CFHT CLOUD CAM SUNSET TO SUNRISE JANUARY 15-16, 2012
UPDATE - 1 18 2012 330 AM CST - PHOBOS-GRUNT vs. US RADAR: Sources within the Russian Space Agency have suggested to newspapers that a US radar on the Marshall Islands might have accidentally disabled Phobos-Grunt. The mishap could have occured, they say, while the radar was using megawatt pulses to track near-Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 on the same night the Mars probe was launched. According to an analysis by satellite tracking expert Ted Molczan, however, "the asteroid was below Kwajalein's horizon during both of Phobos-Grunt's passes" over the radar facility. An errant "zap" seems unlikely. Besides, says NASA, they weren't using the radar anyway
UPDATE 1-17-2012 spaceweather.com: A coronal mass ejection (CME) heading mainly for Venus might deliver a glancing blow to our planet, too, on Jan. 19th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the cloud arrives.
VENUS-DIRECTED CME (UPDATED): Sunspot complex 1401-1402 erupted this morning, Jan. 16th at approximately 0400 UT, producing a C6-class solar flare (SDO movie) and a bright coronal mass ejection. Update: According a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather, this CME will hit Venus during the late hours of Jan. 18th. Because Venus has no global magnetic field to protect it, the impact could erode a small amount of atmosphere from the planet's cloudtops.
The same analysis shows that the CME might deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field around 1200 UT on Jan. 19th. The impact could cause geomagnetic activity and auroras around the Arctic Circle.
The dark vertical coronal hole, about 120,000 km wide and more than a million km long, stretches in the center of the Sun. A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on Jan. 16-17, possibly sparking auroras at high-latitudes. Coronal holes are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows the solar wind to escape.
Planetary A-index (Ap): 3 | Planetary K-index (Kp): 2
Solar Wind: 489 km/s at 6.0 protons/cm3, Bz is 0.0 nT
(Jan 16, 2012 at 1930 UT)
X-ray Solar Flares:
6h hi [C6.5][0236Z 01/16] 24h hi [C6.5][0236Z 01/16]
Background X-ray Level, Last Six Days
Jan 15 2012 :: B6.2
Jan 14 2012 :: B5.9
Jan 13 2012 :: B4.9
Jan 12 2012 :: B5.1
Jan 11 2012 :: B5.4
Jan 10 2012 :: B4.0
Solar wind
speed: 492.9 km/sec
density: 5.6 protons/cm3
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1947 UT
X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: C3 1607 UT Jan16
24-hr: C6 0444 UT Jan16
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 1900 UT
spaceweather.com
VENUS, JUPITER AND MARS UPDATE JANUARY 2012
Evening planets in January 2012: Venus and Jupiter, plus Mars late night
Lunar crescent and Venus adorn western sky after sunset on Thursday, January 26. Venus blazes like a lighthouse in the western sky at dusk and early evening in January 2012, as seen from all parts of Earth. Just be sure to catch Venus soon after the sun goes down. At mid-northern latitudes, this world follows the sun beneath the western horizon about two and one-half hours after sunset in early January, and about three and one-half hours after sunset by the month's end. By February 2012, you'll be able to watch for Venus to climb up higher into the evening sky and to stay out even longer after dark. It'll be at its highest above the sunset in March 2012, when Jupiter and Venus will stage an amazing conjunction in the western twilight sky.
Use the moon to verify that you've found Venus in late January, as the thin lunar crescent pairs up with Venus on the evenings of January 25 and 26.
Venus, Jupiter, and Mars — three of our four closest planetary neighbors — adorn the evening sky as the new year breaks. Venus is the dazzling "evening star" in the west at sunset, with only slightly fainter Jupiter high in the south at the same hour. Orange Mars rises by around 11 p.m. as January opens, but about two hours earlier at month's end. www.earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury
January 15, 2012
The last-quarter Moon cozies up to two bright companions at dawn tomorrow: the star Spica and the planet Saturn. They are well up in the south, with Spica close to the upper right of the Moon and Saturn a little farther to the upper left.
January 16, 2012
The star Spica stands just above the Moon as they rise around 1 a.m., with the slightly brighter planet Saturn a little farther to the left of the Moon. stardate.org
IT LOOKS LIKE THE 4TH OF JULY IN JANUARY - LOTS OF FLASHING - CAUSED BY THE SUN? COMET? SATELLITE?
BEST VIEWED ON WIDE SCREEN.
PEACE
