than that, Hap. Put on your reporter's hat and call me. Everyone else, please leave a comment below. And, obviously, if you happened to capture it on a security camera, still image or video, send it along! Thanks! 

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (62)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

From the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville, it looks like Baltimoreans must be getting a great view of tonight's total eclipse of the moon. Skies are cold and clear and full of stars.

UPDATE: Did you miss the eclipse? There's a time-lapse video of the whole thing, in just 2 minutes, here: http://ht.ly/3sz5J   

From where I sit, the moon stands just above the winter bones of an old oak. Below, to the left, is the constallation Orion, with its well-recognized belt of three stars. Below the belt is the pale smudge of the Orion nebula, a nursery of young stars. Over my right shoulder is the Big Dipper.

I woke with a start, and immediately feared I'd slept through the eclipse. Checked the clock radio and was relieved to see it was 1:59 a.m. I'd set my phone alarm for 2 a.m. Guess I didn't need it.

Checked the sky from the deck in my PJs, saw that it was clear and that the eclipse was well underway, so I threw on some warm clothes, grabbed the 10x50 binoculars from the closet and headed outdoors.

Already more than half the moon was in shadow. The sunlit half was very bright, the shadowed half glowing in a dull ochre color. As I watched, the curved shadow of the Earth, slid slowly across the moon's craters and maria. Now the eclipse is total.

I'm always struck by how three-dimensional the eclipsed moon looks, not the flat white disk of most full moons. A beautiful night. Hope you got the kids up to watch. My grown daughter is texting me as she watches through her skylight. This stuff still gets her going, 20 years after I first got her and her little brother up to watch a lunar eclipse in Baltimore.

"I will never forget that night," she said. "I remember ... being disappointed that it didn't disappear entirely. Like it was lazy and didn't finish."

Please share your impressions. Tell us who's with you and how everyone is reacting. And if you're taking pictures, email a copy to me and I'll post it.

In the meantime, here's a gallery from SpaceWeather.com. Here's what people are saying on Twitter.

It's a night to remember.

(PHOTO: Top: Alin Tolea, 1.3s at ISO 100, using a Canon 5D MKII through a homemade 80 mm achromatic refractor telescope. Bottom: Mike Himowitz, "with my little Canon.")

Posted by Frank Roylance at 2:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Worries that increasing clouds leading to possible snow on Tuesday seemed to be easing Monday morning, giving renewed hope for Marylanders eager to see tonight's total eclipse of the moon.

Forecasters out at Sterling, in their morning forecast discussion, said it looks like we'll get an opening in the clouds tonight just long enough to catch at least part of the eclipse:

"Low-level stratocumulus will linger into the evening before clearing out. High clouds ahead the approaching front will begin to overspread the area late tonight. Therefore, most of the [forecast area] should have a mostly clear look at the lunar eclipse tonight."

Okay, so it's not quite unequivocal. But it's a pretty good forecast. I know I'll be out there to watch. Here, again, are the key times:

Partial eclipse begins: 1:32 a.m. The full moon begins to slide into the Earth's shadow.

Total eclipse begins: 2:41 a.m. The moon is now in total shadow, taking on what may be an eerie coppery color. It always looks strangely three-dimensional, too, at least to me. 

Mid-eclipse: 3:17 a.m. This is the darkest part of the eclipse.

Total eclipse ends: 3:53 a.m. The moon begins to re-emerge from the Earth's shadow.

Partial eclipse ends:  5:01 a.m. The moon is now back in full, direct sunlight.

Be sure to stop back here after the show and share your impressions. Did you wake the kids for a look? How did they react? My grown kids still remember when I got them up for a lunar eclipse back in the '80s. It makes an impression.

The next lunar eclipse visible from Maryland is in 2014.

(SUN PHOTO: Total lunar eclipse, October 2004, Karl Merton Ferron)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

Your calendar-challenged weather blogger has an apology to make. In Sunday's Maryland Weather blog post, I listed Tuesday night/Wednesday morning as the peak of the annual Geminid meteor shower.

The actual peak, it's finally dawned on me, is Monday night/Tuesday morning. My bad. I read "midnight Tuesday" in my astronomical calendar as the hour when Tuesday ends, not the one where it begins.

Anyway. I'm owning up to my error now so that anyone hardy enough to brave the bitter cold tonight can get out there in time to see the Geminid shower at its best.

That is, of course, assuming the skies clear in time. Tuesday/Wednesday actually promises better seeing conditions for Central Maryland. And meteor counts will still be pretty high, although not at Monday/Tuesday morning's peak. Rhiannon Blaauw, at NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, in Huntsville, Ala., said meteor rates Tuesday/Wednesday night should be 30 to 50 an hour between 1 a.m. and 3 a,n, under dark skies.  

Here's more on the event, below. Again, my apologies.

Continue reading "Oops! Geminid meteors peak tonight, not tomorrow " »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

On Wednesday night we will witness the earliest sunset of the year, at 4:43 p.m. in Baltimore. We're also just two days past the new moon, and skies should be clearing.

That means Tuesday and Wednesday evenings will be great times to pause and look west right after sunset to see the young moon as the thinnest crescent, with "Earthshine" dimly illuminating the rest.

We're also now just two weeks from the next full moon, the one that will be be fully eclipsed early on the morning of Dec. 21. Later that day we will mark the winter solstice and the beginning of winter.

We'll have more here on the eclipse as the day grows nearer.

(NASA PHOTO: Andy Skinner)

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Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Notes, Sky Watching
        

The annual Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak in the hours before dawn Wednesday. But the weather forecast is pretty discouraging for those who might have been willing to get up before dawn (or stay up late tonight) to watch.

The Leonids occur every year around this time as the Earth, in its orbit around the sun, passes through the dusty debris cast off by Comet Tempel-Tuttle during ITS orbit around the sun. As the planet plows through the dust, like a car through a swarm of bugs, the dust grains smack into the atmosphere, vaporizing and heating the gases until they light up in a bright trail.

The Leonids have a history of some spectacular "storm" years, with hundreds of meteors per hour as the Earth moves through some especially thick clouds of comet dust. But this is not expected to be one of those years. Counts are likely to be average, around 20 an hour in dark (and clear) locations.

It would have been a pretty good year for this shower, with the waxing moon setting several hours before the peak hours before dawn. But the forecast calls for rain showers and possibly some thunderstorms overnight.

There's some chance skies could clear in time; the forecast for Wednesday has improved, calling for mostly sunny skies eventually. But it will pay to check the sky before you throw on your clothes to go out and watch.

If we do get lucky, look for a dark place to watch the show. Urban light pollution will wash out all bu the brightest meteors. The meteors will appear to radiate away from the constellation Leo (the direction of the Earth's current motion along its orbit), high over head in the hours before dawn. So you can spread out on the grass or stretch out on a lounge chair and look in just about any part of the sky.

And, while Wednesday morning is the peak, there may well be more straggling Leonids to see on Thursday morning. Same instructions. Doubtful forecast.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

Doug Warner, in Reisterstown says. “This summer/fall I have seen a drone-type aircraft fly over the area west to east. They’re a shiny silver color with a pusher engine. Any idea where they’re from and where they’re going?” AAI Corp. in Hunt Valley, makes several unmanned aerial vehicles for the military and NOAA. But AAI says UAVs are not allowed in civilian airspace. Other possibilities? There are one-man ultra-lights with pusher motors. And some radio-controlled models are nearly as big as some military drones.

(NOAA photo)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Can't think of much to say about the weather this week in Central Maryland. There's nothing but sunshine in the forecast until early next week. That stubborn storm spinning off the New England coast has sent a few clouds across our skies this morning. But with high pressure dominating, we're not likely to hear any complaints.

In addition to the warm sunshine and blue skies, we're enjoying really clear, starry nights this week, too. If you missed Tuesday evening's slim crescent moon, you missed a beautiful sight. Just three days past "new," the moon was a Cheshire Cat's smile in the southwest around dinnertime.

And if you looked closely, you could see the faint glow of "Earthshine" on the portion of the moon's disk that was not catching direct sunlight. Earthshine occurs during the first days after a new moon, when sunlight reflected off the Earth illuminates - faintly - the portion of the moon in shadow. 

Think of it: Light from the sun streams across the 93-million-mile gulf between the sun and Earth, bounces off the day side of the planet, back across 240,000 miles to the "night" side of the moon, then back again to our eyes. And we see Earthshine. 

Pretty cool.

Anyway, it's a great week to spend some time outdoors in the evening. There's the moon, maybe some Earthshine for another day or two, Jupiter - still a gleaming beacon high in the south in the evening - and loads of stars.

Take the kids outside with you. Mine are all grown up but they still notice things in the night sky. My daughter texted me last evening to tell me about the crescent moon. Drop back here and share what you're seeing with the rest of our readers. Maybe it will get some of them off their Barca-Loungers and outdoors under the night sky.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

Space Cadets! The International Space Station is back in the evening sky and Baltimore is in line for two fine passes this week. Look tonight for the ISS to rise above the southwest horizon at 7:11 p.m. EDT, climbing high in the northwest by 7:14 before sliding off to the northeast and disappearing at 7:16 p.m. The track will be almost identical Saturday evening. If skies aren't too bright, look for the station a bit further west at 6:29 p.m., climbing into the northwestern sky by 6:31, before fading in the northeast at 6:35.  

(NASA Photo)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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Speaking of objects in space that are too faint to see with the naked eye, astronomers using a telescope in Chile report in the journal Nature that they've identified the most distant light source ever detected.

It's a primitive galaxy, seen as it appeared 13.1 billion years ago, no more than 600 million year after the Big Bang that scientists believe marked the birth of the universe.

Detection of the galaxy - barely a smudge on an image from the Hubble Space Telescope that contains a zoo of odd-looking early galaxies - pushes back scientists' view of the early universe, and enhances their understanding of the conditions that dominated at the time, and the timing, location and nature of the changes that were taking place as the first stars and galaxies formed.

Here's the New York Times' take on the findings. Here's a link to Nature.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

There will be a full moon over Baltimore tonight, reaching precise “fullness” at 9:37 p.m. EDT. Moonrise in the city will be at  6:19 p.m. EDT. If you’re still out on the beaches, look for it to pop up over the ocean at 6:15 p.m.

The second full moon after the fall equinox, this one’s known variously as the Hunter’s Moon (lighting the woods for hunters), the Frost Moon (around the time of first frost), or the Beaver Moon (um, lighting the pond for nocturnal rodents building winter lodges?). 

(SUN PHOTO: David Hobby 2004)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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On clear, dry nights - the kind we often see at this time of year in Maryland - it's nice to look up and see familiar constellations. One of the most familiar, of course, is the Big Dipper. The big rectanglular bowl and long, curved handle are easy to pick out in the northern sky at any time of year.

The Big Dipper constellation is also known as Ursa Major, the "Big Bear." The Greeks saw a bear in the pattern, and so did some native North American tribes. The Dipper also has much to offer backyard stargazers.

For example, the star at the bend of the dipper's handle - Mizar - is actually a double star. Its companion is Alcor. They're sometimes used as a test of visual acuity. People with the sharpest eyesight may be able to see two stars there without magnification. For the rest of us, binoculars can easily separate the pair. 

The two stars on the side of the bowl farthest from the handle point to the North Star - Polaris - which stands five dipper-heights from the top of the bowl.

You can also use the dipper's handle to find the bright star Arcturus. As the old memory aid says, just "follow the arc [of the handle outward] to Arcturus." Let your eyes trace the handle's arc, continuing beyond the end to the first bright star you come to. That's Arcturus, the third-brightest star in the night sky.

But there's lots we can't see. And there's a striking new image out from astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to prove the point. It's a photo of a beautiful spiral galaxy, called NGC 3982. The galaxy is in Ursa Major, 68 million light-years from Earth. 

About a third the size of our own Milky Way galaxy, NGC 3982  is 30,000 light-years across, which means it takes 30,000 Earth years for light to travel from one side of the spiral to the other. NGC 3982 is located in a cluster of galaxies, called the M109 Group, located on the lefthand corner of the dipper base.

Here's more on the new Hubble image.

(PHOTOS: Top: NASA. Bottom: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team/STScI/AURA)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

It's not often that so many celestial events come together at nearly the same time. But from Wednesday night to Thursday morning, we can enjoy a bundle of them.

The only glitch may be the weather. The forecast calls for "mostly cloudy" skies Wednesday night as this cool, dry, high-pressure system moves east and pumps in more heat and humidity for Wednesday and Thiursday. But Wednesday and Thursday are both expected to be sunny, or mostly so. So perhaps we'll get lucky. Here's the rundown:

Wednesday night will be the night of the full Harvest Moon. Moonrise for Baltimore will occur at 6:26 p.m. EDT. If you're still enjoying this glorious extended summer at the beach, look for the moon to pop over the Atlantic horizon a bit earlier, at 6:20 p.m.

The moon won't be perfectly full until 5:18 a.m. Thursday morning. But no one will be able to tell the difference. It's still, officially, the night of the Harvest Moon. So enjoy.

The Harvest Moon, by the way, is defined as the full moon closest in time to the autumnal equinox. That, as it happens, occurs 11:23 p.m. EDT on Wednesday evening, so it would be hard to get a much more definitive Harvest Moon.

Also appearing on this busy evening is the planet Jupiter, which many skywatchers have been admiring for weeks (see posts below) as it gleams brightly in the eastern sky after sunset. Jupiter was at opposition early this morning, directly opposite the sun as seen from Earth.

The Earth reaches opposition with Jupiter once a year, as both planets orbit to the same side of the solar system. That also makes it their closest approach of the year. 

And it takes Jupiter 12 years to circle the sun once. So once on each of Jupiter's orbits of the sun, it passes perihelion - the point in that slightly lopsided orbit that is closest to the sun and therefore also to the inner planets, including Earth.

This year, opposition and Jupiter's perihelion are occuring at nearly the same time. That makes this the nearest Earth and Jupiter will be until 2022. Amateur astrophotographers are having a field day with Jupiter. There's a gallery of their images here.

So if you have a pair of binoculars, or a small telescope, or if you can find one of Baltimore's street-corner astronomers, take a few minutes to get a look at Jupiter. Even in binoculars, Jupiter appears as a round disk, not a point of light. And if you hold the glasses steady enough, you should be able to pick out as many as four of the planet's Galilean moons, strung out like tiny beads on either side of the planet.

Even if you just step outside this evening, or Wednesday evening, and look with only your eyes, you're sure to be impressed by Jupiter's brilliance in the evening sky, and the moon's. Jupiter remains in the sky all night this month, rising from the east to its highest point at midnight, before moving toward the western horizon before dawn.

Which brings us to the third event of the night of Sept. 22/23. Soon after the Harvest Moon begins climbing into the eastern sky, look for Jupiter to rise close behind it. The two brightest objects in the sky this month will be in "conjunction" on this evening, separated by about the width of your hand held at arm's length.

No charge. Enjoy.

(PHOTOS: Top: AP PHOTO, Tom Thompson, Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, Wash., 2004. Bottom: Jupiter in 2009, AP/NASA)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Just back from dinner in Fells Point, where my wife and I ran into Baltimore's Street-Corner Astronomer, Herman Heyn.

Herman had Jupiter in his sights this evening, along with all four Galilean moons, strung out like beads on either side of the planet's disk. (Photo left)

Even with the naked eye, passersby could see the planet rising above the Recreation Pier, the brightest object in the sky, except for a VERY bright three-quarter moon.

Too many people walk by Herman, a familiar figure on the Baltimore waterfront for decades. Herman has introduced thousands people to the night sky, amazing kids and grownups - on the square in Fells Point, or at Harborplace - with what is often their first look at a planet, directly, with their own eyes.

Whether it is striped Jupiter with its moons, ringed Saturn or a crescent Venus, those who stop for a minute and look are invariably impressed, often wowed.

Herman asks no more than a word of thanks (though donations are welcome). Next time you see him and his telescope, stop and say hello, and ask him what's up in the sky tonight. You won't be disappointed.

Anyway, after getting a long look at Jupiter and the moon through Herman's eyepiece, I went home and hauled my little telescope onto the front sidewalk.

The sky was clear and dry, around 65 degrees, a perfect evening for hanging out under the stars. I grabbed my little point-and-shoot Canon, stuck the lens into the eyepiece of my telescope, snapped the shutter and hoped for the best.

Here's how they turned out. Not bad for an backyard astronomy hack like me.

(SUN PHOTOS: Frank Roylance, Meade ETX-90, Canon Powershot SD1100 IS)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

Space Cadets! It would be hard to find a better opportunity to watch the International Space Station fly over Baltimore than the one we're expecting Tuesday evening.

The Heavens-Above web site shows the flight track carrying the giant tinker toy from Lake Michigan, almost directly over Baltimore, and then southeast to the Delaware Shore before heading out over the Atlantic.

The weather forecast looks favorable. There's a cold front due to pass through the region tonight, bringing some mid-level clouds with it. But they should clear away during the day Tuesday as high pressure builds into the region behind the front.

UPDATE, 4:50 p.m. Tuesday:  Forecast is holding up. Here's the latest Clear Sky chart.

A few more clouds may move through late Tuesday night. But generally the forecast calls for a sunny day Tuesday and partly cloudy conditions Tuesday night. It may be a close call on the arrival of the clouds Tuesday evening. Fingers crossed.

If skies stay clear, look for the ISS to appear above the northwestern horizon at 7:29 p.m. Tuesday. Look for a bright, star-like object climbing briskly. If it has multiple, blinking or colored lights, it's an aircraft. Keep looking. The station will move through the stars of the handle of the Big Dipper, reaching the zenith (straight up) at 7:32 p.m. From there, it will move off toward the southeast, fading to black at 7:36 p.m.

The station is moving at 17,500 mph, about 220 miles above the Earth. There are currently three other spacecraft docked with the station, including two Russian Soyuz vehicles that will bring the current crews home, and two Russian Progress supply craft - one of which arrived Sunday. The next (and next-to-last) U.S. shuttle flight to the station is scheduled for Nov. 1.

There are six crew members on board. They include three Russian men - a Russian Air Force colonel, a rocket engineer and a mechanical engineer born in Georgia; also three Americans - a U.S. Army colonel with an engineering degree, and two American women - one a chemist and the other a physicist.

If the weather cooperates, be sure to stop back here and leave a comment about the spectacle. I like to think it helps get more people out to look with their children, and maybe that will inspire someone's kids to pursue a career in science.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Clouds will likely spoil the view, but if you happen to be airborne above the clouds Tuesday evening you can watch the full moon rise above the eastern horizon.

The third full moon after the summer solstice, this one is called the Fruit Moon in some traditions, providing illumination for harvest into the evening as fruit trees ripen around this time of year.

The moon will be officially full at 1:05 p.m. today, but won't be visible in Baltimore until moonrise at 7:34 p.m. EDT, and then only if skies clear. If you're at the beaches (with better weather) look for moonrise over the Atlantic at 7:27 p.m.

(SUN PHOTO by Karl Merton Ferron, 2004)

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Charged particles from Sunday's solar flare swept over the Earth last night, triggering colorful displays of the "Northern Lights" across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Norway and other locations across northern latitudes as the blast encountered the Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field.

The photo above was taken by Travis J. Novitsky, of Grand Portage, Minn., who told SpaceWeather.com: "Well, the aurora made a pretty good showing last night! It sounds like most everyone in Minnesota had cloudy skies but lucky for me the clouds didn't move in to my area until after the aurora faded. These images were all captured between 11:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. At about 11:45 I noticed the moon was coming up, so I made a couple of exposures of the moon as well as the northern lights. These were all shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II."

Scientists say a second wave is still en route across the 93-million-mile gulf between the sun and the Earth, and should reach us tonight.

Maryland appears to have been too far south to give us a view of last night's auroral displays. And the skies were too murky anyway, as is common here at this time of year. You need clear, dark skies to see auroral displays, especially this far south.

Tonight's forecast doesn't look any better for Central Maryland. But if you're reading this in northern New England, the Great Lakes states or points north, spend some time outside tonight and give it a try. Catching the Northern Lights is always an experience you won't forget.

For the rest of us, photos from last night's display are coming in to the SpaceWeather.com galleries. On the SpaceWeather.com site you can also sign up for telephone alerts. For a monthly fee, they will call you when there is another big solar eruption, and when auroral displays are occurring at your location.

(PHOTO: Top: Travis J. Novitsky/ Used with permission)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Sky Watching
        

A large solar eruption early Sunday morning launched tons of ionized atoms toward the Earth, and solar scientists say that wave of charged solar debris could trigger auroral displays across the northern United States this week.

The eruption was rated a C-3, comparatively small, but it launched a large filament of solar material into space.

"This eruption is directed right at us, and is expected to get here early in the day on Aug. 4th," said astronomer Leon Golub, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The sun, which has an 11-year cycle of activity, is just beginning to rebound from an unually long and quiet "solar minimum," so eruptions on this scale have not been seen for several years. 

Called coronal mass ejections, the blasts are monitored by spacecraft and solar observatories, including NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, launched in February. 

"We got a beautiful view of this eruption," Golub said. "And there might be more beautiful views to come if it triggers aurorae."

When the charged particles strike the Earth's upper atmosphere, they cause the air molecules to glow, often in a variety of colors. Common in far northern latitudes, the aurorae, or "Northern Lights" are rarely seen in  the middle latitudes. But when the solar eruptions are big enough, they can sometimes be seen in Maryland, and even farther south.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast for late Tuesday and early Wednesday morning is not very good. The last aurora easily seen from Maryland was in November 2004.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

Plan to be up late this evening? Step outside around midnight and find a spot with a clear view to the east. Dominating the sky in that direction, if skies stay clear, is the waning moon and a very bright planet Jupiter. They’ll be separated by a little more than the width of your hand, held at arm’s length, with the moon above and to the left of the giant gas planet. The moon is about 252,000 miles from Earth tonight. Jupiter is about 400 million miles beyond.

(NASA/Cassini Photo)

Posted by Frank Roylance at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Sky Watching