May 2010 - A Month of Intense Solar Activity, CME's, Multiple Sunspots, Mysterious Objects, Near Earth Asteroids, Space storms trigger earth's tempests May Auroras (view gallery) , Comets, Incredible Sky Phenomena, New Sunspots Emerge, Solar Flares & Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Storms

May 29, 2010: In sympathy with the current geomagnetic storms due to solar activity is Uranus now in Aries to square Pluto
along with Saturn stationg direct on May 30th setting up a TSQ to these planets and Neptune stationing retrograde on May 31st.

Geomagnetic Storm Subsiding with New One to Hit on May 31st. or June 1st.
A geomagnetic storm (Kp=5) that lasted for more than 9 hours on May 29th is subsiding now and the chances for auroras are subsiding with it. The next storm is due on May 31st or June 1st when a solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field
A solar wind stream flowing from the coronal hole below could reach our planet on or about May 31st or June 1st.

May 28, 2010: With the new transit of Uranus into Aries, there will be much more obvious data coming from the Sun
regarding the end of the solar minimum and beginning of the start of a true solar maximum

Solar Scientists Agree That the Sun's Recent Behavior Is Odd, but the Explanation Remains Elusive
MIAMI—In very rough terms, the sun's activity ebbs and flows in an 11-year cycle, with flares, coronal mass ejections and other energetic phenomena peaking at what is called solar maximum and bottoming out at solar minimum. Sunspots, markers of magnetic activity on the sun's surface, provide a visual proxy to mark the cycle's evolution, appearing in droves at maximum and all but disappearing at minimum. But the behavior of our host star is not as predictable as all that—the most recent solar minimum was surprisingly deep and long, finally bottoming out around late 2008 or so.
Solar physicists here at the semiannual meeting of the American Astronomical Society this week offered a number of mechanisms to shed light on what has been happening on the sun of late, but conceded that the final answer—or more likely answers—remains opaque. Beyond scientific understanding, motivations for better solar weather forecasts include hopes to use them to safeguard against electrical grid disruptions, damage to Earth-orbiting satellites and threats to the health of space travelers posed by solar radiation flare-ups.
One researcher has looked for clues to solar weather in the meridional flow, which moves from the solar equator toward the poles, and which seems to change speed during the shifting solar cycle. Another looked at the solar "jet stream," a slow current that originates at solar mid-latitudes and pushes in a bifurcated stream toward both the equator and the poles. Another scientist examined the inner workings of the sun through the oscillation of sound waves propagating through the solar interior; yet another looked at magnetic maps to chart the shifting flux across the sun.

May 25, 2010: References to Jupiter sized planets and odd combinations for what is habitable relate to a current transit of Jupiter-Uranus in eccentric Pisces Planetary Bullies Make Astronomers Rethink the Habitable Zone
Exoplanet orbits that seem just right for life could be bent out of shape by pushy neighbors. New simulations of extrasolar planetary systems may mean the definition of “habitable” planets needs to be completely overhauled. “What we know from studying exoplanets is that that is definitely not the rule,” said Rory Barnes of the University of Washington at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Miami. Many of the 454 exoplanets discovered to date have highly elliptical orbits, meaning the planets are not always the same distance from their parent star. Thanks to this uneven geometry, the planet spends more time closer to its star, which tends to make for warmer planets.

May 23, 2010: Everything seems to be coming to a climax on the Full Moon May 27th.
While Sun (Gemini) opposes Moon (Sagittarius) the coronal mass ejection (CME) should hit us here on earth.
And yes the planet of sudden, unexpected shocks (Uranus) heads into Aries that day!

Magnetic Filament Breaks off from the Sun and Erupts
A magnetic filament on the sun erupted yesterday, May 24th, and the blast hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the general direction of Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the action around the blast site in 10xHDTV resolution:

Click Here to View the Movie

Shortly after the eruption, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spotted a billion-ton CME racing away from the sun: movie.
NOAA forecasters say there is a 35% chance of geomagnetic activity on May 27th when the cloud delivers a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field.

May 23, 2010: Solar energies are magnified as we move toward the next Full Moon on May 27th
Uranus makes an ingress into Aries right after the Sagittarius Full Moon

Sunspot 1072 is Seething
Yesterday, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) peered into the dark heart of sunspot 1072 and found it seething with activity. View the image below:

The curvaceous arcs in this extreme ultraviolet (171 Å) image are magnetic flux tubes filled with million-degree plasma. Occasionally, a magnetic instability causes an explosion, a minor solar flare, which appears in the movie as a brief flash of light. None of these B-class flares was strong enough to effect Earth; they were merely photogenic.
According to NOAA forecasters, sunspot 1072 harbors energy for flares 100 times stronger than this, and there is a 10% chance of such an M-class eruption during the next 24 hours. Shortwave radio blackouts, sudden ionospheric disturbances, and some fantastic movies from SDO could be in the offing.

May 22, 2010: Turbulence on the Sun is synchronized with chaotic and volatile conditions on earth
with tropical Jupiter-Uranus (unexpected accidents) opposing Saturn (structure) and the Moon today.

Sunspot 1072 Emerges.
Sunspot 1072 is growing and poses a threat for C-class solar flares.
Magnetic fields are bursting through the surface of the sun and coalescing to form a new sunspot in the sun's southeastern quadrant. Rogerio Marcon sends this picture of the active region from his backyard observatory in Campinas, Brasil:

The sunspot's dark core is growing rapidly, more than doubling in size since the day (May 21st) began.
This the sunspot could be a source of eruptions during the weekend. The emergence of 1072's active region breaks a string of 12 days without sunspots.

May 20, 2010: Wow, this is not the first solar filament to develp this year but a Hyder Flare hitting the earth?!
One thing is for sure the potential of this solar flare reflects the major drama fo today's Moon-Mars TSQ Sun-Neptune
and also tense feelings of uncertainty.

Solar Filament to become Hyder Flare?
A long dark magnetic filament is looping around the northeastern limb, stretching almost 100,000 km from end to end:

Long, bushy filaments like this have been known to grow unstable and erupt, producing a type of spotless flare called a "Hyder flare."
If that happens now, Earth would likely feel some effects from the blast because the filament is turning to face our planet.

May 17, 2010: Yesterday's Moon-Venus conjunction and occultation occurred on Sunday May 16th @ 3:17 AM PDT
The Goddess of Love and all Sensory Functions meets the Moon both in Gemini in a dangerous TSQ to Jupiter-Uranus in the sign of oil and water Pisces in a difficult opposition to Saturn (Structure/Shadow)
This is the first of totally four occultations for the year, and is also a central one. During most of occultation path event will occur in daylight, except for the region around Thailand and Indonesia.

Spectacular lunar occultation of Venus
Yesterday, sky watchers in parts of Africa, the Middle East, India and southeast Asia witnessed a spectacular lunar occultation of Venus. "People were awestruck and 'frozen to their feet' at the park where we watched the event," reports Armando Lee of San Miguel by the Bay, the Philippines.

Per observers: Venus disappeared for more than 40 minutes behind the lunar disk, but the long absence wasn't the attraction. It was the transitions into and out of eclipse that really impressed onlookers.
"Ingress looked like a diamond ring - Tiffany style - while egress looked like an eruption on the crescent Moon!" says Lee.
Venus amd the Moon are inconjunction, beaming together through the sunset on both Saturday and Sunday evenings.
Video: Lunar Occultation of Venus (Ingress)

May 12, 2010: Neptune the ruler of Pisces stands for the principle of dissolution.
Jupiter has been transiting in Pisces since January 17th 2010
It appears that Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt (SEB) has been dissolving.

Jupiter has lost a belt!
Asto Bob Explains: Jupiter loses one of its belts
Via Daniel Fischer's Tweet about a blog entry by Astro Bob I learned of something which should be obvious to anyone who has trained even a rather small telescope on Jupiter over the past few weeks: one of its iconic stripes is just plain gone.
Jupiter loses a belt Over a period of a year, one of Jupiter's two main dark belts -- the dark stripes most visible in amateur telescopes -- has faded completely away. The South Equatorial Belt (SEB) is gone, leaving just the north belt (NEB) viewable in small telescopes. Credit: Anthony Wesley Astro Bob explains in more detail, remarking: "Jupiter with only one belt is almost like seeing Saturn when its rings are edge-on and invisible for a time -- it just doesn't look right." But, apparently, this is an event that happens rather more frequently than the Saturnian equinox, once every 3 to 15 years.
The photos above are from Anthony Wesley, the same guy who discovered the impact scar on Jupiter last year; but you don't need to be as fabulous an astrophotographer as Wesley to see this for yourself.

May 8, 2010: Here in our terrestrial environs, the astrological influences of Mars
in solar Leo is sesiquadrate Uranus (unexpected agitation),
still in orb of a square to the Sun (conflicts), also contraparallel Pluto for intense transformation.

Sunspot 1069 Crackling with C-class solar flare
The magnetic fields of sunspot 1069 are in a state of considerable agitation today. Click on the image, below, to launch a 16-hour time-lapse movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):

The magnetic turmoil you just observed is giving rise to repeated explosions. The sunspot is literally crackling with C-class solar flares. Because of the sunspot's location near the sun's western limb, these explosions are not directed toward Earth.

May 8, 2010: Mercury stationed retrograde on April 17th and will move direct on May 11th.
and on April 22nd. when the the problem first became apparent the Moon was in Leo (Memory) in a difficult square to Mercury in Taurus.

Voyager 2 stops making sense with a Communications Glitch
Voyager 2, which has been traveling through the solar system since the late '70s, has suffered a data formatting glitch that is preventing NASA from interpreting the content of its scientific data transmissions. Control and diagnostic transmissions are unaffected, which should enable the engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to troubleshoot the problem, provided they're patient—it currently takes nearly 13 hours for transmissions from Earth to catch up with the probe.
According to a statement released by the JPL, the problem first became apparent on April 22nd. Data from the scientific transmission, which currently reports on the conditions at the very edge of the solar system, began coming through with improper formatting, making it impossible to interpret the contents. Engineering data is still intelligible, so the JPL staff is expecting that it will be possible to figure out what's going wrong and introduce a fix. Serious attempts at repair were delayed by a planned roll maneuver, and only started on Friday. With a round-trip time of over a day, however, progress will undoubtedly be slow.
According to an Associated Press report, engineers think that there's been a fault in the memory that stores the formatted data prior to transmission. This either corrupted its current contents, or has introduced some bad bits into the onboard memory. It should be possible to either reset the bad memory, or program the system to stop using the errant hardware entirely.

May 6, 2010: It is interesting that the Aquarid meteor shower peaks on May 7, 2010 when the Moon meets Neptune and Chiron in Pisces
Moon-Neptune together tonight @ 11:37 PM while Moon's ingress in Pisces is 2:34 AM PDT on May 7th.
This combo should at least make the meteor watching intriguing and mysterious.

Halley's Comet Meteor Showers Peak Tonight
The eta Aquarid meteor shower, caused by dust from Halley's Comet, peaks this year on May 6th and 7th. The shower is strongest over the southern hemisphere, where observers could see more than 30 meteors per hour despite the bright light of a waning half Moon. No matter where you live, the best time to look is during the hours before local sunrise on Friday. [full story]

May 5, 2010: Even though Galaxy 15 stopped responding to ground controllers on April 5. the Sun-Mercury are still in orb of squares to Mars in solar Leo
This Satellite Out of Control story reflects more to come as the Sun comes alive and Uranus finally moves into Aries at the end of the month.
Today, with Sunspots 1069 and 1070 developing and the sun wound erupting , producing a bright coronal mass ejection (CME).

Intense Solar Storm Spins Satellite Out of Control
Galaxy 15 stopped responding to ground controllers on April 5. The satellite's manufacturer, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia, has said an intense solar storm in early April may be to blame.
An adrift Intelsat satellite that stopped communicating with its ground controllers last month remains out of control and has begun moving eastward along the geostationary arc, raising the threat of interference with other satellites in its path, Intelsat and other industry officials said.
In what industry officials called an unprecedented event, Intelsat's Galaxy 15 communications satellite has remained fully "on," with its C-band telecommunications payload still functioning even as it has left its assigned orbital slot of 133 degrees west longitude 36,000 kilometers over the equator.

May 5 , 2010: Here on earth we had our own eruptions wiht Moon in TSQ to Mars and the Sun all in super charged fixed signs .

CINCO DE MAYO SOLAR BLAST:
With May 5th winding down, magnetic fields on the sun wound up and erupted, producing a bright coronal mass ejection (CME). Click on the image to set the cloud in motion

The eruption came from a spotless region near the sun's southwestern limb. Extreme ultraviolet images from SOHO pinpoint the blast site: movie. The billion-ton cloud is not heading directly for Earth, although it could deliver a glancing blow to pur planet's magneticc field on or about May 8th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.

May 4 , 2010: Since the last new moon in fiery, solar Aries (April 14th) sunspots have increased
As Uranus (the awakener) finishes an 84 year cycle and moves into Aries on May 27th. we will see an accelerated increase in the Sun's activity.

The sun is peppered with spots today. Check out the circled regions below, and you will find dark cores:

These sunspot groups are not big, but they are remarkably numerous. The last time five such groups appeared simultaneously was more than four years ago--before the Great Solar Minimum of 2008-2009.
Slowly but surely, it seems, the sun is coming back to life.
The Earth is inside a solar wind stream flowing from the coronal holes.

May 3 , 2010: Wow! We are having some incredible storms disturbing the the Earth's magnetosphere
resulting in floods and storms here on earth especially with the highly changeable Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Pisces
along with Mars in fiery Leo in a difficult squre to the Sun in Taurus.

Geomagnetic Storm Rages to Produce Auroras
A high-speed solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on May 2nd, sparking a geomagnetic storm that lasted more than 15 hours. Red auroras spilled across the Canadian border and were spotted in several US states. Joseph Shaw sends this picture from Bozeman, Montana:

NOAA forecasters estimate a 45% chance of continued geomagnetic activity over the next 24 hours. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras.

May 1 , 2010: The Sun is definitely active with two new sunspots growing
Here on earth we are feeling the geo-political effects of Mars in Leo square the Sun in Taurus as states of emergency may make the news (exact May 4th.)

MAYDAY SUNSPOTS:
A new sunspot, AR1064, is growing in the sun's northeastern quadrant. Just hours ago, Sascha Somodji photographed the Earth-sized active region from his backyard observatory in Krefeld, Germany:

Somodji's exceptionally-clear photo shows a network of speckles dotting the sun's surface all around the sunspot. Those are solar granules, continent-sized masses of plasma rising and falling like water boiling on a hot stove. Sunspot 1064 has to push those boiling masses aside in order to expand--something it is busy doing right now.
Meanwhile, another sunspot group (not yet numbered) is emerging near the sun's northeastern limb. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.

May 1 , 2010: The blast occured on Thursday, the 29th a day after the Scorpio Full Moon was peaking
and the Moon was square Neptune for confusion and conflicting stories as to what happened
while the fixed Moon was trine both Jupiter-Uranus in Pisces amping up the excitement level.

Blast in East Jakarta Believed to Be Meteorite
Police and astronomers are investigating Thursday’s blast from a falling object that damaged three homes in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, which witnesses claim was a meteorite strike.
Forensics experts from the police and National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan) investigators are combing the site, with the latter saying that while there was no conclusive proof the damage was caused by a meteorite, it was the most likely explanation. Police ruled out earlier speculation that the incident was a gas canister exploding.
One house was moderate damage and two adjoining properties suffered minor damage after blast on Jalan Delima II. There were no reported casualties.
Lapan researcher Abdurrahman said no fragments of the projectile had been found but the deep crater in the floor of the house, the residual heat footprint and melted items pointed to a meteorite.

April 2010 - A Month of Intense Solar Activity, CME's, Multiple Sunspots, Mysterious Objects, Near Earth Asteroids, Mars in close approach to Earth April Auroras (view gallery) , Comets, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Flares & Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Storms April 28 , 2010: Full Moon in Scorpio catalyzes explosive Fixed Signs Sun-Mercury in security-oriented Taurus oppose the Moon in shadowy Scorpio and TSQ dynamic Mars in Leo Mars reflects the power of the Sun which has been putting on quite a show: PLASMA RAIN: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has just observed a massive eruption on the sun. Movies ten times better than HDTV show billions of tons of material blasting into space while debris from the explosion rains around the blast site. Moon-sized fragments of plasma splash brightly when they land back on the sun's surface: SDO Observes Massive Eruption, Scorching Rain April 27, 2010: Just last week, scientists working with NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) released the most astonishing movies of the sun anyone had ever seen. Now, they're doing it again. April 26, 2010: Not only are we having eruptions here on earth with Saturn Opposing Uranus-Jupiter but the Sun is ready for more solar blasts. Interestingly the Sun is applying to an exact square with Mars in fiery Leo on May 4th. New Solar Prominence Ready to Erupt Already this month, the sun has produced two of the biggest eruptions in years. They occurred on April 13th and April 19th when magnetic filaments became unstable and exploded. Could it happen again today? A prominence on the eastern limb of the sun (photo) resembles the precursors of those two earlier blasts. April 24, 2010: Venus The Pleiades or Seven Sisters From Myth - Alcyone - Seduced by Poseidon. The Central One. The Hen. Using ALCYONE The central star of the Pleiades and Longitude for 2000: 00GEM00 so Venus will conjunct Alcyone circa 10:06 PM on April 24th. Alcyone, "The Central One", is the central or main star and also the largest star of the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, Pleiades with Venus: Immoral, strong passions, disgrace through women, sickness, loss of fortune. [Robson*]. Venus and the Pleiades Weekend (April 24-25) VENUS AND THE PLEIADES: Sometimes, dazzling and subtle go well together. This weekend is one of those times. Dazzling Venus is passing by the subtle Pleiades for a lovely conjunction in the late sunset sky. Last night, Jerry D. Chab caught the planet and the star cluster converging above an active thunderstorm in Falls City, Nebraska: While Venus is easily visible to the unaided eye, even from brightly-lit cities, the Pleiades are more of a challenge. For best results, grab your binoculars and point them at Venus. The star cluster will pop into view only a few degrees from the glaring planet--a dissimilar ensemble you won't want to miss. Sky maps for Viewing: April 24th. and 25th. April 22, 2010: Jupiter magnifies Uranus for the unexpected views and opposes Saturn for massive debris LYRID METEOR SHOWER: The Lyrid meteor shower peaks on April 22nd when Earth passes through a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1). The best time to look is during the hours before dawn on Thursday morning. Forecasters expect as many as 20 meteors per hour. Lyrid Fireball over New Mexico April 21, 2010: The Moon now fiery Leo conjunct Mars and square Sun for some blazing conflagrations STUNNING IMAGES OF THE SUN: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is beaming back stunning new images of the sun, revealing our own star as never seen before. Even veteran solar physicists say they are amazed by the data. Click on the prominence, below, to see what everyone is so excited about: First Light for the Solar Dynamics Observatory Solar Dynamics Observatory: The 'Variable Sun' Mission April 20, 2010: At the time of the eruption @ 7:19 PM UT when MC @ 15 Leo near Mars also in Leo (solar) was square Mercury in Taurus plus Saturn-Uranus in a close opposition for explosive changes. also the Moon was opposing Pluto-Ceres for some psychological ramifications Another Solar Eruption Another huge prominence blasted away from the sun yesterday, April 19th. The massive tendril of plasma was nearly a quarter the diameter of the sun itself when the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) snapped this picture: Above: A solar prominence erupts on April 19th at 1919 UT The eruption catapulted a billion-ton CME out of the sun's atmosphere. SOHO saw that, too: movie. The expanding cloud is not heading for Earth, so we should feel no effects. The event was photogenic but not geoeffective. April 18, 2010: More volcanic phenomena seen from the sky as Moon in Gemini squares both Jupiter-Uranus in Pisces for some unexpected flashes of lightning. Researchers used advanced photographic techniques relating to Neptune ruled Pisces planets Volcanic Lightning from It is well known that volcanic eruptions produce strong lightning. Less well known is why? Ordinary lightning in thunderstorms is not fully understood; volcanic lightning is even more of a mystery. To investigate, a team of researchers from New Mexico Tech has traveled to Iceland to monitor the Eyjafjallajokull volcano--and they have found it crackling with electricity: "On the evening of April 16th, there were some small eruptions producing ash clouds up to about 6-7 km, with lightning," says photographer Harald Edens. "The sky was nice and clear, so I was able to photograph the bolts from the town of Hvolsvollur April 15, 2010: At least theremanent of this volcanic eruption are graced with a natural beauty at sunset when Moon meets both Venus and Mercury all in sensual Taurus. Lest we forget Vulcan is the esoteric ruler of Taurus VOLCANIC SUNSET ALERT: A cloud of ash from the Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano is drifting across Europe today. This has caused a massive disruption in air travel, as many countries have grounded their planes. On the bright side, the cloud is causing sunsets of rare beauty. Europeans should look west at the end of the day. April 15, 2010: After yesterday's explosive Aries Moon, this fireball seemed appropriate. At 10:05 PM when the meteor streaked over Wisconsin, Scorpio was rising the ancient ruler Mars was in a fierce square with the Moon and Mercury and Pluto was in a trine to the Moon Midwestern Fireball Sky watchers in Iowa, Wisconsin and northern Minnesota witnessed a brilliant green fireball streaking across the sky at approximately 10:05 pm CDT on April 14th. Last night, around 10:05 pm CDT, sky watchers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri witnessed a brilliant green fireball streaking across the sky. This image shows a brilliant midair explosion. No satellite decays were expected at the time of the blast; this event was probably caused by a natural meteoroid. Video of the meteor flashing across sky April 14, 2010: Radio waves relate to Uranus and Aquarius and currently Uranus in Pisces is coming close to a conjunction with Jupiter also in far out Pisces. Both Uranus and Neptune in Aquarius are in mutual reception for some powerful signals from ouir cosmic neighborhood. Mysterious radio waves emitted from nearby galaxy here is something strange in the cosmic neighbourhood. An unknown object in the nearby galaxy M82 has started sending out radio waves, and the emission does not look like anything seen anywhere in the universe before. "We don't know what it is," says co-discoverer Tom Muxlow of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics near Macclesfield, UK. The thing appeared in May last year, while Muxlow and his colleagues were monitoring an unrelated stellar explosion in M82 using the MERLIN network of radio telescopes in the UK. A bright spot of radio emission emerged over only a few days, quite rapidly in astronomical terms. Since then it has done very little except baffle astrophysicists. It certainly does not fit the pattern of radio emissions from supernovae: they usually get brighter over a few weeks and then fade away over months, with the spectrum of the radiation changing all the while. The new source has hardly changed in brightness over the course of a year, and its spectrum is steady. April 14, 2010: This story from mainstream media timed with today's highly solar New Moon in Aries is getting the masses ready for the building solar maximum period which has already started. Space storms could not knock out National Grid and Sat Navs Space storms caused by the Sun could knock out power supplies and satellite navigation systems in Britain, claim scientists. The solar flares and sunspots throw massive clouds of electrically charged gas at the Earth which cause power surges and throw compasses into disarray. The weather in space has been through an unprecedented calm period in the last century but the researchers believe we could be entering a more volatile period. The last really big solar "super flare" – in 1859 – knocked out telegrams and ship's compasses and covered two-thirds of the Earth in a blood red aurora. April 13, 2010: A wall of fire leaps off the Sun, as solar acitivity increases in alignment with the building Aries New Moon (April 14th) and the continued Mars in Leo transit with TSQ to Mercury-Venus and Neptune A Giant Solar Prominence Erupts from the Sun Solar Filament Release as the biggest prominence in years has just lept off the surface of the sun. The quiescent filament that has been making its way across the sun over the past couple of days finally appeared on the limb of the sun as a monster prominence. It's the biggest i've seen so far this solar cycle! April 12, 2010: We are almost at the April 14th fiery New Moon and sunspot activity is super intense. Sunspot 1062 emerges A new sunspot (provisionally numbered AR1062) is rapidly emerging in the sun's southern hemisphere. Readers with solar telescopes, now is the time to watch sunspot genesis in action. Images: from Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico: Animated version here. April 12, 2010: At the time of the impact (12:30 UT) Leo was rising @ 27 degrees in a close opposition to fantastical Neptune-Aquarius on the descendant. Ruler of Aquarius, Uranus was in the 8th opposing Saturn for added fireworks. Mars ruler of the chart was in the hidden 12th house as A Major Geomagnetic Storm Hits A coronal mass ejection hit Earth's magnetic field at approximately 12:30 UT on April 11th. The impact sparked a G2-class geomagnetic storm with auroras over Scandinavia, Scotland, Canada and northern-tier US states such as Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin. An example out of Oslo, Norway April 10, 2010: Meteorites usually relate to a combo of earth signs like Pluto in Capricorn in a quincunx to Mars (in the impact chart's 4th house) Or Venus-Juno in Taurus in a square to Vesta in Leo for fiery re-entry. A Meteorite Slams into Canadian Man's Car. Phew! It was only a meteorite. "I thought someone shot at me," Jack Steenhof said of his close encounter with an otherworldly kind. The Oro-Medonte Township resident was on his way to a meeting in Kitchener when something shattered his sunroof. "It was like a sniper hit me," he said, describing the bullet-sized hole that was surrounded by cracked glass. The safety glass held together, preventing the glass, and the foreign object, from striking Steenhof. The timing was perfect -- or, at least, as good is it can get in such a situation. Steenhof was westbound on Highway 7 at Highway 400, and was travelling less than 10 kilometres an hour at the time. On his way to pick up a colleague from a carpool lot, he was approaching a stoplight when the astral assault occurred. April 10, 2010: Mars in solar Leo is in a powerful quincunxt with Pluto (dealing with adjustments) as we continue toward the impactful New Moon in Aries (April 14th) Third Sungrazing Comet of 2010 Destroyed Today, the sun had a comet for breakfast. The icy visitor from the outer solar system appeared with no warning on April 9th and plunged into the sun during the early hours of April 10th. One comet went in, none came out. This has been an active year for big, bright sungrazers. There was one on Jan. 4th, one on March 12th, and now one today. Normally we see only 3 or 4 bright ones in a whole year; now we're seeing them almost once a month. It could be a statistical fluctuation or, maybe, a swarm of Kreutz fragments is nearing perihelion (closest approach to the sun). Stay tuned for doomed comets! April 9, 2010: As we head toward the Aries New Moon on April 14th, the Sun is extremely active to say the least! In astrological terms the Sun is exalted in Aries and along with Mars now direct in Leo (Sun ruler) expect major CME's The coming New Moon has Sun-Moon in Aries @ 25 degrees in a close square to the Jan. 15th Solar Eclipse degree of 25 Capricorn INCOMING CME: Decaying sunspot 1060 delivered a parting shot on April 8th. The active region's magnetic field erupted, sparking a B3-class solar flare and hurling a faint coronal mass ejection (CME) almost directly toward Earth. Geomagnetic disturbances are possible when the cloud arrives on April 11th or 12th. April 8, 2010: A pioneering Aries Sun is in a positive sextile to Moon in far out Aquarius for new discoveries and views Along with a revolution in scientific imagery with Jupiter applying to a conjunction with Uranus. 'First image' of star's eclipse captured by scientists The first close-up image of an eclipse beyond the solar system has been captured by scientists. Astronomers at the University of St Andrews worked on an international study of the star Epsilon Aurigae, from the Auriga constellation. Every 27 years it becomes dimmer, a phenomenon which lasts for two years. April 8, 2010: A combination of Pluto stationing retro. and Saturn changing sign into Virgo brings the intense, powerful Cardinal TSQ of Pluto-Saturn-Uranus closer and more explosive. The Strongest Geomagnetic Storms and Brightest Auroras in years A high-speed solar wind stream has been blowing around Earth for three days, sparking some of the strongest geomagnetic storms and brightest auroras in years. Here is the view, yesterday, from Antarctica: "This was the most intense and amazing natural phenomenon I have ever had the privilege of observing," says photographer André Harms. "It was such an exhilarating feeling when the sky just exploded in a kaleidoscope of moving colors." April 5, 2010: We have been also experiencing transits involving powerful squares from Mars in Leo to Mercury-Venus in Taurus in fixed signs this can set off arguments or conflicts or explosive results in the sky the overwhelming effect of aurora's is spectacular. GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A sharp gust of solar wind hit Earth's magnetosphere today, April 5th, at approximately 0800 UT and sparked the strongest geomagnetic storm of the year (Kindex=7). Although the storm is subsiding now, it is not over. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras. View the gallery of images April 3, 2010: In terms of human relations and interaction Mercury-Venus togehter in Taurus stimulate pleasure and a more harmonious, artistic and persuasive way of conversing. Sunset Conjunction of Mercury-Venus When the sun sets tonight, go outside and look west. Venus and Mercury are in conjunction, beaming through the twilight only 3 degrees apart. Images #1 , #2, #3, #4, #5. March 2010 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, CME's, Mysterious Objects, Near Earth Asteroids, Mars in close approach to Earth Northern Lights (view gallery) , Comets, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Flares & Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Storms March 30, 2010: Right on time for the Full Moon on the Libra/Aries axis with Mercury-Venus in Aries RADIO-ACTIVE SUNSPOT 1057 Sunday in new Mexico, a startling roar issued from the loudspeaker of amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft's radio telescope. "It was sunspot 1057," he says. "All day long it had been producing small radio bursts around 21 MHz. Then, at 1813 UT, it let loose a big one. The burst only lasted a minute, but it saturated the radios." Click here to listen. Image of Sunspot 1057 crackling: March 28, 2010: So tomorrow on March 29th @ 5:29 AM both Saturn and the Moon will be together in Libra Security needs will be balancing many issues that are active just as a more formal, conservative, thoughtful attitude begans. Saturn and the Moon together : Go to the Moon and turn left. Tonight the bright Moon rises in the east in the same patch of sky as Saturn. That means you can use the Moon to find the ringed planet. Backyard telescopes give a great view of Saturn's nearly edge-on rings. Take a look! Skymap Here March 28, 2010: Heading toward a powerful Full Moon in the Libra/Aries axis with a lot of Aries solar elements and wanting to be in center stage especially with Mars in Leo How will the current storms affect us with today's uinexpected powered by Moon oppoisng Uranus Sunspot 1057 is crackling with C-class solar flares. Today could be good, too. C-flares are continuing at a rate of one every 3-to-6 hours, and NOAA forecasters estimate a 20% chance of even stronger M-flares Yesterday, amateur astronomer Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California, saw one with his own eyes. "I was trying out a new solar filter on my 4-inch refracting telescope," he says. "My girlfriend and I watched in amazement as magnetic filaments whipped around the sunspot and triggered an eruption." Click on the image to see the flare in action: "I made the movie from a sequence of 1-minute images taken between 1755 and 1845 on March 27th," says Buxton. "What a great day to test our new system." March 25, 2010: On March 19th when he fireball shot over Alabama, Mars was trine the Sun and Mercury for perfect timing. Bright Fireball Caught on Camera Over Alabama A bright fireball that lit up the sky above parts of Alabama last week was caught by NASA cameras as it streaked over the southeastern United States. The fireball was caused by the death plunge of a meteor about the size of a soccer ball as it burned up in Earth's atmosphere on Friday, March 19, at 11:19 p.m. local time whitle flying over western Alabama. Two NASA cameras, one based at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., recorded a the meteor's fiery demise as it happened. March 25, 2010: Note that Jupiter per tropical astrology is heading toward a meeting with Uranus in Pisces at the end of May for some surprising sky views and images here on earth. Jupiter tends to expand things and in this case everything involving Pisces from photo, films, video, oceans, psychic phenomena and more ... Jupiter as a Morning Star A bright new star has appeared in the morning sky. It's Jupiter, just now emerging from a weeks-long conjunction with the sun. "Here's an image of Jupiter rising above the lighthouse at Cape Byron, the most easterly point on the Australian mainland," says Stephen Mudge of Byron Bay. The giant planet is best seen at the crack of dawn. If you're up at that hour, take a look. March 24, 2010: Fiery energies abound here on earth two with solar Leo now in Mars trine Sun in Aries (exalted) Sunsport 1057 is Growing and Another C-class eruption is coming: New sunspot 1057 has almost doubled in area since it first appeared yesterday. With a pair of dark cores each larger than planet Earth, the growing active region is an easy target for amateur solar telescopes: Rogerio Marcon took the picture on March 24th from his backyard observatory in Campinas, Brazil. The swirling magnetic fields evident in the image harbor energy for C-class eruptions. The active region has already hurled one coronal mass ejection (CME, movie) into space and more could be in the offing. March 21, 2010: The energies are really firing up with yesterday's Vernal Equinox as Sun entered Aries for a trine to Mars now in Leo (Solar) Sun also is TSQ Saturn-Pluto for explosions and volcanic action here on earth. Sunspot 1056 has returned After fading away for a day, sunspot 1056 has returned and it is growing rapidly. The active region does not yet pose a threat for strong flares but this could change if its expansion continues apace. Solar Explosion and CME on the Equinox Yesterday, March 20th, a coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed over the sun's western limb. Click on the image to launch a movie of the expanding cloud recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO): Imagery from NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft suggests this was a backside event. Despite multiple views from SOHO and STEREO, however, the precise location of the blast site remains uncertain. It might be an active region which is passing through STEREO's narrow blind spot on the "anti-Earth" side of the sun. Stay tuned for updates. March 18, 2010: The discovery of this new exoplanet was announced when Mercury made an ingress into Aries yesterday. Aries as a sign is synonymous with pioneering discoveries and in conjunction with Uranus finishing a 7 year journey in Pisces means even more surprising discoveries in space. Newfound Alien World Resembles Those in Our Solar System A newly discovered exoplanet is the first such alien world to resemble the planets in our own solar system, researchers announced Wednesday. The planet, dubbed CoRoT-9b, was found to be about the size of Jupiter and situated at an orbit similar to Mercury, which is the innermost planet in our solar system. While that seems close, it is much farther away than other gas giant planets found around alien stars with the exoplanet detection method used in the new study. This distance in turn means that CoRoT-9b has a more temperate climate than other gas giants — so-called "hot Jupiters" — that can experience radical temperature swings. March 18, 2010: Mercury-Venus in Aries with Sun to enter on March 20th @ 10:32 AM PDT with a conjunction to Uranus Many surprising eruptions are coming from the Sun (Sun is exalted in Aries) Solar Prominence Rising For the second day in a row, astronomers are monitoring an enormous prominence rising over the northwestern limb of the sun. The magnificent arch stretches more than 20 Earth-diameters from end to end. Our planet would easily fit through any of the "little" plasma gaps evident in Friedman's photo. "Twenty-four hours after I first saw it, it is still alive and more monstrous (in a beautiful way) than ever," reports Alan Friedman, who sends this picture from his observatory in downtown Buffalo, New York: Waiting for the CME Arctic sky watchers are waiting for the CME to hit. A coronal mass ejection that left the sun on March 14th should deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field sometime today. NOAA forcasters estimate a 30% chance of geomagnetic activity when the cloud arrives March 16, 2010: Moon in Aries in a square to Pluto is about cleaning up from past explosions or messes Update on Comet Fragments which hit the Sun On March 11th, 12th and 13th no fewer than four comets plunged into the sun. Can you find all four in this movie (22 MB) from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory? Hint: The last comet is a double. These sungrazing comets are believed to be fragments of a giant comet that broke apart more than 2000 years ago. March 15, 2010: Plenty of surprises here on earth with the New Moon sporting a conjunction to Mercury-Sun-Uranus for major unexpected events. Solar 'Current of Fire' Speeds Up ANOTHER SURPRISE FROM THE SUN A massive "current of fire" on the sun has started running at high speed, surprising researchers and challenging some models of the solar cycle. March 14, 2010: Mars direct in Leo along with Venus in Aries puts emphasis on solar eruptions to hit here on earth. Is the current Sun-Mercury-Uranus conjunction in Pisces creating more hysteria around solar flares than is necessary? Incoming CME with movie This morning, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a halo CME emerging from the vicinity of sunspot 1054 The cloud appears to be heading toward Earth and it could spark geomagnetic storms when it arrives on or about March 17th. March 12, 2010: Aquarius Moon meeting Neptune/Chiron has many thinking of past disasters where undetected objects hit our planet. the news about "Nemesis" or "The Death Star," is another bit of fear mongering reflected by Sun-Merucry-Uranus in Pisces Sun's Nemesis Pelted Earth with Comets, Study Suggests A dark object may be lurking near our solar system, occasionally kicking comets in our direction. Nicknamed "Nemesis" or "The Death Star," this undetected object could be a red or brown dwarf star, or an even darker presence several times the mass of Jupiter. Why do scientists think something could be hidden beyond the edge of our solar system? Originally, Nemesis was suggested as a way to explain a cycle of mass extinctions on Earth. March 12, 2010: Doomed Comet Hits the Sun A newly-discovered comet is plunging toward the sun and probably will not survive. The encounter is too close to the sun for human eyes to see, but the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is able to monitor the action using an opaque disk to block the sun's glare. UPDATED: Click on the image to launch a 17-hour time-lapse animation spanning 0042 to 1742 UT: The doomed comet is probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see but occasionally a big fragment--like this one--attracts attention. March 10, 2010: Lots of news about Mars and the Sun today as astrologically Mars stationed direct today in Leo (Sun is exalted in Leo) Regarding Phobus the Greek god of fear and one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology we need to look here on earth as some people are harvesting fears . Major Solar Eruption Magnetic fields around the corpse of old sunspot 1045 erupted this morning, March 10th, at 0745 UT. SOHO's extreme ultraviolet telescope recorded the action, which you can see by clicking on the image below: The eruption did not produce a lot of X-rays (the corresponding flare registered only B1), but it did hurl a billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. The cloud is not aimed directly at Earth, but it could deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field on or about March 13th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras around that date. THE MYSTERY OF PHOBOS: Something is wrong with Phobos. The martian moon looks like a solid, but it is not as dense as a rocky solid should be. Some researchers think Phobos might be riddled with vast caverns; others say it is just a "rubble pile" masquerading as a solid body. To solve the mystery, Europe's Mars Express spacecraft is making a series of close Phobos-flybys this month. March 8, 2010: Venus now in fiery Aries (solar) with a trine to Mars in Leo along with a Venus-Saturn TSQ to Pluto to could focus on this intense energy on earth via a solar flare. Solar Activity Intensifies: Solar Filaments Continue . SOLAR FILAMENTS: Today, amateur astronomers around the world are monitoring a pair of dark magnetic filaments on the sun. Seen here: A movie of these monster filaments here. The massive, plasma-filled filament has been remarkably stable since SOHO first spotted it on March 5th. However, filaments like this have been known to collapse. If this one does and hits the stellar surface, The largest filament, which is curling over the sun's northeastern limb, stretches at least 50,000 km from end to end. SOHO has been monitoring the plasma-filled behemoth for more than three days How long can this filament hold itself up? If it collapses and hits the stellar surface, the impact could produce a powerful Hyder flare. Radio Heliographic ripples from March 8, 2010 in this movie These are mostly appearing on the far side of the Sun But could effect the magnetosphere since Sun's magnetic field in a state of flux March 6, 2010: New energies are flowing into our world and the solar system as Venus enters Aries on March 7th and Mars finally moves direct in Leo on March 10th. BE ALERT FOR ZODIACAL LIGHT: If you live in the northern hemisphere, now is the time to look for the Zodiacal Light. It jumps up in the west after sunset, a luminous triangle that can amaze observers in dark rural areas. The Zodiacal Light More Images Here The phenonenon is caused by sunlight shining on billions of tiny dust particles scattered throughout the plane of our solar system. The tilt of the sky favors evening sightings in the weeks of late winter and early spring--in other words, now! For best results, get away from city lights. Find a place with a clear western horizon. Let your eyes adapt to the darkness after sunset and prepare to be amazed. March 2, 2010: On March 3rd. here on earth, the Moon enters Mars ruled Scorpio with a square to transiting Mars in Leo for some fireworks Also on March 3rd. Venus is in a conjunction with Uranus for the unusual and strange phenomena Where there is Venus there is Mars and where there is Mars there is also Phobus Phobus is the Greek god of fear and one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology PHOBOS FLYBY: On March 3rd, Mars Express will fly past Phobos at a distance of only 67 km, the closest any spacecraft has ever been to this mysterious moon of Mars. The purpose of the flyby is not to take pictures but to map the gravity field of Phobos and, thus, to determine its internal structure. Spacecraft cameras will be turned off during the encounter to provide a clean "carrier signal" for the radio-gravity experiment. Hi-res images will be made, however, on March 7th during a follow-up flyby at a range of 107 km. March 1, 2010: As we approach the ingress of Venus into Aries (March 7th) and the Mars station in Leo on March 10th, all solar activity will instensify with more CME's directed at earth. Updates on CME's - Check out this anmimation. The past eruption hurled a billion-ton CME away from the sun (image), but not toward Earth. The blast site is located on the sun's eastern limb where it faces away from our planet. This marks the fourth time in the past two days that a CME has billowed away from the sun without heading in our direction. Earth keeps dodging the bullet. Solar Eruptions from the Far Side The far side of the sun is alive with activity. On Feb. 28th, NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft observed one and perhaps two clouds of material blasting away from a high-latitude, site not visible from Earth. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded this movie of the clouds billowing over the sun's northern limb. February 2010 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Mysterious Objects, Near Earth Asteroids, Mars in close approach to Earth Northern Lights (view gallery) , Comets, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Flares & Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Storms February 25, 2010: As Mars continues to retrograde till March 10th, we should expect more of these solar eruptions and consequently CME's SOLAR FILAMENT ERUPTION The 'Great Magnetic Filament' on the sun that we've been tracking for the past week finally erupted yesterday. Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) images bracket the eruption between 0719 and 1919 UT on Feb. 24th. The event did not produce a bright solar flare, as sometimes happens when filaments erupt, but there was a coronal mass ejection (CME). SOHO coronagraphs observed at least one and possibly as many as three clouds billowing away from the sun: movie. If any of this material is heading for Earth--a big unknown!--it should arrive on Feb. 27th or 28th. Arctic sky watchers should be alert for auroras on those dates. February 23, 2010: Yesterday I mentioned that much of this increasing solar activity might be linked to the Mars transit retro. in Leo There is also a correlation with cardinal signs like Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn - let's see what happens as Moon enter Cancer today to TSQ Saturn-Pluto.... GREAT FILAMENT: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is tracking an enormous magnetic filament on the sun. It stretches more than one million kilometers from end to end, which makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. R February 22, 2010: From now on past March 10th when Mars stations direct in Leo expect some major sunspots, solar flares and explosions to coincide with Mercury-Venus then Jupiter (June) to translate the energies of the ongoing Saturn-Uranus-Pluto TSQ Solar Magnetism and a Potential Hyder Flare NASA spacecraft and amateur astronomers alike are monitoring a staggeringly-long filament of magnetism on the sun. It stretches more than a million kilometers around the sun's southeastern limb: As this movie shows, the filament has remained mostly stable for at least two days. However, similar filaments in the past have been known to collapse, and when they hit the surface of the sun--bang! A tremendous explosion called a "Hyder flare" results, sometimes rivaling the strongest flares produced by sunspots. Solar physicists have not yet learned to predict Hyder flares, so we cannot estimate the odds of one now February 19, 2010: The news of this discovery hit the web on 2-18-10 when an adolescent Moon in Aries was in a powerful sextile to Neptune in Aquarius From the discovery pov. (point of view) Mercury applying toward a conjunction with Mercury in deep space sign Aquarius Venus is separating from a past conjunction with the Lord of Travel - Jupiter. Venus will also meet Uranus ruler of Aquarius and the dispositor where Venus-Uranus together can mean the erratic and unstable on many levels. Youngest Extra-Solar Planet Discovered University of Hertfordshire astronomers, Dr Maria Cruz Gálvez-Ortiz and Dr John Barnes, are part of an international collaboration that has discovered the youngest extra-solar planet around a solar-type star, named BD+20 1790b. The giant planet, six-times the mass of Jupiter, is only 35 million years old. It orbits a young active central star at a distance closer than Mercury orbits the Sun. Young stars are usually excluded from planet searches because they have intense magnetic fields that generate a range of phenomena known collectively as stellar activity, including flares and spots. This activity can mimic the presence of a companion and so can make extremely difficult to disentangle the signals of planets and activity. Dr Maria Cruz Gálvez-Ortiz describing how the planet was discovered said: “The planet was detected by searching for very small variations in the velocity of the host star, caused by the gravitational tug of the planet as it orbits – the so-called “Doppler wobble technique”. Overcoming the interference caused by the activity was a major challenge for the team, but with enough data from an array of large telescopes the planet’s signature was revealed.” February 18, 2010: Yesterday's fiery Aries Moon with ruler Mars now Void of Course puts on quite a show This bought of northern lights seem to get stronger after the Feb. 13th New Moon in Aquarius View some amzing picutes of from February's latest gallery picts. NORTHERN LIGHTS DELIVER All week long, the Arctic Circle has been aglow with auroras. "The lights have been incredibly bright and active," says Øystein Lunde Ingvaldsen of Bø i Vesterålen, Norway. He took this picture on Feb. 17th: "This has been a very nice month for auroras," agrees Wioleta Zarzycka of Iceland, where coastal waters have been turning green in reflection of the sky above. The lights have even descended as far south as Scotland. "On Monday night, we had the first auroras I have seen here in years," reports Gordon Mackay of Campsie Fells. All this activity is a sign that the sun is coming back to life after a long, deep solar minimum. Sunspots have returned crackling with solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are once again buffeting Earth's magnetic field. NOAA forecasters estimate a 25% to 30% chance of more geomagnetic activity tonight. Even a new sunspot # 1049 is growing and we could see another round of solar flares February 16, 2010: Tonight is the exact Venus-Jupiter conjunction in the sign of wild imagery and imaginations, Pisces As the sun continues flaring, we should expect to see more amazing aurora's AURORA BLAST On Feb. 15th, an intense wave of Northern Lights swept across Scandinavia. "We had a fantastic blast of auroras here in Kvaløya, Norway," reports Helge Mortensen. "They were bright and very active. What a view!" He made this self-portrait below: The display got started when the sun's magnetic field near Earth tipped south. This opened a hole in Earth's magnetosphere. Solar wind poured in and fueled the auroras. The lights were so bright they reflected in water, cast shadows on snow, and descended as far south as Scotland and Northern Ireland. February 15, 2010: The Moon is translating the light from romantic Venus-Jupiter conjunction as Luna separates and heads toward a thrilling visit with Uranus @ 6:32 AM February 16th. On 6:14 PM, Venus and Jupiter are exactly conjunct in Pisces for more visuals. The only problem is, the event is happening deep inside the glow of the setting sun. Are you ready for the conjunction challenge? Go outside 15 to 30 minutes after sunset and look directly below the crescent Moon. Venus and Jupiter are down there together. SUNSET SKY SHOW: Tonight, about 15 minutes after sunset, go outside and look west. You'll find an exquisitely-slender crescent Moon hovering just above the horizon. Point your finger at the Moon and trace a line down, down, down--voila! It's Jupiter and Venus. The two brightest planets are converging for a conjunction deep in the glow of the setting sun. Find them if you can: sky map. February 13, 2010: All things are a go with today's New Moon with Sun-Moon-Chiron-Neptune in Aquarius along with a visual Venus-Jupiter Conjunction in Pisces. AURORA WATCH: Right on time for Valentine's Night High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras on Feb. 14th and 15th. That's when a solar wind stream flowing from a coronal hole on the sun is expected to reach Earth. The scene on Valentine's Night could look like this: Zoltan Kenwell took the picture on Feb. 11th from the banks of the Athabasca River in Alberta, Canada. "I used a Canon 5D2 set at ISO 1000 for 10 seconds," he says. "The auroras were very active." Check out the February Gallery of Northern Lights Picts. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% to 35% chance of minor geomagnetic storming during the late hours of Feb. 14th and 15th. The activity could descend to northern-tier US states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin. Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia are better bets, however. February 13, 2010: Even though Mercury is separating from a furious aspect, an opposition to Mars in solar Leo, that brings turmoil her on earth - Pluto will is in a strained 150 degree Quincunx to Mars. as is Venus now in Pisces An Angry Sun with the SOHO EIT 171 Latest Image Sunspot 1046 continues to put on a good show. Yesterday it unleashed the brightest solar flare in more than two years (an M8-class eruption) and today it is seething with magnetic activity. Rogerio Marcon photographed the turmoil from his backyard observatory in Campinas, Brazil: NOAA forecasters estimate a 70% chance of another M-flare from this region during the next 24 hours. The chief effect of impulsive M-flares is to ionize the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere. Waves of ionization can affect the propagation of terrestrial radio signals, suppressing some frequencies (shortwave) while boosting others (VLF). Radio listeners should be alert for disturbances. February 12, 2010: By now you might know that we are in a solar cycle which is extremely active. From an astrological perspective, Mars retrograde in solar-oriented Leo is the primary resonant factor and tomorrow's new moon in Aquarius hosts both an oppositon from Mercury to Mars and a powerful quincunx involving Pluto and Mars. Another Solar Flare - This Time Sunspot 1046 Rocks Sunspot 1046 is crackling with M-class solar flares. This morning in the Netherlands, amateur astronomer Emiel Veldhuis happened to be looking when one of them erupted. He captured the following images using a Lunt LS60T CaK backyard solar telescope: The brief but powerful flare registered M8.3 on the "Richter scale" of solar flares. NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft also recorded a movie of the event, which was the strongest flare in more than two years. More eruptions are in the offing; readers with solar telescopes should train their optics on sunspot 1046. February 11, 2010: The launch to study the "now awakened" Sun took off with conservative Taurus rising in a TSQ to Mercury in Aquarius in the 10th and Mars in 4th Notice that NASA had delayed the launch three times Wednesday because of windy conditions. especially with Mercury opposing Mars now retrograde. With Saturday's New Moon in Aquarius - Sun-Moon-Chiron-Neptune will blow away a lot of the current coverups regarding this mission. SPECTACULAR LAUNCH: The Solar Dynamics Observatory lifted off from Kennedy Space Center this morning at 10:23 am EST, kicking of a 5-year mission to study the variability of the sun. Moments after liftoff, SDO flew right through a bright, rainbow-colored sundog and destroyed it. Watch a video (10 MB Quicktime) Living With a Star Mission - A urgent attempt by NASA to study the 2012 solar storms Last year we reported about NASA Solar Study report regarding solar Storm. Which was carried out for NASA by the US National Academy of Sciences.And it said what Hopi, Mayan and Web Bot talked about Predicted for 2012, a big solar storm catastrophe. And today NASA launched "Atlas 5 rocket" under Star NASA Mission and according to NASA spokes person the purpose of the SDO is to "understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously." We don't think so its just co-incidental, especially considering the upcoming solar storms during the peak of the years 2012 - 2013 . NASA 2009 report concluded that "The sun operates on an 11-year cycle, with the next "active" phase due in 2012 likely to present the nearest danger." February 10, 2010: There are conflicting reports that the meteorite crashed at either 4:30 PM or 6:30 PM CST The chart set for 6:30 PM has Leo rising with Mars in the 12th and an Aquarian Stellium in the 7th or descendant. Chart set for 4:30 PM has Mars in the first with Cancer rising with Mars opposing Mercury in the 7th - either way this was a fiery and unexpected crash from the heavens. Translation Reported from Mexico, a meteorite fall between Puebla and Hidalgo Meteorite falls Ahuazotepec bridge collapses; Army cordoned off the area Ahuazotepec .- Huauchinango Municipal Police confirmed the fall of a meteorite that collapsed a bridge between the municipalities and Cuautepec Ahuazotepec. Informes preliminares señalan que no se registraron lesionados y que la caída causó un estruendo que se escuchó hasta Zacatlán y Tulancingo, Hidalgo. Preliminary reports indicate that no injuries and that the fall caused a roar that was heard up Zacatlan and Tulancingo, Hidalgo. Los hechos se registraron este miércoles a las 18:30 horas entre ambas poblaciones, hasta donde llegó el Ejército mexicano para acordonar la zona. The incident took place Wednesday at 18:30 between the two populations, as far as the Mexican army arrived to cordon off the area. February 9, 2010: A chart set for 5:30 PM CST( the incident took place today at 18:30 hours) has Mars in Leo near the ascendant @ 9 degrees 43 minutes Leo. Mars applying to an opposition to Mercury - explosive but with a Jupiter-Pluto (sextile) Yod to Mars for the fiery crash. With Translation: Mexico's meteorite fall between Puebla and Hidalgo Ahuazotepec .- Authorities reported a meteorite falling on Wednesday afternoon between the towns of Ahuazotepec and Cuautepec, which allegedly caused the cave-a bridge. De acuerdo a la Policía Municipal de Huauchinango, los primeros reportes descartan que haya lesionados y aseguran que el impacto generó un estruendo que se escuchó hasta Zacatlán y Tulancingo, Hidalgo. According to the Municipal Police Huauchinango, the first reports out there being injured and ensure that the impact generated a roar that was heard up Zacatlan and Tulancingo, Hidalgo. La estación de radio XENQ de Tulancingo fue la que dio la primicia hace algunas horas. The radio station Tulancingo XENQ was who gave the scoop a few hours ago. De acuerdo con Jorge Martínez, reportero de XENQ, desde las 15:30 recibieron reportes de habitantes de Huauchinango, Tulancingo, Acaxochitlán e incluso Pachuca que decían haber escucha una fuerte explosión. According to Jorge Martinez, a reporter for XENQ, from 15:30 received reports of people in Huauchinango, Tulancingo Pachuca Tulancingo borders and even they said they had heard a loud explosion. El portal informativo de Puebla, e-consulta.com , informó que los hechos se registraron hoy a las 18:30 horas entre ambas poblaciones y señaló que al lugar ha llegado el Ejército mexicano para acordonar la zona. The Puebla information portal, e-consulta.com, said the incident took place today at 18:30 hours between the two populations and noted that the site has reached the Mexican army to cordon off the February 9, 2010: As we move toward a magnificent New Moon in Aquarius on Feb. 13th both Mercury (earth weahter) and Venus (moisture/atmosphere) both changes signs before this lunation. Venus will be in Pisces moving into a conjunction with Jupiter for much more visible evidence of these awesome CME's Also as Mars retro in Solar Leo to oppose Mercury, expect these other sunspots like 1046 & 1047 to flare up too. GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH & NORTHERN LIGHTS: Over the past few days, active sunspot 1045 has hurled a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) toward Earth. These are not the kind of major CMEs that will spark auroras over, say, Florida, but they could spark some very nice lights around the Arctic Circle. (continued below) High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights on Feb. 9th through 11th when the CMEs are expected to arrive. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of some geomagnetic activity and as much as a 5% chance of a major geomagnetic storm over the next three days. February 8, 2010: Strictly from an astrological point of view with Sun-Chiron-Neptune-Venus together in Aquarius expect the unexpected and all of these bodies are in a sextile to explosive Sagittarius Moon-Ceres With Mars retro. in Leo lots of energies are emitting from the Sun these days... Update: RADIO-ACTIVE SUNSPOT: Behemoth sunspot 1045 is crackling with M-class solar flares--and that's not all. "There have been many loud shortwave radio bursts over the past two days," reports amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico. "Some of the bursts have completely saturated my receivers." Just listen to the sounds coming from the loudspeakers in his observatory. (continued below) The roaring sounds you just heard were mainly Type III radio bursts, caused by beams of electrons streaming through the sun's outer atmosphere. Sunspot 1045 appears poised to explosively accelerate more electrons in the days ahead as the flare-show continues February 6, 2010: The first major eruption occured yesterday @ 1:30 AM UT and using Heliocentric settings: a stellium of Leo of Vest-Hygeia-Earth-Mars in a powerful opposition to Chiron-Neptune-Venus in Aquarius. and an intense TSQ to Mercury-Ceres in Scorpio BIG NEW SUNSPOT 1045 EXPANDS In less than 48 hours, a monsterous sunspot group has materialized in the sun's northern hemisphere. Rogerio Marcon sends this picture of new sunspot 1045 taken earlier today from his backyard observatory in Campinas, Brasil The active region is crackling with solar flares. The strongest eruption on Feb 6th by was an M2-class eruption at 1900 UT. But more eruptions followed. The arcs in Marcon's photo are unstable and they have already erupted at least six times this weekend, producing a series of C- and M-class flares. M-class flares are medium-sized; they can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions. Minor radiation storms sometimes follow an M-class flare. There is a 10% chance of a much more powerful X-flare in the next 24 hours, according to NOAA forecasters, so bigger things could be in the offing. -X-class flares are big; they are major events that can trigger planet-wide radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms (See the movie from NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft.) Each of the spot's dark cores is about twice as wide as Earth, which makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Stay tuned for solar activity! February 4, 2010: Energies have intensifed here on earth as Pluto is sextile Juipiter while Moon in Scorpio (ruled by Pluto) is in a powerful abrupt square with Mars in Solar Leo. Fiery Juno in trine with Ceres in Sagittarius adds to the explosive elements applying to sextiles with Sun-Venus-Neptune in Aquarius for more unexpected changes. Solar Eruptions Directed at Earth: NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is tracking four active regions strung across the eastern hemisphere of the sun. Click on the image below to set the scene in motion--and keep an eye on number 4. The movie shows an eruption of unstable magnetic loops. The blast occured around 0130 UT on February 5th and it appears to have hurled some material in the general direction of Earth. Images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are not yet available to evaluate that possibility. Stay tuned for updates in a few hours. February 3, 2010: Leo was rising @ 24 degrees when the fireball spotted over Ireland at around 6pm local time. Asc. was in opposition to Neptune for more confusion and mysteries regarding this fireball with some observers saying that a UFO landed. The Libra moon was also applying to an opposition to Juno in fiery Aries adding to conflicting opinions and stories. Breaking NewsHuge Fireball Reported Over Ireland Fireball seen over Ireland We're seeing reports popping up on the internet of a huge fireball spotted over Ireland at around 6pm local time on Feb. 3, 2010. There was a video posted to You Tube which claimed to be footage of the event, but it now seems that was old footage, so we have removed the embedded video. (We'll post any new verified images or videos when they become available.) Any Irish readers out there see anything? The Irish Times said members of the public throughout the country have been reporting sightings of the fireball. The Times quoted Tommy Moore from Astronomy Ireland: “A major explosion happened in the sky over Ireland. We think it’s a fireball, that’s a rock from space the earth has slammed into and they burn up as huge shooting stars. This one appears to have lit up the whole country. The phones here in Astronomy Ireland are going crazy.” February 3, 2010: It appears that the mysterious x -shaped debris is from an asteroid collision which for us on earth could relate astrologically to the Sun-Mars opposition on January 29th. Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Trailing Debris Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH WASHINGTON -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before. Asteroid collisions are energetic, with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour, or five times faster than a rifle bullet. The comet-like object imaged by Hubble, called P/2010 A2, was first discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, or LINEAR, program sky survey on Jan. 6. New Hubble images taken on Jan. 25 and 29 show a complex X-pattern of filamentary structures near the nucleus. "This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets," said principal investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles. "The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the nucleus. Some are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originated from tiny unseen parent bodies." February 2, 2010: Explosive cardinal aspects with Moon TSQ Saturn-Pluto also coicide with a developing Solar Explosion EXPLOSION ON THE SUN: Coronagraphs onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observed a bright double-ringed coronal mass ejection (CME) billowing over the sun's western limb during the late hours of Feb. 1st. At present, the source of the blast is unknown. Watch the movie and stay tuned for updates. Recent picture of the Solar Explosion: February 1, 2010: Almost in synch with the last Full Moon in Leo, we have a new sunpot emerging. Sunspot 1043 Emerges. Over the weekend, sunspot 1043 emerged in the sun's northern hemisphere--and it continues to grow today. "It is taking on a nice shape in my Coronado PST (personal solar telescope)," reports amateur astronomer Jo Dahlmans. He sends this snapshot from his backyard observatory in Ulestraten, The Netherlands: Here is a movie of the event that astrophotographer Micheal Buxton recorded of the new active region (1632-1701 UT on Jan. 31st). "I watched in amazement as plasma recoiled between the sunspot's dark magnetic cores," says Buxton. "Until the clouds rolled in, it was quite a show!" January 2010 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Near Earth Asteroids, Northern Lights (view gallery) , Comets, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Storms January 31, 2010: In astrological relationships lightening is signified by Uranus ruler of the Aquarian Sun-Venus and Neptune especially with Mercury (relating to atmosphere) moving towards a sextile with Uranus the phenomena of Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes, or TGFs is being studied by 'Firefly' MYSTERY OF THE TERRESTRIAL GAMMA-RAY FLASHES: There's a mystery in the skies of Earth. Something is producing bright flashes of gamma radiation in the upper atmosphere of our own planet. A spacecraft called 'Firefly' is going to investigate: full story. High-energy bursts of gamma rays typically occur far out in space, perhaps near black holes or other high-energy cosmic phenomena. So imagine scientists' surprise in the mid-1990s when they found these powerful gamma ray flashes happening right here on Earth, in the skies overhead. They're called Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes, or TGFs, and very little is known about them. They seem to have a connection with lightning, but TGFs themselves are something entirely different. "In fact," says Doug Rowland of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, "before the 1990s nobody knew they even existed. And yet they're the most potent natural particle accelerators on Earth." January 30, 2010: Incredible lights timed with the solar wind hitting on Jan. 30th the day of the Full Moon in Leo with Mars at closest point to earth. INTENSE NORTHERN LIGHTS: A solar wind stream hit Earth on Jan. 30th. It was a minor gust, but enough to spark these Northern Lights over Tromsø, Norway: Another solar wind stream is coming--and it's probably quite a bit stronger than this one was. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about Feb. 10th. January 29, 2010: The dramatic Leo Moon @ 10 degrees 14 minutes is conjunct Mars still retrograde and boiling in the sign of the royal Lion. This lunation occurs on January 29th @ 10:18 PM PST or January 30th @ 1:18 AM EST BIGGEST FULL MOON OF THE YEAR: This Friday night, if you think the Moon looks unusually big, you're right. It's the biggest full Moon of 2010. Astronomers call it a "perigee Moon," some 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons of the year. Johannes Kepler explained the phenomenon 400 years ago. The Moon's orbit around Earth is not a circle; it is an ellipse, with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other. Astronomers call the point of closest approach "perigee," and that is where the Moon will be Friday night: diagram. Tomorrow look around sunset when the Moon is near the eastern horizon. At that time, illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through foreground objects such as buildings and trees. Why not let the "Moon illusion" amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east may seem close enough to touch. January 28, 2010: Jupiter now in highly visual yet bizarre and strange Pisces reflects many weird apparitions and images but in this case is the Norwegian Aurora mystery really solved? Aurora Mystery Solved? On Jan. 20, 2010, Per-Arne Mikalsen was photographing a vast aurora erupting over the northern Norwegian town of Andenes. Because solar activity is on the increase, aurora spotters have many opportunities to see the Northern Lights. On this particular night the aurora was intense, stretching toward the southern latitudes of Norway. In one of the photographs taken by Mikalsen was an "object" that couldn't be identified. Although Mikalsen had taken several images at the same location, just one photo showed a mysterious green parachute-like object hanging with the main aurora. (This time, it appears that the Russian military was not involved in the making of this strange shape in the sky.) At first it seemed easy to dismiss the object as a lens flare or a spot on the camera lens, but after further study it became clear that the answer wasn't that simple. View Image Here: January 27, 2010: As we approach the astrological 2nd. Pluto square to Saturn in cardinal, active signs on Jan. 31st. along with a transit of Mercury sextile Uranus prompts more discoveries in deep space. Pluto's Little Sister Found? When it comes to objects in the Kuiper Belt, the vast, icy ring that encircles our solar system, size matters. The frozen worlds orbiting beyond Neptune include not only dwarf planets like Pluto and Ceres, but also a tiny, icy toehold just one-third of a mile wide. The discovery, made by a team of astronomers scouring Hubble Space Telescope observations, sets a new record for the smallest Kuiper Belt object found. Previously, the smallest known Pluto sibling was a 30-mile-wide Kuiper Belt object. January 25, 2010: This discovery story hit the internet today when a Mercury ruled Gemini Moon is square Jupiter for excess and considering how quickly we are finding these NEO asteroids this makes sense particularly with Mercury now in earth sign Capricorn in a positive sextile to innovative Uranus. WISE uncovers its first near-Earth asteroid! The Wide-field Infrared Satellite Explorer has detected its first near-Earth asteroid! Named 2010 AB78, it was discovered in mid-January by the orbiting observatory AB78 is about a kilometer (0.6 miles) or so across, making it one of the bigger asteroids that can buzz the Earth. The orbital information on it isn’t perfect yet, but we already know its orbit doesn’t actually cross the Earth’s so it can’t hit us. At closest approach it’s still many million of kilometers away from us, and poses no threat. However, I’ll be honest and say this discovery is mildly alarming (stressing the word mildly). One of the missions of WISE is to find such asteroids; some rocks are dark and therefore hard to detect using telescopes which search in visible light. However, AB78 is warm, so it glows in the infrared, making it an easy target for WISE. That’s why searching for such asteroids is one of WISE’s main goals. January 23, 2010: "In case you haven't guessed Jan. 29, 2010 is a Full Moon in Leo with Moon-Mars in a powerful opposition to Sun-Venus-Chiron-Neptune in Aquarius. We also see Saturn ancient ruler of Aquarius ready to perfect another square with Pluto - the destroyer on Jan. 31st." CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH MARS: Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter. On Jan. 27th, the Red Planet will be only 99 million kilometers (0.66 AU) away--the least distance in almost two years. Look for it rising in the east at sunset, pumpkin-colored and nearly as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. January 22, 2010: Today's Aries Moon (the Sun is exalted in Aries ) is a great time to look at this $808 million spacecraft The SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory ) is slated to launch Feb. 9 at 10:36 a.m. EST when Mars in Leo will be in Quincunx to Pluto-Moon which is about making adjustments when 1 degree Taurus will be rising with this Sabian Symbol: An electrical storm. New Space Telescope to Target Sun Storms While astronomers gaze at stars farther and farther out in the heavens, some scientists want to take a closer look at the star closest to us: the sun. NASA plans to launch a new spacecraft, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), to take the most detailed observations ever of the sun to understand its complex weather and storms. "The sun changes every time we look at it, [it] is never the same," said Dean Pesnell, SDO project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in a Thursday briefing. January 22, 2010: yesterday's Aries Moon along with Juno in fiery Aries was trine Mars now retrograde in Leo reflects this incident. Lorton Meteorite, The Fourth Observed To Fall In Virginia - Video Inside LORTON, Va. (WUSA) -- A meteorite, the size of a mango, punched through the ceiling of the Williamsburg Square Family Practice Office in Lorton. Dr. Marc Gullani says, "Literally an explosion went off." Dr. Frank Ciampi tells 9NEWS NOW he thought the book shelves fell down. He says, "It came from the roof, through the fire wall through the ceiling and hit the ground right here." January 21, 2010: Video capturing many angles of this meteor on January 18, reflected the Pisces Moon and recent ingress of Jupiter into the sign of Pisces ruling video Juno in fiery Aries was trine Mars now retrograde in Leo. Meteor over Montana caught on tape January 22, 2010: Fiery Aries Moon passed Juno in the sign of the Ram with a trine to Mars in Hot Leo now retrograde along with a Grand Trine that includes Ceres in Sagittarius VAPORIZED! ONE LESS COMET: As expected, yesterday's sungrazing comet discovered by STEREO did not survive its close encounter with the sun. One cosmic snowball went in--none came out. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) made this movie of the death plunge. January 21, 2010: The Moon in fiery Aries is trine Mars in solar Leo which astrologically invites such a collision especially with cardinal Aries Moon in a TSQ with the Nodes Another bit of synchronicity is that 3200 Phaethon, the small asteroid or comet responsible for the Geminids meteor shower is in parallel declination with N Node in Capricorn. Phaethon in Greek Mythology was the son of Helios, the sun god; or son of Eos, the Dawn Goddess Phaethon almost crashed his father's chariot into the Earth and was killed by a thunderbolt from Zeus to prevent further disaster. INCOMING COMET: NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft has discovered another comet plunging toward the sun. The last time this happened on Jan. 4th, the comet was destroyed, and history could repeat itself later today. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has a good view of the comet's death plunge: movie January 20, 2010: Jupiter's astrological ingress into Pisces will magnify more space mysteries especially with a conjunction to Uranus bringing more surprises this spring. Notice: Jim Scotti correctly points out that several other weird comet/asteroid hybrids have been reported over the years. Now we are really detailing observations of these main belt comets. Mystery Object Behaves Both Like a Comet and Asteroid Something awfully curious is happening 250 million miles away in the asteroid belt. Astronomers think they may be witnessing a never-before-seen collision between two asteroids. The puzzle centers on a newly discovered object that superficially looks like a comet but lives among the asteroids. The strange object was discovered on January 6 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) sky survey. The object appears to be in an orbit inside the main asteroid belt -- not a place where comets usually dwell. January 19, 2010: Astrologically the Sun enters Aquarius today to join Venus in two upcoming oppositions to Mars now in solar Leo tremendous emotional and physical energies will be released! As Above So Below... M-FLARE ERUPTION: Today, Jan. 19th at 1340 UT, Earth-orbiting satellites detected the strongest solar flare in almost two years. The M2-class eruption came from old sunspot 1039, currently located behind the sun's eastern limb. This strong solar flare and triggered a solar tsunami. Considering the fact that the sunspot is not even visible from Earth, the flare was probably much stronger than its M2 classification would suggest. Click on the image below to set the scene in motion. FARSIDE SOLAR ACTIVITY: Over the past two days, NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft has detected two eruptions from an active region just behind the sun's eastern limb. The source of the blasts appears to be old sunspot 1039. The sun's rotation will begin turning the spot toward Earth this week, so there could be some Earth-directed solar activity in the offing. January 17, 2010: From a tropical astrological point of view Jupiter has just moved into Pisces @ 6:11 PM a few hours before the Moon joins in at 10:17 PM Usually all Moon-Jupiter conjunctions mean more generosity, benevolence, along with a little luck associated with this transit. From an astronomical stand point it will be quite stunning. Jupiter and the Moon meet in an awesome Sunset Conjunction When the sun goes down tonight (Sunday, Jan. 17th), go outside and look southwest. Jupiter and the 6% crescent Moon are having an eye-catching close encounter. Catch them if you can before the sky fades completely black. A bright conjunction framed by twilight blue is an especially beautiful sight. [sky map] January 15, 2010: I am not so sure the mystery is solved but this galactic magnetic field is interaled with the current Sun's new activities. Mars is retrograde in solar Leo till March 15th Giant Ribbon at the Edge of the Solar System: Mystery Solved? January 15, 2010: Last year, when NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft discovered a giant ribbon at the edge of the solar system, researchers were mystified. They called it a "shocking result" and puzzled over its origin. Now the mystery may have been solved. "We believe the ribbon is a reflection," says Jacob Heerikhuisen, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. "It is where solar wind particles heading out into interstellar space are reflected back into the solar system by a galactic magnetic field." January 12, 2010: The current earthy Capricorn alignment of Pluto-Mercury-Sun-Venus-N Node offers an interesting astrological signature especially with Saturn (ruler of Capricorn) in hard aspect to Pluto in Capricorn (Pluto is the destroyer) Even though this 10m-class asteroid, 2010 AL30 will probably not hit th earth it sets up a precendence for the future as more NEO come ever closer to our planet. The Closest Fly-by Asteroid Ever Recorded Comes on January 13th. A curious object is about to fly past Earth only 130,000 km (0.3 lunar distances) away. Catalogued as a 10m-class asteroid, 2010 AL30 has an orbital period of almost exactly 1 year. This raises the possibility that it might not be a natural object, but rather a piece of some spacecraft from our own planet. At closest approach on Jan. 13th, 2010 AL30 will streak through Orion, Taurus, and Pisces glowing like a 14th magnitude star. Experienced amateur astronomers are encouraged to monitor the flyby: ephemeris. January 11, 2010: We have a conjunction of the Moon with the star called "the Heart of the Scorpion". Antares, one of the Royal Stars of Persia aka one of the archangel stars - Oriel (Antares) Watcher of the West. Event of the Week: A New England Occultation of Antares. On January 11, 2010, Antares experiences the last occultation of the current series that's practical to observe from any populated place on Earth. This one won't be easy, either, but it should be visible through a telescope if the atmospheric conditions are good. The 13% illuminated waning crescent Moon will occult magnitude +1.1 Antares in Scorpius for northeastern Canadians shortly before dawn on 2010 JAN 11. For northern New England it will be a daytime event with a graze through the Boston area. Observers on the southern graze path will be able to witness the star winking on and off as lunar hills and valleys pass by. Those located north of that graze path will see a full occultation. There will be no northern graze path since it would be in outer space above the arctic. January 8, 2010: Maybe it is a reflection of Mars retrograde in Leo (sign of the Sun) or just Mercury retrograde but Current sunspots like 1035 are renewing, revitalized and far from disappearing. SUNSPOT 1035 RESURRECTED: Old and decaying sunspot 1035, declared to be "a corpse" just yesterday, is showing signs of renewed life. Pete Lawrence sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Selsey, UK: "A welcome view of the sun on a cold January day reveals the remains of AR11035 still alive and kicking," says Lawrence. Beneath the waving filaments and bright magnetic froth ("plage"), a dark core is coelescing in the heart of the active region. That makes it a genuine sunspot again. NOAA has re-numbered the region "1040," but we will continue to refer to it by its original name, "1035." January 6, 2010: With our current Capricorn alignment TSQ Saturn-Uranus we might be just a bit paranoid about Pyxis. Just chalk this up to just another potential threat: "Gamma radiation emitted by the supernova could threaten the Earth with an energy equivalent to 1,000 simultaneous solar flares. " It is interesting to note that Pyxis was originally Pyxis Nautica, the Nautical Box, or Mariner's Compass This brings up the idea of a moral compass not just a compass for navigation. Re: Box - Latin malum, means apple. 'Adam's Apple' is the 'voice box' or larynx from Greek larunx, the box containing the vocal cords (vocal cords might be Delphinus?). [The larnax (plural larnakes) may be a relative, it is a type of closed box or coffin often used as a container for human remains in ancient Greece.] Folklore has it that the 'forbidden fruit' offered by Eve got stuck in Adam's throat, hence the prominent voice box in men. Explosive Nearby Star Could Threaten Earth WASHINGTON — A massive, eruptive white dwarf star in the Milky Way — long overdue for its next periodic eruption — is closer to our solar system than previously thought and could threaten the Earth if it fully explodes millions of years from now. New observations of the white dwarf and its sun-like stellar companion are giving scientists a better understanding of the star's precarious position as a possible supernova, astronomers said here today at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The two stars are in a close binary system called T Pyxidis, located in the Southern Hemisphere constellation Pyxis ("The Compass Box"). Researchers found that the system is only 3,260 light-years from our solar system – far closer than anyone previously thought. (A light-year is the distance that light travels in one Earth year, or about 6 trillion miles.) January 6, 2010: From an earth centered astrological view the Sun now conjunct Mercury-Venus is in an adjustment aspect called a Quincunx to Mars in fiery, solar Leo... FIRST AURORAS OF 2010: Last night (Jan. 5th), for the first time this year, the clouds parted over Pangnirtung, an Inuit village on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, and the auroras came out to play: "Mild temperatures at this time of year created a heavy ice fog which blanketed the community, while the Northern Lights danced over head," reports photographer Claus Vogel. "A couple of kids came over to investigate what I was doing, and within a few minutes they were trying their hands at aurora photography. We even played with the flashlight to write 2010." The lights were sparked by a knot of solar magnetism that wafted past Earth in the solar wind. The south-pointing magnetic field from the sun partially cancelled the north-pointing magnetic field of Earth. Solar wind poured through the breach and fueled the display. January 5, 2010: Mercury-Sun together in Capricorn with positive sextile to Uranus means more and more discoveries beyond the outer planets. As Uranus makes an ingress into Aries on May 27th. the search for "new" habitable planets will intensify. Kepler Space Telescope Discovers Five Exoplanets NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system. Kepler's high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. The discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. "These observations contribute to our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve from the gas and dust disks that give rise to both the stars and their planets," said William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Borucki is the mission's science principal investigator. "The discoveries also show that our science instrument is working well. Indications are that Kepler will meet all its science goals." January 4, 2010: Approaching today's Sun-Mercury conjunction @ 11:06 AM , it appears that some news will be revealed about new space discoveries many are speculating whether it will be a second Earth like "Pandora" of Avatar fame. I ma still ruling out anything involving true ET disclosure. Is NASA About to Announce A 2nd Earth Found? The Kepler Mission is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets. Kepler Mission scientists will reveal the space telescope's latest discoveries at a news briefing in Washington on Monday, Jan. 4, 2010. The announcement will be made at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST) at a news conference during the 215th national meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park hotel. January 4, 2010: Today the Sun and Mercury meet in Capricorn which drew lots of attention to this collision which has been photographed and covered arond the world a reflection of major news announcements. Final Update: Sungrazing Comet is Destroyed by the Sun. The solar system has one less comet. The subtraction occurred yesterday when a bright comet discovered by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft plunged toward the sun and evaporated. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) had an excellent view of the encounter. Click on the image to set the scene in motion: One "dirty snowball" went in; none came out. The doomed comet was a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see but occasionally a big fragment--like this one--attracts attention. January 3, 2010: The comet meeting the Sun reflects some of these and other astrological transits: Moon and Mars separating from a meeting in the fixed fiery sign Leo with Moon in Opposition to Jupiter for over the top coverage coming. and Sun-Mercury will meet in Capricorn on January 4, 2010 Earth is also in perhilion to the Sun on January 3, 2010 - a whole convergence of solar events to say the least! Update on Sungrazing Comet - Now Disintegrating! A bright comet discovered by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft is swinging by the sun today and apparently disintegrating. Click on the image to set the scene in motion: Click Here to view the movie It will be interesting to see if a disembodied tail emerges from behind the coronagraph's occulting disk in the hours ahead. This kamikaze comet is probably a member of the Kreutz sungrazer family. Named after a 19th century German astronomer who studied them in detail, Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a giant comet at least 2000 years ago. Several of these fragments pass by the sun and disintegrate every day. Most are too small to see. Today's fragment is a big exception. Credit: The comet was found on Jan. 2nd by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson, who was inspecting images obtained by STEREO-A's Heliospheric Imager on Dec. 30, 2009. January 3, 2010: The meteor showers produce more than 100 meteors per hour from a radiant near the North Star - Polaris and the constellation Bootes. For more info. about Bootes is the Herdsman, the Ploughman, the Ox Driver, or the Shepherd Bootes is the cultivator or Ploughman who drives the Bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor around the Pole Star, Polaris. The bears, tied to the Polar Axis, are pulling a plough behind them, tilling the heavenly fields "in order that the rotations of the heavens should never cease". FIRST METEORS OF 2010: The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on Jan. 3rd around 1900 UT (2 pm EST) when Earth passes through a stream of debris from shattered comet 2003 EH1. The timing favors observers in eastern Europe and Asia. In North America, where the peak occurs in daylight, January 2, 2010: The comet meeting the Sun reflects some of these and other astrological transits: Moon and Mars are meeting in the fixed fiery sign Leo and Sun-Mercury will meet in Capricorn on January 4, 2010 Earth is also in perhilion to the Sun on January 3, 2010 - a whole convergence of solar events to say the least! SUNGRAZING COMET ALERT: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is tracking a comet that is about to make a perilous close approach to the sun: a movie showing potential collison, Will the icy visitor survive? Click here for the latest image. (Note: The comet was discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Alan Watson in images taken by NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft.) Addendum, if we learn from recent past comets hitting the sun during a solar flare/CME cycle we could be expecting some serious meterological conditions in the next two weeks. AV 2009-11-01 Sungrazing Comet 1029, Storm Forecast for Cyclone Ida Previous video from 1997 Sunspots and CME's December 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Near Earth Asteroids, Northern Lights (view gallery) , Incredible Sky Phenomena, Solar Eruptions, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes December 31, 2009: Full Moon on Dec. 31st @ 11:16 AM PST or 2:16 PM EST hosts a Lunar Eclipse @ 10 Cancer 20 Powerful cardinal aspects mean lots of action as the dark becomes light with Pluto-Venus-Sun-Mercury all in the earth sign Capricorn opposing Cancer with TSQ to Saturn-Juno - EARTHQUAKES are just on possibility a sthe skys will be lit and wild. BLUE MOON ECLIPSE ON NEW YEARS EVE! Blue Moons are rare (once every 2.5 years). Blue Moons on New Year's Eve are rarer still (once every 19 years). How rare is a lunar eclipse of a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve? A search of NASA's Five Millennium Catalogue of Lunar Eclipses provides an approximate answer. In the next 1000 years, Blue Moons on New Year's Eve will be eclipsed only 11 times (once every 91 years). A year of special note is 2848 when there will be two lunar eclipses in December--on Dec. 1st and Dec. 31st. Such a double-Blue Moon-lunar eclipse ending on New Year's Eve appears to be a millennium-level event. That's rare. December 29, 2009: Just as the current Pluto-Venus-Sun merger in TSQ to Juno-Saturn is creating powerful streams of energies of us humans The merger between a white dwarf and neutron star or black hole may be one source of these rays, and such mergers may occur often enough An Exotic Source for Cosmic Rays: 'Baby' Black Holes Cosmic rays – particles that have been accelerated to near the speed of light – stream out from our Sun all of the time, though they are positively sluggish compared to what are called Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs). These types of cosmic rays originate from sources outside of the Solar System, and are much more energetic than those from our Sun, though also much rarer. The merger between a white dwarf and neutron star or black hole may be one source of these rays, and such mergers may occur often enough to be the most significant source of these energetic particles. The Sloan White dwArf Radial velocity data Mining Survey (SWARMS) – which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – recently uncovered a binary system of exotic objects only 50 parsecs away from the Solar System. This system, named SDSS 1257+5428, appears to be a white dwarf star that is orbiting a neutron star or low-mass black hole. Details about the system and its initial discovery can be found in a paper by Carles Badenes, et al. here. December 28, 2009: Venus in a hard aspect to Saturn is about things cooling down and the binary star system QS Virginis will erupt in the future with a cool red dwarf and a hot dense white dwarf Giant Planet Set for Cataclysmic Show ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2009) — A team of Chinese astronomers have discovered a giant planet close to the exotic binary star system QS Virginis. Although dormant now, in the future the two stars will one day erupt in a violent nova outburst. Professor Shengbang Qian of Yunnan Observatory leads the team of scientists who report their work in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. QS Virginis lies in the direction of the constellation of Virgo and is about 157 light years from the Sun. The system is made up of a cool red dwarf and a hot dense white dwarf (an object similar to the remnant that will be left behind by the Sun at the end of its life). The two stars are just 840000 km (525000 miles) apart or about twice the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Being so close together they race around each other, taking just 3 hours and 37 minutes to complete each orbit. No Earth-based telescope can see them as separate stars, but as they move around the two stars successively eclipse one another, leading to a characteristic periodic dip in the brightness of the system. December 27, 2009: The sunspot 1039 formed on Dec. 26th with Moon finishing a transit thru Aries and with Juno also in fiery Aries in TSQ to Saturn-Pluto. SOLAR ACTIVITY FOR SUNSPOT 1039 INTENSIFIES: 2009 is ending with a flurry of sunspots. The latest is sunspot 1039, which formed yesterday and is now crackling with low-level solar flares. Cai-Uso Wohler sends this picture of a B-class eruption from his backyard observatory in Bispingen, Germany: So far, 65% of the days in December have brought sunspots--a sharp increase in percentages compared to earlier months of 2009 when sunspots were surpassingly rare. All six of December's sunspot groups have been members of new Solar Cycle 24. These numbers could herald the sun's awakening from the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century and a livelier sun in 2010. Stay tuned. December 26, 2009: Mars is now retrograde in Leo and still opposing Neptune-Chiron and Jupiter all in Aquarius and also Sesquiquadrate both Sun and Pluto for some major adjustments. CLOUDS ON MARS: Earth and Mars are converging for a close encounter at the end of January 2010. At closest approach on Jan. 27th, the two planets will be 99 million km (0.66 AU) apart and Mars will shine like a bright orange star high in the midnight sky. Although the best views are more than a month away, it is already possible to see beautiful details through backyard telescopes. Emil Kraaikamp sends this image from Ruinerwold, The Netherlands: "I took the picture using a 10-inch Meade Starfinder," says Kraaikamp. The planet's most eye-catching feature is the huge polar ice cap, but Kraaikamp points out something else: "Sometimes, pale blue orographic clouds can be seen hovering above ancient volcanoes on Mars. In this image, the clouds are present over Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, Ascraeus Mons, and the biggest volcano of all, Olympus Mons." They are particularly conspicuous in this animation of Mars rotating. December 24, 2009: NASA of course has explanations for why the Voyager, has discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system Perhaps with Moon-Uranus in a square to Venus now VOC our imaginations will conjure up a Photon Belt. With Mercury sextile Uranus for while due to Mercury's retrograde motion we should have more discoveries like this They are calling this cloud we're running into hte Local Interstellar Cloud or "Local Fluff" for short. It is about 30 light years wide. INTERSTELLAR DISCOVERY OR PHOTON BELT? The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery. The fact that the Fluff is strongly magnetized means that other clouds in the galactic neighborhood could be, too. Eventually, the solar system will run into some of them, and their strong magnetic fields could compress the heliosphere even more than it is compressed now. Additional compression could allow more cosmic rays to reach the inner solar system, possibly affecting terrestrial climate and the ability of astronauts to travel safely through space. December 22, 2009: From an astrological standpoint on Dec. 24th @ 9:30 AM both the Sun and Pluto will be exactily conjunct in Capricorn which will add tremendous power to the day to day "solar" activities of our leaders and authoritiy figures who will want to keep the current rise in activity of the true cause of weather - THE SUN SOLAR ACTIVITY: The sun is showing signs of life. There are no fewer than five active regions on the sun's surface, shown here in an extreme ultraviolet photo taken this morning by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO): Each circle contains a sunspot or proto-sunspot belonging to new Solar Cycle 24. After two years of record-low sunspot numbers and many month-long stretches of utter quiet, this is a notable outbreak. December 21, 2009: Winter Solstice occurs today @ 5:47 PM UT or 9:47 AM PT As I mentioned from an astrological point of view big things are happening as Jupiter-Neptune separate from an historic conjunction and Saturn-Pluto and of course the Sun take center stage as Sun enters Capricorn @ 5:47 PM UT to join Pluto and square Saturn making this a more serious solstice filled with power and magic. Happy Solstice: Today at 12:47 pm EST (1747 UT), the sun dips to its lowest celestial latitude of the year. The event, called "the December solstice," marks the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere. Winter Solstice Sun at Stonhenge Taken at Stonehenge on the 19th/12/09 using a Lumix TZ7 camera. As the snow started to fall the sun set through the stones just like it has for 1000's of years. December 19, 2009: This meteor sighting occured on Dec. 16th the same day as the illuminating Sagittarius New Moon when other fireballs were spotted like the one in Nebraska Note too that Juno (asteroid dealing with climate ) entered fiery Aries. Meteor Streaks Over Beijing China A fireball exploded in the sky over a suburb of Beijing China during the mid evening hours of December 16th, 2009. The meteor came in at around 10:23 PM. The object was witnessed by a large number of people, and even captured on film by the Beijing Planetarium. Eye witness reports, along with the camera footage indicate that debris from the object fell about 40 km west of central Beijing. There is an ongoing search for any debris that may have reached the ground. December 18, 2009: Today Moon sextiles Uranus for more excitement around the Sagittarian New Moon Events when the reported fireball in Nebraska which coincide with the rare 3.5 Quake. CURIOUS EVENTS IN NEBRASKA: Earthquakes don't rock Nebraska very often. In fact, seismically speaking, it is one of the quietest places in North America. Nevertheless, on Dec. 16th at 8:54 pm CST, USGS seismographs detected a magnitude 3.5 temblor centered near Auburn, Nebraska: Minutes after the quake, around 9 pm CST, lightning-like flashes lit up the skies around the area of the quake. Telephones in police departments and TV stations rang with reports of bright lights, loud rumbles and shaking ground. Sky watchers, not only in southeastern Nebraska, but also in neighboring Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas, saw a "bright fireball" with "green streamers" moving from northwest to southeast. Could these events be connected? Nebraska State Trooper Jerry Chab, an experienced amateur astronomer who witnessed the lights and was one of the first to report them, says no. "I think we have the most cosmic of coincidences: A bright [meteoritic] fireball around the same time as an earthquake." Indeed, eyewitness descriptions of the fireball are consistent with a meteoroid disintegrating in the atmosphere. December 18, 2009: The results from all these sky camera are a first time event (Venus square Uranus) and are providing some amazing visuals. WHEN AURORAS COLLIDE: A continent-wide network of all-sky cameras has photographed a never before seen phenomenon: colliding auroras that produce explosions of light. The must-see images have solved a long-standing mystery of Northern Lights. December 17, 2009: When the fireball hit in Nebraska Moon-Pluto were conjunct and square Saturn for some real impact during yesterday's New Moon phase. NEBRASKA FIREBALL "At 9 p.m. Central Time on Dec. 16th, a very bright meteor lit up the completely overcast sky like lightning in southeast Nebraska," reports Trooper Jerry Chab of the Nebraska State Patrol. "It flashed for approximately 2 seconds and was followed by sonic booms and ground shaking, which prompted many calls by the public to law enforcement in a three county wide area." The USGS says there was a magnitude 3.5 earthquake near Auburn, Nebraska, at 8:53 pm Wednesday night, about the same time and place as the fireball. Coincidence? Readers in Nebraska with photos or eyewitness accounts are encouraged to submit a report. - Pictures will follow... December 17, 2009: Mercury is in a positive trine to Uranus which highlights incredible discoveries augmented by yesterday's New Moon in Sagittarius (sign of deep space). Scientists spot nearby 'super-Earth' filled with water. CNN) -- Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth. The planet is named GJ 1214b, is 2.7 times as large as Earth and orbits a star much smaller and less luminous than our sun While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth, the discovery is being heralded as a major breakthrough in humanity's search for life on other planets. "The big excitement is that we have found a watery world orbiting a very nearby and very small star," said David Charbonneau, a Harvard professor of astronomy and lead author of an article on the discovery, which appeared this week in the journal Nature. December 16, 2009: New Moon in Sagittarius with trine to Mars in Leo and square to Uranus for unexpected powerful CME heading toward earth which will create auroras. The visual features of these auroras will be awesome with Venus square Uranus. INCOMING CME: This morning at 0120 UT, an eruption of magnetic fields around sunspot 1035 produced a long-duration C4-class solar flare and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the general direction of Earth. Details of the blast will become clear when more data are downloaded from the SOHO and STEREO spacecraft. Meanwhile, high-latitude sky watchers should prepare for auroras when the CME arrives on or about Dec. 18th. December 15, 2009: Sun-Moon in Sagittarius with a trine to Mars in super heated Leo (sun is exalted in Leo) as sunspot 1035 emerges. BIG NEW SUNSPOT EMERGES: New sunspot 1035 is growing rapidly and it is now seven times wider than Earth itself: movie. The magnetic polarity of the spot identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Readers with solar telescopes, train your optics on the sun to witness sunspot genesis in action. View this photograph of sunspot 1035 taken by Rogerio Marcon of Campinas MONSTER GEMINID: On Monday morning, Dec. 14th, at 3:59 am Pacific Standard Time, a piece of extinct comet 3200 Phaethon hit Earth's atmosphere over the Mojave desert in California. This was the result: "It was a monster fireball," says photographer Wally Pacholka. "I caught it exploding over the Hercules Finger rock formation near Victorville, California, using a Canon 35 mm camera. This was one of 1522 photographs I took " December 14, 2009: As Moon enters Sagittarius @ 4:25 AM to join Venus and Sun for an incredible New Moon in the sign of deep space journeys. plus Venus is also square Uranus to add to incredible beauty. GEMINID METEOR UPDATE/GALLERY On Dec. 13th, Earth passed through a stream of debris from extinct comet 3200 Phaethon. The encounter produced a surge of more than 160 Geminid meteors per hour. The timing of the peak favored observers in Europe and the Middle East, many of whom said it was the finest display of Geminids they had ever seen. 2009 Geminid Meteor Gallery December 11, 2009: Deep space oriented Sagittarius Sun is both trine Mars in Leo and sextile the Moon while Mercury is sextile Uranus for more dramatic discoveries in outer space. In Hindu mythology the seven stars of Ursa Major, the seven Richis or Seven Wise Men, were wedded to the seven sisters of the Pleiades. After rumors of their infidelity the Richis banished their wives. Only Arundhati (or Arundha), an exemplary wife remained with her husband, Sage Vashishta as the star Alcor; Vashishta is Mizar. In the course of Hindu marriage rituals, both the bride and groom are taken outside the marriage mandap and shown the Star Alcor, better known as Arundhati Nakshatram. This ritual symbolizes the urge of the newly weds to remain true to each other. And Alcor is pointed out as a paradigm of marital virtue to the bride. December 11, 2009:Faint Star Orbiting the Big Dipper's Alcor Discovered ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2009) — Next time you spy the Big Dipper, keep in mind that there is another star, invisible to the unaided eye, contributing to this constellation. According to a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, one of the stars that makes the bend in the ladle's handle, Alcor, has a smaller red dwarf companion. December 10, 2009: After Moon in Libra squared Mercury in Capricorn many of the misunderstandings and questions about the Spiral Lights over Norway where layed to rest. The chart set for Dec. 9th @ 7:50 AM CET - 1:00 had Scorpio rising with ruler Mars at MidHeaven indicating military prescence in during these weird lights. CONFIRMED: The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the launch and subsequent failure of a submarine-based missile: BBC Report. December 9, 2009: Wow this last Virgo Moon with ruler Mercury near Pluto in Capricorn has been inspiring some major disruptions and weird phenomena The Moon's opposition to Uranus was a definite trigger along with the other mutable square to Sun-Venus in Sagittarius which relates to sky phenomena. STRANGE LIGHTS OVER NORWAY: This morning in Norway, people saw a strange and still-unexplained phenomenon. Eye-witness Nick Banbury of Harstad reports: "We are used to seeing lots of auroras here in Arctic Norway, but on my way to work this morning I saw something completely unexpected. Between 7:50 and 8:00 a.m. local time, there was a strange light in the sky," shown here in a picture and video LESERVIDEO fra Lødingen: Tydelige spiral-bevegelser i lysfenomenet "It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in colour to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end," continues Banbury. "This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to the earth. According to the press, this could be seen all over northern norway and must therefore have been very high up in the atmosphere to be seen hundreds of km apart." December 8, 2009: Today's Moon in Virgo helps us examine the details of the December 4th solar eruption are helped with the ERUPTIVE SOLAR PROMINENCE REVISITED December began with an enormous magnetic filament wrapped around the sun's south pole. On Friday, Dec. 4th, it erupted. NASA's twin STEREO probes, stationed on nearly opposite sides of the sun, photographed the blast from two points of view. Click on the image to set the scene in motion: "The material is heading from high latitudes toward the solar equator," he notes. The dynamics of these massive events are becoming clear at last. More eruptions may be found in the STEREO gallery. December 7, 2009: A fiery time with Sun-Sagittarius trine Mars-Leo we should have an exciting show for the Geminid meteor showers. GEMINID METEOR SHOWERS PEAK ON DEC. 13TH Mark your calendar. The Geminid meteor shower peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th when Earth passes through a stream of debris from extinct comet 3200 Phaethon. The Geminids have been intensifying in recent years, and 2009 could be the best year yet. Forecasters expect 140+ meteors per hour under the dark skies of a new Moon. [sky map] December 7, 2009: Uranus the planet stationed direct on Dec. 1st and even though this portends changes astrologically it still has relevance with transiting Moon opposing Uranus (Dec. 9th) and more importantly Uranus on track for a major TSQ with Saturn-Pluto next year. Large Moon Of Uranus May Explain Odd Tilt Please try to resist the childish jokes, but the fact is that the odd tilt of Uranus may be the result of a particularly large moon. Uranus spins on an axis almost parallel with the plane of the solar system, rather than perpendicular to it – though why it does this nobody knows. One theory is that the tilt is the result of a collision with an Earth-sized object, but this "hasn't succeeded in explaining much of anything", says Ignacio Mosqueira of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. Why, for example, are the orbits of Uranus's 27 known moons not also tilted? Now Gwenaël Boué and Jacques Laskar at the Paris Observatory in France have come up with another explanation: Uranus may once have had an unusually massive extra moon. If the moon had 1 per cent of the mass of Uranus – and orbited at a certain distance – it would slightly unbalance the planet and increase its wobble about its axis. After about 2 million years, the wobbling could have become exaggerated enough to tip the planet on its side November 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Sunspots, CME, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes November 30, 2009: Full Moon in Gemini on December 2nd is a prelude as a focus on space energies like meteors come into focus in our daily life. In Greek mythology Phaethon was the son of Helios (Phoebus). The myth tells of how Phaeton was unable to control the fierce horses that drew the chariot owned by his father Helios. With the current transit of Mars in Leo (ruled by the Sun) stationing around the time of the Geminid meteor showers, all eyes on the skies. GEMINID METEOR FORECAST: Mark your calendar. The Geminid meteor shower peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th when Earth passes through a stream of debris from extinct comet 3200 Phaethon. The Geminids have been intensifying in recent years, and 2009 could be the best year yet. Forecasters expect 140+ meteors per hour under the dark skies of a new Moon. [sky map] November 29, 2009: Combinations of visual Mercury in Sagittarius trine Mars in Leo and square Uranus in Pisces (unexpected sights) makes this an incredible and unusual appearance. UPSIDE-DOWN RAINBOWS: 'tis the season for upside-down rainbows. Just yesterday, one appeared over Dothan, Alabama: "I've never seen anything like it before," says photographer Maria Doty. "It was a very unusual sight and the colors were bright." The technical name for this phenomenon is circumzenithal arc or "CZA" for short--and it's no rainbow. CZAs are formed by sunlight shining through plate-shaped ice crystals in high clouds. Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley calls it "the most beautiful of all ice haloes." First timers often describe the CZA as an 'upside down rainbow' and "someone has also likened it to 'a grin in the sky,'" he adds. November 25, 2009: As things are heating up astrologically with Sun/Sagittarius to trine Mars/Leo (Dec. 10th) and Mercury also in Sagittarius also to trine Mars in Leo (Nov. 26th) the idea of a "Solar Tsunami" is verified and all too real! Monster Waves on the Sun are Real November 24, 2009: Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft are telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as the "solar tsunami." Years ago, when solar physicists first witnessed a towering wave of hot plasma racing along the sun's surface, they doubted their senses. The scale of the thing was staggering. It rose up higher than Earth itself and rippled out from a central point in a circular pattern millions of kilometers in circumference. Skeptical observers suggested it might be a shadow of some kind—a trick of the eye—but surely not a real wave. "Now we know," says Joe Gurman of the Solar Physics Lab at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Solar tsunamis are real." November 25, 2009: Yesterday when this video of Saturn's Northern Lights was revealed, astrological Saturn was in a positive sextile with Saturn now in Libra Cassini Captures Ghostly Dance Of Saturn's Northern Lights PASADENA, Calif. – In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness high above the ringed planet. The new video reveals changes in Saturn's aurora every few minutes, in high resolution, with three dimensions. The images show a previously unseen vertical profile to the auroras, which ripple in the video like tall curtains. These curtains reach more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) above the edge of the planet's northern hemisphere. The new video and still images are online at: Here . November 24, 2009: Yesterday evening with Jupiter separating from the Moon and meeting Neptune added a special aura this vision. JUPITER-MOON NIGHT LIGHTS: Last night, sky watchers around the world witnessed a beautiful conjunction of Jupiter and the Moon. Together, the two heavenly bodies were so bright they could be seen through clouds and city lights. In Hong Kong, astrophotographer Wah! opened the shutter of his Canon 450D and watched the pair blaze a trail above the tropical urban landscape: If you missed it, there is a second chance. Jupiter and the Moon will gather again on Dec. 20th and 21st for a conjunction even more beautiful than last night's. It's a solstice sky show that must not be missed. Mark your calendar and, meanwhile, browse the images below. November 20, 2009: The Sun's powerful forces are even reflected in the language of astrology with Mars transiting in Leo opposing the immensity of Jupiter in Aquarius SOLAR ACTIVITY BURSTING FORTH: The sun is coming to life. New sunspots 1032 and 1033 are members of new Solar Cycle 24. There are several new-cycle active regions scattered across the solar disk and the limb of the sun has some very photogenic prominences. Readers with solar telescopes should dust off their optics and take a look. November 19, 2009: Ever since the Scorpio New Moon (Nov. 16th) thre has been more and more news about dark energy. for example: Mystery 'dark flow' extends towards edge of universe Today's Capricorn Moon meeting Pluto and square Saturn will keep the discoveries going. "Vampire Star" May Unlock Clues to Secret of Dark Energy ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured the first time-lapse movie of a rare shell ejected by a “vampire star." The gas-sucking star is part of a double star system known as V445 in the constellation of Puppis ("the Stern") that is devouring part of a companion star looks to be a ticking time bomb. It appears that this double star system is a prime candidate to be one of the long-sought progenitors of the exploding stars known as Type Ia supernovae, critical for studies of dark energy. In November 2000, this system underwent a nova outburst, becoming 250 times brighter than before and ejecting a large quantity of matter into space. “One of the major problems in modern astrophysics is the fact that we still do not know exactly what kinds of stellar system explode as a Type Ia supernova,” says Patrick Woudt, from the University of Cape Town and lead author of the paper reporting the results. “As these supernovae play a crucial role in showing that the Universe’s expansion is currently accelerating, pushed by a mysterious dark energy, it is rather embarrassing.” Monday's New Moon @ 25 Scorpio has the Sabian image of "An x-ray". That lunation also had Mercury in Sagittarius trine Mars in Solar Leo It turns that "EIT waves" are detected and explained as propagating density enhancements compressed by the successive stretching of magnetic field lines during coronal mass ejections (CMEs), EIT waves and coronal magnetic field diagnosis Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University in Nanjing, China – Solar coronal seismology based on magnetic field-line stretching model of "EIT waves" is proposed, which is demonstrated to be potentially able to probe the mysterious magnetic field in the solar corona. The study, which was led by Dr. Chen, is reported in Issue 52 of Science in China (G) because of its significant research value. Many explosive phenomena on the Sun, such as solar flares, involve the energy conversion from the magnetic energy to thermal and kinetic energies in the corona, which is the outer atmosphere of the Sun. Therefore, the coronal magnetic field is extremely crucial in the understanding of these eruptive phenomena. However, at present, only the magnetic field along the solar surface can be measured directly, whereas the magnetic field in the solar corona can hardly be measured November 18, 2009: Last night's fireball streaked across the sky as Sagittarius Moon was trine Mars in Leo lighting up the western skies. EXPLODING METEOR: A remarkable fireball that "turned night into day" over parts of the western United States last night was likely an Earthgrazing Leonid associated with the tail-end of the outburst described below Bright flash turns night into day in Utah Meteor lit up night sky, caught on video in Idaho November 16, 2009: Scorpio New Moon moviing into deep space oriented Sagittarius this evening @ 9:22 PM is perfect for viewing the climax of the Leonid Showers. LEONID METEOR SHOWERS PEAK: The Leonid meteor shower peaks this year on Nov. 17th. The shower begins on Tuesday morning around 0900 UT (4 a.m. EST; 1 a.m. PST) with a sprinkling of 20 to 30 meteors per hour over North America. The new Moon provides ideally dark conditions for viewing this initial flurry. The best place to be, however, is Asia, where forecasters expect as many as 300 Leonids per hour. The predicted outburst occurs between 2100 - 2200 UT, just before local dawn in that part of the world: November 13, 2009: NASA's announcement comes while Sun-Mercury-Scorpio is trine Uranus in Pisces in water signs. The announcemt is anti-climactic since India made the discovery first. Note that this is a month after the Lunar Impact on Oct. 9th when transiting Mars was conjunct SNode in Cancer (more water). Splash! NASA moon strikes found significant water LOS ANGELES – It turns out there's plenty of water on the moon — at least near the lunar south pole, scientists said Friday. "Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit, we found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, a principal project investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center. The discovery came from an analysis of data from a spacecraft NASA intentionally crashed into the moon last month. November 13, 2009: Increased solar activity is reflected in today's Libra Moon sextile Mars in Leo and Sun's trine to Uranus for the unexpected and surprising... Increased Solar Activity: Friday the 13th could be a lucky day for astrophotographers. A photogenic scene is developing on the sun's northeastern limb, where a magnetic thicket of hot plasma is rising into view. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) made this movie of the action on Nov. 12th and 13th: The swelling limb-glow heralds the approach of sunspot 1029, the biggest and most active sunspot of the year. Sunspot 1029 spent the past two weeks transiting the farside of the sun, invisible from Earth, but now it is about to reappear. Friday the 13th kicks off a 2- to 3-day photo-op as the sun's rotation slowly turns the active region back toward Earth. November 12, 2009: Taurid Meteors peak during a spectacular Moon sextile fiery Mars and while Moon is square Pluto. FIREBALLS TONIGHT: The northern branch of the annual Taurid meteor shower peaks on Nov. 12th. Sky watchers should be alert for fireballs. The Taurids, caused by debris from Comet 2P/Encke, tend to be slow and very bright. Forecasters expect as many as 5 Taurids per hour during the hours around midnight. Check out the photo gallery for fireballs during November 2009. November 12, 2009: The discovery hit the internet on November 6th but reflects current Mars in Leo moving in opposition to Jupiter - the God of LIghtening Signature of antimatter detected in lightning WASHINGTON — Designed to scan the heavens thousands to billions of light-years beyond the solar system for gamma rays, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has also picked up a shocking vibe from Earth. During its first 14 months of operation, the flying observatory has detected 17 gamma-ray flashes associated with terrestrial storms — and some of those flashes have contained a surprising signature of antimatter. During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons. The observations are the first of their kind for lightning storms. Michael Briggs of the University of Alabama in Huntsville announced the puzzling findings November 5 at the 2009 Fermi Symposium. It’s a surprise to have found the signature of positrons during a lightning storm, Briggs said. November 5, 2009:Taurids meteor showers rock with fire in the skies as Mars in Leo continues to apply with an opposition to Jupiter in air sign Aquarius Great balls of fire in the Bay Area skies (11-07) 19:07 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The annual Taurids meteor showers put on a show in the Bay Area Saturday evening, with one especially spectacular fireball wowing residents from around the region. April Orcutt caught a glimpse of the slow-moving meteor in the western sky from her home in San Anselmo at 5:10 p.m., moments after the sun had gone down. "I was astonished - it was still light out," she said. "It was a big white fireball, tinged in green, and disappeared behind Mount Tam." November 5, 2009: Moon SQ Uranus in mutables along with fall out from Neptune stationing all set the stage for the effects of a coronal mass ejection CME to Glance Earth's Magnetic Field Arctic sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights on Nov. 5th. NOAA forecasters say there is a chance that a coronal mass ejection (CME) will hit Earth's magnetic field, and the impact could spark a high-latitude geomagnetic storm. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded this movie of the CME: The billon-ton cloud was blown into space by departing sunspot 1029 on Oct. 31st. Normally, CMEs take only two or three days to reach Earth, but during the deep solar minimum of 2008-2009, the clouds have slowed to a veritable crawl. Crossing the sun-Earth divide now requires about five days, so an Oct. 31st CME should arrive on Nov. 5th. Because the blast was not squarely Earth-directed, the sluggish CME will deliver at most a glancing blow. NOAA forecasters estimate a 5% chance of strong geomagnetic storms around Earth's poles. November 3, 2009: Taurus Moon today and still a major factor in the Full Moon Phase as we enter debris from Comet 2P/Encke. TAURID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of debris from periodic Comet 2P/Encke, and this is causing the annual Taurid meteor shower. The shower has a broad maximum lasting from Nov. 5th through 12th. At most, only about 5 Taurids per hour streak across the sky, but what they lack in number they make up for in dazzle. Taurid meteors tend to be fireballs, very bright and slow. Look for them falling out of the constellation Taurus during the hours around midnight. [sky map] November 2, 2009: On a Full Moon in Taurus forming an out of orb Grand Cross in Fixed Signs, the image of a Rainbow at Night is fitting. RAINBOW AT NIGHT: Have you ever seen a rainbow after dark? It happened last night in Yorkshire, UK, where Christopher Walker photographed a multi-colored band arcing over the countryside: Rainbows appear when sunlight is reflected from raindrops. But in this case, the sun was not required; the Frosty Moon was bright enough to do the job on its own. "The moonlight was so bright I could see red in the rainbow with my unaided eye," says Walker. " October 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity even Sunspots, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Auroras, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes October 28, 2009: This past even is relevant with today's Sun-Mercury TSQ Mars-Jupiter for large explosions plus the upcoming Saturn SQ to Pluto This happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia The chart set for this event has Pluto on the ascendant in Capricorn along with Mars/SNode-Cancer Opposing N Node in Capricorn from 7th to 1st houses. MORE ON THE INDONESIAN ASTEROID: Picture this: A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky: This really happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia. The Earth-shaking blast received remarkably little coverage in Western press, but meteor scientists have given it their full attention. "The explosion triggered infrasound sensors of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) more than 10,000 km away," report researchers Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the Univ. of Western Ontario in an Oct. 19th press release. Their analysis of the infrasound data revealed an explosion at coordinates 4.5S, 120E (close to Bone) with a yield of about 50 kton of TNT. That's two to three times more powerful than World War II-era atomic bombs. The asteroid that caused the blast was not known before it hit and took astronomers completely by surprise. According to statistical studies of the near-Earth asteroid population, such objects are expected to collide with Earth on average every 2 to 12 years. "Follow-on observations from other instruments or ground recovery efforts would be very valuable in further refining this unique event," say Silber and Brown. October 27, 2009: On a day filled with mystery as Moon meets Neptune in Aquarius in mutual reception to far-out Uranus in Pisces - a new asteroid or small planet discovered also holds interest for astrologers. MYSTERY OBJECT: Yesterday, astronomers in Arizona, New Mexico and Spain, all hunting for near-Earth asteroids, discovered a "mystery object" orbiting Earth. Temporarily named "9U01FF6," it is small and in an elongated, 31-day orbit. Experts say it is probably a piece of an Apollo-era Moon mission. We'll get a closer look on Oct. 29th when it zips past Earth about 82,000 km (0.2 lunar distances) away. Advanced amateur astronomers can find it using this ephemeris. October 27, 2009: Mars in Leo adds to the explosive nature of this massive sunspot adding to Vesta already in opposition to Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius. BIG SUNSPOT ERUPTS: By unleashing six C-class solar flares in the past 48 hours, sunspot 1029 has become the most active sunspot of the year so far. This morning, Paul Haese photographed the maelstrom from his backyard observatory in Blackwood, South Australia: October 26, 2009: Powerful fiery force of Mars in Leo moving toward an exact Square with Sun in Scorpio (Oct. 29th) expect more fiery objects from the sky to fall earthward Meteorite-like object falls in Latvia RIGA, Latvia — A meteorite-like object crashed into a meadow in northern Latvia, creating a crater 27 feet (9 meters) wide and 9 feet (3 meters) deep, a geologist who visited the site said Monday. Uldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center, said there was smoke coming out of the crater when he arrived at the crash site late Sunday in the Mazsalaca region near the Estonian border. "My first impression is that, yes, it was a meteorite," he said. "All the evidence suggests this when compared to pictures of real meteorite craters. October 26, 2009: The exact conjunction of Jupiter-Moon using tropical astrology has both @ 17 Aquarius 30 which has the Sabian Symbol: "A man unmasked." MONDAY NIGHT SKY SHOW: When the sun sets on Monday, Oct. 26th, go outside and look south. Jupiter and the Moon are converging for a beautiful conjunction. The bright pair can been seen even through thinly-clouded skies and city lights. View: sky map. October 23, 2009: Turmoil and conflict is evidenced by an applying Sun (Scorpio) square Mars (Leo) exact on October 29th. even though this astrological aspect has other means relating to leaders and danger with Mars in Leo we should see more sunspot activity... GROWING SUNSPOT: Sunspot 1029 is growing rapidly (movie) and crackling with C-class solar flares. The spot's magnetic polarity indicates membership in new Solar Cycle 24, a sign that the sunspot cycle is unfolding as it should--albeit slowly. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor develops. Sunspot Image from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana October 23, 2009: Astrological language also talks about the power of solar winds and CME's with Mars in Leo moving toward an opposition to Jupiter in air sign Aquarius (magnification) GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY: High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights. A sharp gust of solar wind hit Earth on Oct. 21st, and the Arctic Circle is still ringing with geomagnetic activity. "[We had a] stunning display of active auroras last night," reports Thomas Hagen, who sends this picture from Tromsø, Norway "The entire sky turned green and stayed green for much of the night," adds Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway. October 20, 2009: Moon enters fiery Sagittarius and starts with trine to Mars now in Leo for a dramatic show of Auroras stimulated by the New Moon solar coronal mass ejection (CME) relating well to Leo since Mars made ingress into Leo on 10-16-09. AURORA WATCH generated from CME: Polar sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights tonight. That's when a solar coronal mass ejection (CME) hurled toward Earth by an Oct. 17th explosion on the sun is expected to arrive. The incoming CME is not a big one, and its impact might have little or no visible effect. NOAA forecasters estimate a 5% chance of geomagnetic activity. October 19, 2009: Jupiter (planet of exploration) is direct and trine Mercury for more discoveries including those extasolar all aided by mutual reception to far out Uranus. Europeans find 32 new planets outside solar system WASHINGTON — European astronomers have found 32 new planets outside our solar system, adding evidence to the theory that the universe has many places where life could develop. Scientists using the European Southern Observatory telescope didn't find any planets quite the size of Earth or any that seemed habitable or even unusual. But their announcement increased the number of planets discovered outside the solar system to more than 400. Six of the newly found planets are several times bigger than Earth, increasing the population of so-called super-Earths by more than 30 percent. Most planets discovered so far are far bigger, Jupiter-sized or even larger. Two of the newly discovered planets were as small as five times the size of Earth and one was up to five times larger than Jupiter. October 19, 2009: Mars in powerful Leo is applying to an opposition with Jupiter which offers dramatic views in space. METEORS FROM HALLEY'S COMET: The Orionid meteor shower, caused by debris from Halley's comet, peaks this week. Forecasters expect dozens of meteors per hour during the dark hours before sunrise on Wednesday, Oct. 21st. Science@NASA has the full story October 17, 2009: Another example of the Saturn-Uranus opposition as Venus and Mercury translate the light Meteorite Crashed Into an SUV Near Hamilton, Canada Astronomers say they have found a meteorite fragment the size of a golf ball near Hamilton, which they believe streaked across the night sky above Southern Ontario in late September. The small space rock came to rest in an SUV in Grimsby, Ont., after smashing through the vehicle's windshield. October 15, 2009: Protected by the Sun as Mars moves from Cancer (defensive) into assertive Leo where the Sun is exalted this discovery is described as: "heliosphere," it springs from the sun and extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto, GIANT RIBBON DISCOVERED AT THE EDGE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM: For years, researchers have known that the solar system is surrounded by a vast bubble of magnetism. Called the "heliosphere," it springs from the sun and extends far beyond the orbit of Pluto, providing a first line of defense against cosmic rays and interstellar clouds that try to enter our local space. Although the heliosphere is huge and literally fills the sky, it emits no light and no one has actually seen it. Until now. NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft has made the first all-sky map of the heliosphere and the results have taken researchers by surprise. The map is bisected by a bright, winding ribbon of unknown origin: October 14, 2009: Yesterday's Leo Moon hosted a sextile to the Sun and opposition to Neptune adding to the spectacular nature of the meteor... Huge fireball over Netherlands A fireball as bright as the full Moon startled observers in the Netherlands yesterday when it raced across the evening twilight sky. "It was spectacular," says eyewitness Dominic Doyle of the European Space Agency in Noordwijk. "I estimate its magnitude to be about -12," adds amateur astronomer Koen Miskotte, who saw it from the small village of Ermelo. Various observers report it breaking apart into as many as a half-dozen pieces, followed by sonic booms, low rumbles and shaking windows. A Royal Dutch Meteorology Institute listening post detected strong infrasound (low-frequency sound) waves, apparently confirming a high-altitude breakup event: data. October 12, 2009: Leo Moon (ruler the SUN) is opposing Jupiter stationing direct which can indicate expansion of solar activity. SOLAR ACTIVITY: NASA's STEREO spacecraft and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are monitoring an active region about to emerge over the sun's southeastern limb: image. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to keep an eye on the region for signs of a possible sunspot. A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Oct. 15th. October 8, 2009: Tomorrow's lunar bombing which we can watch live has so many glaring astrological signatures from Mars (military) meeting S Node (Karma) both in Cancer and opposing N Node in Capricorn along with Mercury ruler of the Gemini Moon being void of course that we have to suspect something more is up then just searching for water. ?! Watch Live NASA Bombing Moon - LCROSS Lunar Impact NASA is bombing the Moon saying they are searching for water. But the surprise here is that may not be the only intention of this mission - they have known about traces of water on the Moon since 1971. India beat NASA to the punch, by being 'first' in disclosing the discovery of water on the Moon and TRY TO SAVE MOON. So there is no reason really to detonate the 'alleged kinetic bomb' on the surface of the moon seeking traces of water anymore as India discovered this already. Lunar Impact Update: NASA has updated the time of Friday morning's lunar impact. The LCROSS booster rocket will plunge into crater Cabeus at 4:31 am PDT (11:31 UT) followed by the LCROSS mothership four minutes later. Tune into NASA TV for live coverage of the event beginning at 3:15 am PDT (10:15 UT). October 7, 2009: Today Mercury meets Saturn to communicate this latest discovery of the ring planet also a time when Mars is sextile Saturn to set guidelines for cooperation as more space discoveries are coming. Gigantic ring around Saturn discovered PASADENA, Calif. - The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered the biggest but never-before-seen ring around the planet Saturn, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced late Tuesday. The thin array of ice and dust particles lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system and its orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane, the laboratory said. October 6, 2009: The charts set for lunar impact on October 9th for the actual impacts which commence at 4:30 am PDT (11:30 UT) have the Moon @ 21 degrees 42 minutes Gemini TSQ Venus-Mercury-Saturn/Virgo and Uranus in Pisces. Of course the interesting bit of synchronicity is that Mars will be applying to a conjunction with S Node opposing N Node of the Moon @ 12:23 PM PDT. The Centaur rocket will strike first, transforming 2200 kg of mass and 10 billion joules of kinetic energy into a blinding flash of heat and light. Researchers expect the impact to throw up a plume of debris as high as 10 km. LUNAR IMPACT - On Friday morning, Oct. 9th, you can watch a pair of spacecraft crash into the Moon with your own eyes. The purposeful impacts are the climax of NASA's LCROSS mission to unearth signs of water in lunar soil. Today's story from Science@NASA tells how and where to look. The Centaur rocket will strike first, transforming 2200 kg of mass and 10 billion joules of kinetic energy into a blinding flash of heat and light. Researchers expect the impact to throw up a plume of debris as high as 10 km. Target for Oct. 9th impact There will be two plumes, one from the booster rocket (4:30 am PDT) and another from the LCROSS mothership (4:34 am PDT). Each is expected to linger in sunlight for 60 to 90 seconds before falling back into the shadowy depths of Cabeus. The surface brightness of the plumes should be similar to that of surrounding sunlit terrain. October 5, 2009: Synchronistically on Friday October 9th Mars now in Cancer (ruled by the Moon) meets the S Node of past karma and opposes N Node of future destiny transiting in Capricorn. NASA will Bomb the Moon on Friday - On Friday morning, Oct. 9th, you can watch a pair of spacecraft crash into the Moon with your own eyes. The purposeful impacts are the climax of NASA's LCROSS mission to unearth signs of water in lunar soil. Even though India has already discovered water, here is NASA's agenda for October 9th. October 5, 2009: Last weekend's Full Moon in Aries had a Venus-Mercury-Saturn in Virgo opposition to Uranus in Pisces ruled by Neptune, the progenitor of FOG creating interesting optical effects. HARVEST MOONBOWS: This weekend's Harvest Moon mesmerized onlookers with its luminous beauty. In Missouri Valley, Iowa, photographer Mike Hollingshead managed to tear his eyes away for a moment and he discovered an even better show behind his back "It was a lunar fogbow," says Hollingshead. "The bright light of the Harvest Moon was shining into a fogbank rising over a recently-harvested field. The resulting fogbow was surprisingly vivid and well-defined." (At the base of the photo, the dark homunculus is the photographer's own moon-shadow pointing east toward the dawn sky where Venus can be seen shining through the mist.) September 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity even Sunspots, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes September 30, 2009: Moving towards an Aries Full Moon on Oct. 3rd and 4th. we find new pioneering efforts along with new discoveries as Mars ruler of Aries is trine Uranus. COSMIC RAYS HIT SPACE AGE HIGH: NASA spacecraft are measuring record-high levels of cosmic rays--a side-effect of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. This development could have implications for the amount of shielding astronauts need to take when they explore deep space. September 29, 2009: Mercury moved direct today @ 6:14 AM for positive sextile with Mars (Sept. 30th) Mercury is a barometer for weather here on earth but what about weather on Mercury? SPACE WEATHER ON MERCURY: Today, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is going to fly by Mercury only 142 miles from the planet's surface. Naturally, much attention will be given to pictures of new craters and previously unseen terrain, but there is another, equally sensational reason for the flyby--namely, to investigate Mercury's hyperactive space weather: Mercury's magnetic field is buffeted by solar wind as much as fifteen times stronger than the solar wind we experience at Earth. During an earlier flyby of Mercury in Oct. 2008, MESSENGER encountered magnetic "tornadoes" – twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting Mercury to interplanetary space. The twisters are formed by explosive magnetic reconnection events at the solar wind-magnetic field boundary. Solar wind can actually flow down the throats of these tornadoes to strike and erode the surface of Mercury, giving Mercury a comet-like tail. September 26, 2009: Besides the influence of Mars, the most important being in this drama, The Sun is moving toward aTrine Jupiter - Big, expansive energies are reflected in sunspots and on earth it is an opportune time for proposals, launchings, generosity, increases, travel, seeking help, legalities, and educational matters. Solar Updates: There's more to the solar activity than sunspots. While sunspots have been absent 80% of the time so far in 2009, almost every day has brought a prominence or two. Today's is spectacular: Sunspot 1026 is super active. New-cycle sunspot 1026 is crackling with magnetic activity, and this morning it produced a C-class solar flare. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory's (SOHO's) extreme UV telescope recorded the action around 0100 UT on Sept. 25th: View the Action Here. Another view of Sunspot 1026 September 26, 2009: Mars ruler of Aries associated with the Sun God (Apollo/RA) is on a Solstice Line in Cardinal Cancer opposing Moon in Capricorn while Sun is appling to a TSQ and much more... SOLAR ACTIVITY PROGRESSES: Around the world, amateur astronomers are watching an impressive display of solar prominence activity. "Wow and then some!" exclaims from Steve Riegel who sends this picture from Santa Maria, California: "This is by far the biggest prominence I've seen since I got my Personal Solar Telescope in 2005," he says. "I hope this is a taste of things to come as we start climbing out of solar minimum." September 23-24th, 2009: Adventurous Sagittarius Moon with Mars in Cancer (ruler Moon) now prominent with a trine to Uranus (unexpected discoveries) Mars Trine Uranus (exact Oct. 4th) signifes future plans and technological firsts to be implemented. 'Water' found on the moon - a game changer. September 22, 2009: Sun enters Libra @ 2:18 PM PDT to apply to a powerful square with Pluto (September 23rd) for some shocking events both in space and on earth. HAPPY EQUINOX: Today, Sept. 22nd at 2118 UT (5:18 pm EDT), the sun crosses the celestial equator. This event marks the beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere. It's also the beginning of aurora season around the poles. Happy equinox! September 22, 2009: Coinciding with today's autumnal equinox, Sun square Pluto and Mercury Opposing Uranus for unexpected news as not one but two sunspots are happening! SUNSPOT UPDATE including Sunspot 1026 : A second sunspot is emerging to join the one reported below: SOHO image. This is the first time in more than a year that two relatively-large sunspots have shared the Earth-facing side of the sun. One sunspot is not enough to end the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century, but you've got to start somewhere Sunspot 1026 emerged yesterday to break a string of 19 consecutive spotless days. It's about as wide as Earth, which makes it an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has measured the spot's magnetic polarity and identified it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Could this be a harbinger of more to come? September 20, 2009: Sun meets Mercury and big announcements also come from the power behind our solar system: Helios A new cycle sunspot is building and turning toward earth by the time the equinox begins. APPROACHING SUNSPOT: NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft stationed over the sun's eastern limb is monitoring an active region not yet visible from Earth. STEREO's extreme ultraviolet telescope captured this image on Sept. 19th: The tangle of hot, magnetized plasma circled above almost certainly overlies a large new-cycle sunspot. We'll soon find out. The sun's rotation is turning the active region toward Earth and it could pop over the sun's eastern limb as early as Sept. 21st. September 19, 2009: Venus conjunct Regulus (in the constellation Leo) and one of the Royal Stars can indicate tendencies of assertiveness and independence to women. Those with already excitable natures may find their sensitivity heightened during this period also potential violent attachments or trouble through love affairs if we are not grounded in truth. VENUS HAS A FRIEND: Look east just before dawn on Sunday morning, Sept. 20th. There's Venus, as usual, shining through the rosy glow of sunrise. A pair of binoculars trained on Venus reveals a sidekick: 1st-magnitude star Regulus less than 0.5o away. It's a one-day-only conjunction, so don't oversleep: sky map. September 18, 2009: New Moon with Virgo Stellium (ruled by Mercury signfying research) Opposing Uranus (unexpected findings to shake conventions. ) Solar Cycle Driven By More Than Sunspots; Sun Also Bombards Earth With High-speed Streams Of Wind ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2009) — Challenging conventional wisdom, new research finds that the number of sunspots provides an incomplete measure of changes in the Sun's impact on Earth over the course of the 11-year solar cycle. The study, led by scientists at the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Michigan, finds that Earth was bombarded last year with high levels of solar energy at a time when the Sun was in an unusually quiet phase and sunspots had virtually disappeared. "The Sun continues to surprise us," says NCAR scientist Sarah Gibson, the lead author. "The solar wind can hit Earth like a fire hose even when there are virtually no sunspots." September 17, 2009: The Sun-Uranus opposition in Virgo/Pisces axis also opens up to amazing sky imagery. NORTHERN LIGHTS: The long, bright Arctic summer is coming to an end, and that means it's time to watch out for Northern Lights. On Sept. 15th, photographer Bud Kuenzli caught these auroras arcing over North Pole, Alaska: The display was sparked by a mild gust of solar wind. At this time of year, a mild gust is all it takes. The weeks around equinoxes are prime time for Northern Lights. As summer turns into autumn, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) near Earth tends to tilt south, an orientation that weakens our planet's magnetic defenses against the solar wind. The slightest gust can produce a lovely show. September 16, 2009: New, jolting discoveries continue in astronomical circles are driven by the current Sun-Saturn in Virgo Opposition to Uranus in Pisces. Smallest Expoplanet Yet Has Rocky Surface More details are emerging on the extrasolar planet that was discovered by the CoRot satellite back in February. New information about this planet make it first in many respects: It is the smallest known exoplanet, it is the closest exoplanet yet to its host star, which also makes it the fastest; it orbits its star at a speed of more than 750,000 kilometers per hour. Plus, data reveal the presence of twin sister planet, another so-called super-Earth called CoRot-7c in this alien solar system. Was Obi-wan wise to conceal it? "This is science at its thrilling and amazing best," says Didier Queloz, leader of the team that made the observations. "We did everything we could to learn what the object discovered by the CoRoT satellite looks like and we found a unique system." September 16, 2009: New, jolting discoveries are appearing as Sun Opposes Uranus translating the light from the 3rd. Saturn-Uranus opposition (Sept. 15th.) But with the Comet Holmes Mega-Explosion their are other implications which are not just scientific but mystical Comet Holmes and the Blue Star Kachina Mini Comets Ejected from Comet Holmes Caused Outburst Comet 17P/Holmes caused a sensation in October and November 2007 when overnight, it brightened enough to be visible with the naked eye and became the largest cometary outburst ever witnessed. Using a special filter on the Canada- France- Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, astronomers were able to peer inside Comet Holmes to determine why the comet became so bright. Images and animations show multiple fragments were ejected and rapidly flew away from the nucleus of comet Holmes. Astronomers Rachel Stevenson, Jan Kleyna and David Jewitt began observing comet Holmes in October 2007 soon after it was reported that the small (3.6 km wide) body had brightened by a million times in less than a day. They continued observing for several weeks after the outburst and watched as the dust cloud ejected by the comet grew to be larger than the Sun. September 15, 2009: The day when Vesta-Moon-Venus in solar Leo are all opposing Jupiter-Neptune. Even though there are no sunspots, that doesn't mean that solar storms are not happening. SOLAR ACTIVITY STRONG: Today, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is monitoring an enormous prominence on the sun's southeastern limb. Behold three hours of fiery action: The prominence has been growing for more than a day. As it towers higher and higher above the surface of the sun, the odds increase that it will erupt and come crashing down--a must-see. A solar wind stream flowing from the coronal hole could reach Earth as early as Sept. 17th. September 14, 2009: Just as Saturn-Virgo reaches an exact opposition with Uranus-Pisces storms not only increase on earth but break a record on Saturn. Longest Lightning Storm: Saturn Sets Record A powerful lightning storm brewing in Saturn's atmosphere since January has become the solar system's longest continuously observed thunderstorm, astronomers have announced. The storm breaks the record duration of 7.5 months set by another thunderstorm observed on Saturn by NASA's Cassini spacecraft between November 2007 and July 2008. The current thunderstorm on Saturn is the ninth that has been measured since Cassini swung into orbit around Saturn in July 2004. September 2, 2009: With Pluto now in Cardinal Capricorn and Saturn changing signs into Cardinal Libra (Oct. 29th) then next year in 2010 Uranus moves into Aries (May 29th) - the potential for major Geomagnetic Mega-Storms are increased! GEOMAGNETIC MEGA-STORM-WILL HISTORY REPEAT?: On Sept. 2nd, 1859 a billion-ton coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into Earth's magnetic field. Campers in the Rocky Mountains woke up in the middle of the night, thinking that the glow they saw was sunrise. No, it was the Northern Lights. People in Cuba read their morning paper by the red illumination of aurora borealis. Earth was peppered by particles so energetic, they altered the chemistry of polar ice. Hard to believe? It really happened--exactly 150 years ago. This map shows where auroras were sighted in the early hours of Sept. 2, 1859: The cause of all this was an extraordinary solar flare witnessed the day before by British astronomer Richard Carrington. His sighting marked the discovery of solar flares and foreshadowed a new field of study: space weather. According to the National Academy of Sciences, if a similar flare occurred today, it would cause $1 to 2 trillion in damage to society's high-tech infrastructure and require four to ten years for complete recovery. A repeat of the Carrington Event seems unlikely from our low vantage in a deep solar minimum--but don't let the quiet fool you. Strong flares can occur even during weak solar cycles. Indeed, the Carrington flare itself occured during a relatively weak cycle similar to the one expected to peak in 2012-2013. Could it happen again? Let's hope not. August 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Eclipse Season, Incredible Sky Phenomena, Deep Space Discoveries, Crazy Planetary Weather, Comets and Geo-Magnetic Changes August 31, 2009: Grand Cardinal Square with Juno in Aries-Mercury in Libra-Mars in Cancer-Pluto in Capricorn is inaugerating a "new sunspot" to break a string of nearly 52 spotless days. NEW SUNSPOT FORMING: A new sunspot is emerging about 15o north of the sun's equator: map. Pete Lawrence sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Selsey, UK: If this active region consolidates into a true dark-cored sunspot, it will break a string of nearly 52 spotless days, one of the longest quiet spells of the current solar minimum. August 30, 2009: Grand Cardinal Square with Juno in Aries-Mercury in Libra-Mars in Cancer-Pluto in Capricorn along with Vesta-Hygeia-Venus all in fiery fixed Leo to oppose Jupiter a definite atmosphere where Solar Storms Flareup. Space Weather Alert A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on or about Sept. 3rd. SOLAR SURPRISE: Even during the deepest solar minimum in a century, the sun has the capacity for surprise. Larry Alvarez got one yesterday when he bent over the eyepiece of his solar telescope in Flower Mound, Texas. "I thought it would be just another day with a vanilla-wafer solar disk, but I was in for a blazing shock when I checked out the edge of the sun," he says. "There was a huge worm popping out of the apple--a prominence of magnificent proportions!" Here is what he saw: August 14, 2009: This time Moon was in thinking Gemini (the twins) and Sun in Leo (spotlight) Opposing Jupiter for the far reaches of space. Second backwards planet found, a day after the first August 13, 2009: Mars in dualistic Gemini trine Jupiter in Far Out Aquarius pushes more discoveries in Deep Space Planet found orbiting its star backwards for first time An exoplanet that orbits its star backwards has been found for the first time. The planet is also the most bloated found to date, and some astronomers suspect that both properties can be traced back to an earlier close encounter with a planetary sibling. The solar system generally rotates like a record album, with most objects orbiting the sun in the same direction as the sun itself spins. This is thought to result from the fact that everything formed from the same natal cloud of gas and dust. August 12, 2009: As we approach an explosive Last Qtr. Moon (Aug. 13th) with Fixed Taurus Moon TSQ Sun-Jupiter we often time forget the physical collisions that created our current solar system or not notice impacts in deep space. Planetary smashup leaves trail of frozen lava A vast mess of frozen lava and vaporised rock has been found orbiting a nearby star, evidence of a cataclysmic collision between planet-like bodies outside our solar system. Such collisions are thought to have created Earth's moon and left other scars in the solar system, but it's not yet clear how common they are around other stars. Hints of past violent collisions abound in our solar system. Many suspect the moon formed from the debris created when a Mars-sized object smashed into the Earth. Other smashups may have pulled offMovie Camera most of Mercury's crust, tilted Uranus on its side, and caused Venus to spin backwards. Now a team has found evidence of an intense impact surrounding the star HD 172555, which sits some 100 light years away in the southern constellation Pavo, or Peacock. August 9, 2009: Moon now in fiery Aries with a Leo Sun Sextile Mars in Gemini which helps break new ground and even view fireballs during annual meteor showers. PERSEID FIREBALL: "Last night I photographed 17 Perseids," reports John Chumack of Dayton, Ohio. "The best one was a fireball of magnitude -8, about 40 times brighter than Venus. It had a double explosion, too!" t should get even better in the nights ahead. Members of the International Meteor Organization are now counting more than 25 Perseids per hour: data. The rate is expected to increase almost 10-fold on the night of August 11th and 12th when Earth passes through a denser-than-usual filament of comet dust crossing Earth's orbit. August 6, 2009: Of course this is another reflection of Phact , the Lunar Eclipse's Heliacal Rising star helping to find new objects in space but also with Venus - Vesta - Hygeia all in Cancer opposing Capricorn, more will be announced. The celestial objects found within the Capricorn constellation, have diameters spanning from 0.7 to1.7 km. they orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, and their evolution is believed to be in the range of 3.9 and 5.7 earth years. August 6, 2009: The Heliacal Rising Star for last nights Lunar Eclipse is the star Phact (found in the Constellation Columba - the Dove) which describes the desire to seek that which is just out of reach, to plunge into the unknown. Kepler Shows Exoplanet Is Unlike Anything in Our Solar System The Kepler Space Telescope, which launched earlier this year to find Earth-like planets elsewhere in our galaxy, showed it’s open for business with NASA’s announcement that an exoplanet we thought we knew is like nothing we’ve seen before. Peering at a large planet orbiting very close to its star, HAT-P-7b, the telescope delivered what one scientist called “exquisite” data, proving that it’s ready to start looking for Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones around stars. Analyzing just 10 days of data, the scientists even turned up a major surprise: HAT-P-7b isn’t like Jupiter at all. It has a “dark” side and its atmosphere could be made of relatively exotic chemicals like titanium oxide August 5, 2009: Full Moon Eclipse with Moon in Aquarius - expect more surprises especially in the sky! A Triple Sunrise Over Gdansk Bay in Poland. How can the same Sun rise three times? Last month on Friday, 2009 July 10, a spectacular triple sunrise was photographed at about 4:30 am over Gdansk Bay in Gdansk, Poland. Clearly, our Sun rises only once. Some optical effect is creating at least two mirages of the Sun -- but which effect? In the vast majority of similarly reported cases, mirages of the brightest object in the frame can be traced to reflections internal to the camera taking the images. Still, the above image is intriguing because a sincere photographer claims the effect was visible to the unaided eye, and because the photographer took several other frames that show variants of the same effect. August 5, 2009: Full Moon Eclipse with Moon in Aquarius joining the continued Aquarian Triple Conjuncton: Neptune-Chiron-Jupiter FULL MOON AND JUPITER: Tonight, when the sun sets, go outside and look southeast. The full Moon is having a close encounter with Jupiter. The two are so bright, you won't even need a sky map to find them. Moon shots: from Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece. August 4, 2009: Aquarius Moon sets the stage as we move thru the Lunar Eclipse on August 5th/6th and a Mercury Sextile Venus making this sky show beautiful, romantic and spectacular. POSSIBLE PERSEID OUTBURST: This year's Perseid meteor shower could be even better than usual. "A filament of comet dust has drifted across Earth's path and when Earth passes through it, sometime between 0800 and 0900 UT (1 - 2 am PDT) on August 12th, the Perseid meteor rate could surge to twice its normal value," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. July 2009 - A Month of Increasing Solar Activity, Eclipse Season, Sky Phenomena, Crazy Planetary Weather, Noctilucent Clouds and Geo-Magnetic Changes July 31, 2009: Sagittarius Moon Trine Leo Sun two fiery signs working together for harmony but also maximum potential. The Perseids Showers are Coming July 31, 2009: Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, the source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Although the shower won't peak until August 11th and 12th, the show is already getting underway. For sky watchers in North America, the watch begins after nightfall on August 11th and continues until sunrise on the 12th. Veteran observers suggest the following strategy: Unfold a blanket on a flat patch of ground. (Note: The middle of your street is not a good choice.) Lie down and look up. Perseids can appear in any part of the sky, their tails all pointing back to the shower's radiant in the constellation Perseus. Get away from city lights if you can. Brian Emfinger of Ozark, Arkansas, photographed this early Perseid just after midnight on Sunday, July 26th: July 30th, 2009: Astrological Comments: With Jupiter tracking close by Chiron - wounded healer expect to hear more about the collison and long term effects. JUPITER UPDATE: Something interesting is happening to the dark impact mark on Jupiter. Not only is it growing larger, but also "it seems to be developing two lobes," says amateur astronomer Mike Hood. Some recent pictures showing two condensed nucleii Here are pictures from Hubble right after the impact. These changes are a likely result of dynamics in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. High-resolution images from the Hubble Space Telescope show that the impact cloud is being molded by high-altitude winds and turbulence. On a planet where vortices are ubiquitous, it is no surprise that a cloud would organize itself into two or more swirling spots. July 23, 2009: As Leo Moon sextiles both Venus and Mars in the sign that rules both siblings and twins and with a Mars in Gemini TSQ the next Saturn-Uranus opposition we are underscoring all dualistic events. Northern & Southern Aurorae Are Siblings, But Not Twins Seen the Northern Lights and you've seen them all, hm? Not so. It is commonly assumed that the aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere and the aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere are mirror images of each other — but new research has revealed differences between the events. The aurorae, commonly known as the Northern and Southern Lights, are spectacular natural light displays in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The phenomenon is caused by charged particles from the solar wind striking atoms and molecules in the atmosphere. July 22, 2009: As the powerful Total Solar Eclipse darkened Asia, a solar wind streamed from the Sun which entered Leo on July 22nd @ 9:36 AM PDT for some dramatic displays... AURORA SURPRISE: Sometimes the auroras are so bright, you just can't sleep. "I was up all night on July 21st, but it was totally worth it!" says photographer Zoltan Kenwell of Chip Lake, Alberta. This is what kept him awake: Forecasters did not predict this display. It began on when a seemingly minor solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field. The minor hit turned into a not-so-minor display because a crack opened in Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to pour in and fuel the storm. Northern Lights descended as far south as the Dakotas, Montana, Iowa and Wisconsin. The solar wind is still blowing, but the crack has closed, bringing an end to the lights. July 22, 2009: Dramatic scenes of Noctilucent Clouds are enhanced by a Leo New Moon and Sun's ingress into Leo NLC ALERT: "While India and China were enjoying a total solar eclipse, here in Europe we were treated to a sky show of our own," says Tomasz Adam of Staszów, Poland, where the night sky lit up with intense noctilucent clouds (NLCs) on July 21st and 22nd. "It was easily the best display I've ever seen." A similar event last week heralded NLCs in the United States as far south as Nevada, Colorado and Utah. Amazing NLC's over Poland during Eclipse July 22, 2009: Jupiter and Chiron are together per tropical astrology with Chiron as the purveyor of wounds in order to heal. 'Incredible' new scar is spreading on Jupiter An asteroid or comet plunged into the solar system's largest planet and left a mark that was first spotted Sunday. The event is the first of its kind in 15 years, JPL astronomers say. The object, thought to be an asteroid or comet, left a large dark bruise that can still be seen spreading over Jupiter's southern hemisphere, according to Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La July 21, 2009: The Total Solar Eclipse begins today for North America @ 7:35 PM PDT or 10:35 PM EDT but the Big Show occurs in Asia and Pacific Ocean - From the Gulf of Khambhat, the Moon's shadow will race east across India, China, and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. SOLAR ECLIPSE: The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century takes place this Wednesday, July 22nd. The path of totality crosses many major cities, setting the stage for possibly the best-observed eclipse in human history. For the Full Story - Click Here. Click on the image below to launch an animated map: July 20, 2009: We stand on the brink of one of the most powerful eclipses of the century with S Node in Leo conjunct the Sun-Moon @ 29 Cancer - more eyes are focused on the SUN! Predictions of increased solar activity has come from many mystical and psychic sources like crop circles and now science is confirming massive solar upheaval. SOLAR ACTIVITY INCREASES: A big show is underway on the sun today. Two massive prominences are dancing along the northwestern limb with such allure that the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has boosted its frame-rate to capture the motions. Stay tuned for movies, and meanwhile, keep an eye on the sun. July 20, 2009: As Jupiter conjuncts Chiron (wounded healer) tommorow in synch with the Total Solar Eclipse reflecting this wound on the planet ruling ethics and beliefs. POSSIBLE IMPACT EVENT ON JUPITER: Did something just hit Jupiter? On July 19th, a black "scar" appeared in Jupiter's clouds similar to the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts of 1994. Veteran Jupiter observer Anthony Wesley photographed the feature from his observatory in Murrumbateman, Australia: "The jet-black mark is near Jupiter's south pole (south is up in the image)," says Wesley. "I have imagery of that same location from two nights earlier without the impact mark, so this is a very recent event. July 19, 2009: The Balsamic Moon Phase with Moon now in Cancer takes to the Second New Moon for Cancer And a Total Eclipse of the Sun (Longest Eclipse of the Century) on July 21st @ 7:35 PM PDTat 29 degrees 27 minutes Cancer WAITING FOR THE ECLIPSE: On July 22nd, the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century will take place in Asia. Traveling phtographer Olivier Staiger took this picture from Shanghai, where he is waiting for the lights to go out: Shanghai is the largest city in China with a population greater than 20 million. On Wednesday, the Moon's shadow will linger over the great metropolis for nearly six full minutes, giving residents a stunning and lengthy view of the Sun's ghostly corona. In addition to Shanghai, the path of totality crosses a number of other large cities in India and China--e.g., Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal, Varanasi, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Hefei, Hangzhou--each with populations numbering in the millions. This could be the best-observed solar eclipse in human history. July 15, 2009: Last Qtr. Aries Moon Sextiles Jupiter/Neptune the core combo adding to NLC's NLCs INVADE THE USA: So far in 2009, noctilucent clouds (NLCs) have been seen mainly over Europe and parts of Canada, but now they are beginning to invade the continental USA. By sunrise on July 15th, the mysterious clouds had invaded the United States. Mike Hollingshead sends this photo from Blair, Nebraska: When noctilucent clouds first appeared in the late 19th century, they were confined to latitudes above 50o N (usually far above). The latitude of Blair, Nebraska, is only 41°30' N. No one knows why NLCs are expanding their range in this way; it's one of many unanswered questions about the mysterious clouds. July 14, 2009: Powerful Moon Square Sun and Mercury as Jupiter/Neptune in Aquarius are VOC and filled with surprises especially with ruler Uranus trine the Sun... NOCTILUCENT STORMS CONTINUE IN EUROPE: For the second day in a row, a major display of noctilucent clouds is taking place over Europe. The electric-blue clouds are so bright, you can see them while looking at the ground. "Here they are reflected from a puddle," offers photographer Douglas Cooper of Stirling, Scotland. Of course, the sky is still best. "I have never seen such bright, large and detailed noctilucent clouds," says Piotr Majewski, who sends this picture from Torun, Poland: July 14, 2009: Fiery Aries Moon applying to a Square with Sun in watery Cancer COLORADO FIREBALL: "A fireball of magnitude -10 (almost as bright as the gibbous Moon) lit up central Colorado at 2:28 a.m. MDT on July 13th," reports astronomer Chris Peterson of Guffey, Colorado. "It was very slow, lasting at least 5.5 seconds." images of the fireball captured here. July 13, 2009: As Pisces Moon (visionary/artistic) meet Uranus (sudden changes) the best display of NLC clouds occurred. NOCTILUCENT STORM HITS EUROPE: Last night, after a two week intermission, noctilucent clouds returned to Europe in force. "It was one of the best displays of the summer," reports Jan Koeman of Kloetinge, The Netherlands. "The beautiful rippling structure of the electric-blue clouds reminded me of the skin of a Great Blue Whale!" July 11, 2009: The lightening struck Friday night, July 10th when the 2nd passage of the might Jupiter-Neptune conjunction with Chiron close by in Aquarius was separating - Aquarius is the sign which corresponds to lightening strikes. LIGHTNING STRIKE to Space Shuttle Endeavor: On Friday night, July 10th, space shuttle Endeavour was poised to blast off for the International Space Station when a thunderstorm rolled in and lightning struck the launch area at least 11 times. Gene Blevins of the LA Daily News photographed one of the most dramatic strikes through a rain-splattered lens: July 9, 2009: With the Major Aquarian Triple Conjunction led by Neptune-Jupiter and Chiron set to happen on July 10th Galileo Galilei (born Feb 15, 1564) would be experiencing a Mars return to his natal Mars @ 28 Taurus and transiting Venus is conjunct his natal Neptune! New Theory: Galileo Discovered Neptune History books tell us that the planet Neptune was found in the mid-1800s after years of speculation and search. But in 1613, more than two centuries before Neptune was officially discovered, Galileo Galilei knew he had found it, according to a new theory by University of Melbourne physicist David Jamieson. It has long been known that Galileo observed Neptune, but it was thought that he discounted the object as a star and gave it no further thought. But it turns out Galileo may have known the "star" had moved in relation to other stars, Jamieson reveals. That sort of movement would have caught Galileo's attention, since he knew that it was just the sort of thing planets did. July 8, 2009: Contrary to the experts opinions and in line with the mysterious crop circles and yesterday's Full Moon Eclipse timed with the second passage of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction - Sunspots are growing along with more CME's RESURGENT SUNSPOT: Yesterday, sunspot 1024 took the day off; the fast-growing active region stopped growing and even decayed a little. Today, the sunspot is growing again:movie. It now measures 125,000 km from end to end, almost as wide as the planet Jupiter. Fulvio Mete sends this picture from his backyard observatory in Rome, Italy: July 7, 2009: Full Moon Lunar Eclipse with intuitive Cancer axis leading to prediction of the current solar storm by a set of crop circles in England, and the solar blogosphere has been abuzz with speculation. SUBSIDING SUNSPOT: Sunspot 1024 is experiencing some decay and solar flare activity is subsiding. Nevertheless, by recent standards it is still a behemoth. Comments from Space Weather (I don't necessarily endorse) Many readers are writing to ask if this sunspot is going to produce a major solar storm today, July 7th. Such a storm was "predicted" by a set of crop circles in England, and the solar blogosphere has been abuzz with speculation. The answer is "no." A major storm is not in the offing. Sunspot 1024 is relatively large, but it does not have the kind of complex magnetic field that poses a threat for major eruptions. Crop circles, it turns out, are not a useful tool for forecasting solar activity. July 4, 2009: Combo of powerful Mercury Opposing Pluto in Cardinal signs and fiery Sag. Moon to square Saturn for some serious energies traveling from RA SUNSPOT ALERT: The most active sunspot of the year so far is emerging in the sun's southern hemisphere: Sunspot 1024 has at least a dozen individual dark cores and it is crackling with B-class solar flares. This morning, amateur astronomer David Tyler caught one of the flares in action from his backyard solar observatory in England: July 3, 2009: Mercury changes signs into Cancer (solstice point) and Opposes darker Pluto in Capricorn (solstice point) which can even relate to Aphelion... Earth at Aphelion: Earth circles the sun, right? Not exactly. Earth's orbit is an ellipse, not a circle, which means the sun-Earth distance varies throughout the year. On July 3rd and 4th, Earth is at "aphelion," the most distant point in its orbit. Around this time, the sun looks about 1.7% smaller and sunlight is 3.4% less intense than the annual average. June 2009 - A Month of Changing Solar Activity, Sky Phenomena, Crazy Planetary Weather, Noctilucent Clouds and Geo-Magnetic Changes June 30, 2009: Moving toward the start of the Triple Eclipse Season (July 7th) which may mark an increase in sunspots and possible CME's NEW SUNSPOT: Observers are reporting a new sunspot forming near the sun's southeastern limb. It appears to be a member of Solar Cycle 24. June 29, 2009: First Qtr. Moon in Cardinal Libra along with the volcanic aspects of Mars Square Neptune in Aquarius (skies and clouds) and Uranus (unusual) changing directions retrograde on July 1st. means more volcanic shifts. VOLCANIC SUNSETS: People across the USA (and now parts of Europe) are reporting unusual sunsets. When the sun goes down, delicate ripples of white appear over the western horizon. Then, as the twilight deepens, the sky turns a telltale shade of "volcanic lavender." Steven Hallgren photographed this example last night, June 29th, from of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho: June 27, 2009: As Mars/Venus continue in Taurus with squares to the Aquarian Triple Conjunction incredible cloud formations are seen. Note that Mammatus clouds, named for their resemblance to a cow's underbelly relate to the sign Taurus MAMMATUS CLOUDS OVER MANHATTEN: after a summer evening thunderstorm, a bank of spectacular mammatus clouds formed over Manhattan," reports Snehal Patel of New York. "It was an amazing display that looked like large orange cotton balls falling from the sky." Mammatus clouds, named for their resemblance to a cow's underbelly, sometimes appear at the end of severe thunderstorms when the thundercloud is breaking up. Researchers have called them an "intriguing enigma," because no one knows exactly how and why they form. The clouds are fairly common but often go unnoticed because potential observers have been chased indoors by the rain. If you are one of them, dash outside when the downpour stops; you could witness a beautiful mystery in the sky. June 25, 2009: Leo Moon was roaring as the solar wind stream hit Earth during a new moon phase. GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field on June 24th, sparking a brief but potent geomagnetic storm. The midnight sun prevented sightings of Northern Lights around the Arctic Circle. June 24, 2009: Let the light shine as Sun was separating from a powerful opposition to Pluto and the Aquarian Stellium is ruled by the great cosmic trickster Uranus. Fireball Seen Over Tucson on June 23rd. Numerous people called in to news stations and police last night, around 9:20 pm, when a bright fireball lit up the skies over Tucson. It may have been a chunk of cosmic debris, or it could have been a satellite or pieces of space junk burning up in the atmosphere. Large fireballs are called bolides, and typically there might be one or two reported annually, worldwide, if that. Remarkably, this is the fourth large fireball to have been witnessed over North America during the past seven months. Two of those sightings Buzzard Coulee (Saskatchewan, November 20, 2008) and the West, Texas fireball (February 15, 2009) produced numerous meteorite fragments. June 24, 2009: Moon's ingress into Solar oriented Leo along with a sextile to Mercury puts more highlights on current series of sunspots. SUNSPOT SYZYGY: Sunspot group 1023 has an eye-catching shape--it is a straight line. The group's four spots have formed a rare "sunspot syzygy." The formation makes a nice target for backyard solar telescopes. June 22 and 23, 2009: New Moon in Cancer puts emphasis on our closest celestial body Luna LUNAR FLYBY: The lunar flyby of NASA's LCROSS spacecraft is underway now. Live Video Click here to watch. June 22, 2009: Along with the Cancer New Moon a powerful Sun Opposition Pluto emits power. SUNSPOT WATCH: Monday, in a moment of rare extravagance, the sun produced two spots. Today, one of them, sunspot 1022, is fading away. The other, sunspot 1023, is still going strong: The magnetic polarity of sunspot 1023 identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Its appearance coincides with the movement of two solar jet streams into a range of heliographic latitudes that promotes sunspot formation. No one knows exactly how the sun's deep jet streams boost the sunspot count, but they do. As a result, this week's sunspot activity might herald more to come. Stay tuned for updates. June 21, 2009: As the Mars/Venus conjunction separates but moves to square the scientific Aquarian Triple Conjunction in July, energies of the atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphe are in focus. Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission Enters Implementation Phase San Antonio -- Southwest Research Institute has received confirmation from NASA Headquarters that the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) misson has been approved to begin its implementation phase. MMS will perform a definitive investigation of one of the most basic and important physical processes in the universe -- magnetic reconnection. The mission is scheduled to launch in August 2014. Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process that taps the energy stored in a magnetic field and converts it into heat and charged-particle kinetic energy. It produces many intense phenomena from solar flares to auroras to high-energy cosmic rays to X-ray emissions from the accretion disks that surround the central regions of active galaxies to sawtooth oscillations in fusion plasmas. Closer to home, it is the ultimate driver of "space weather," which impacts technologies such as communications, navigation, power grids, and astronaut health and safety. June 20, 2009: Summer Solstice for Northern Hemisphere (10:46 PM PDT) and the advent of eclipse season with three eclipses on the horizon: July 7th, July 22nd and August 6th. ‘July 22 solar eclipse to be most significant in century’ As scientists prepare for the most significant solar eclipse of the century on July 22, noted heliologist Dr Hari Om Vats is demystifying the shadow bands that occur before and after a solar eclipse. The associate professor at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) was in Vadodara to talk to the budding astronomers and students about how shadow bands render valuable data about the atmosphere, especially about pollution. In a tête-à-tête with Anupam Chakravartty, Dr Vats explained the importance of studying the shadow bands. * A theory suggests that shadow bands are not just visual events but also sonic, as the moon is believed to move at a supersonic speed, creating various sound waves during the solar eclipse. What do you think about this? June 19, 2009: As we move toward the Sun's ingress into Cancer (ruled by the Moon) on June 20th @ 10:46 PM, all eyes on the next Moon mission. NASA is planning spectacular mission to bomb the Moon There are no aliens up there, as far as we know, but the Americans are preparing to bomb the moon. A space mission blasted off from Cape Canaveral today carrying a missile that will fire a hole deep in the lunar surface. But this is no gung-ho display of firepower – it is actually a serious quest for water. June 19, 2009: As the Moon-Venus-Mars conjunction of beauty, splendor and need for security separates to squre the Aquarian triple conjunction in July, we are seeing more attempts at solving a deep solar mystery Mystery of the Missing Sunspots, Solved? Rachel Howe and Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, used a technique called helioseismology to detect and track the jet stream down to depths of 7,000 km below the surface of the sun. The sun generates new jet streams near its poles every 11 years, they explained to a room full of reporters and fellow scientists. The streams migrate slowly from the poles to the equator and when a jet stream reaches the critical latitude of 22 degrees, new-cycle sunspots begin to appear. June 18, 2009: A beautiful sight and a powerful portal for necessary feminine energies with Moon-Venus-Mars in Taurus ruled by Venus... Celestial Triple Play: See Venus, Mars and the Moon As the moon travels around its orbit once a month it passes close to all the planets. Such "close encounters" are called "conjunctions" in astronomical lingo. Though close together in the sky from our perspective on Earth, these objects are usually very far apart in space. < This Friday morning, June 19, there will be a triple conjunction of the moon and the planets Venus and Mars. The event will be visible in the predawn sky. The best time to look is after 3 a.m. local time and before daybreak. The view will be slightly different, compared to the maps on this page, depending on where you live. June 18, 2009: A combo of Sun separting from a trine with Neptune for future orientations and our last Moon in Aries with sextiles to both Jupiter-Neptune in scientific Aquarius allows us to understand the current lack of sunspots. Sun's Strange Lull Explained with Future Activity Coming Scientists have been puzzling in recent months over the sun's lack of spots, which signifies very low activity. The sun is in the midst of an expected low in its 11-year cycle of sunspots and storms but the lull has gone on much longer than expected. Now researchers think they know why. A jet stream deep inside the sun is migrating slower than usual through the star's interior, giving rise to the current lack of sunspots. It'll all be back to normal soon, according to a NASA statement. June 17, 2009: Incredible clouds and sky phenomena are reflected by the Neptune led Triple Conjunction and todays exact Sun Square Uranus aspect and Sun Trine Neptune transit. NIGHT-SHINING CLOUDS: Intense, electric-blue noctilucent clouds rippled across Europe last night. Sightings were made in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and all parts of the British Isles. Click on the image to launch a movie recorded by Chris Rollwagen of Potsdam, German June 17, 2009: Currently Sun Squares Uranus in Pisces (neptune ruled) and Mars-Venus are applying towards a difficult square to the Neptune lead Aquarian Conjucntion but on July 11th this diffficult position will have separated. Good Call! Hydrogen Gas Leak Delays Shuttle Launch Until July Space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 launch today was officially scrubbed at 1:55 a.m. EDT when the same type of gaseous hydrogen leak was detected at the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP. This is the same location where a similar leak resulted in a launch scrub on June 13. Bedeviled by the same hydrogen gas leak that postponed the space shuttle Endeavour's June 13 launch, NASA June 17 again scratched the 16-day mission mission to the International Space Station. The mission was officially called off at 1:55 a.m. EDT and rescheduled for July 11 at 7:39 p.m. EDT. June 15, 2009: Over the weekend (June 13-14th) with Moon in Aquarius applying to conjunction with Neptune-Jupiter and Pallas-S Node in fiery Leo, more evidence of solar activity. TRIANGLE OF FIRE: Over the weekend, astronomers monitored a colossal "triangle of fire" on the limb of the sun. Click on the image below to launch a 1.5 hour movie (DivX required) recorded by Larry Alvarez of Flower Mound, Texas: June 13, 2009: With Mercury still Void of Course in Taurus, communications fail, and things break. Changes or unusual conditions in the weather occur especially with separting square from Neptune. NASA Scrubs Saturday Morning Space Shuttle Launch A potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak cropped up during the fueling of space shuttle Endeavour on Saturday and forced NASA to postpone the launch by at least four days. It was almost identical to a leak that stalled another flight back in March and threatened to bump Endeavour's space station construction mission all the way into July. June 12, 2009: Continued Triple Aquarian Conjunction in mutual reception to the trickster Uranus brings surprising events from space to earth 14-year-old hit by 30,000 mph space meteorite Gerrit Blank, 14, was on his way to school when he saw "ball of light" heading straight towards him from the sky. A red hot, pea-sized piece of rock then hit his hand before bouncing off and causing a foot wide crater in the ground. June 11, 2009: Controlling Venus/Mars in Taurus to Square Neptune Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks and Fireballs Now Classified For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere – but no longer. A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned. June 11, 2009: Sun Trine Neptune allows a visionary way to explore space via eclipses Lunar, Solar Eclipses Hold Secrets to Other Worlds Want to know about the atmospheres of planets around other stars, and the stars themselves? A pair of papers in this week’s issue of Nature is advocating continued studies of both lunar eclipses, when the Moon transits Earth’s shadow, and solar eclipses — when the Moon comes directly between Earth and the sun. June 10, 2009: Lots of big announcements of coming events with Mercury Square Jupiter and Moon sextile Uranus for excitiement... LUNAR IMPACT ALERT: Japan's Kaguya spacecraft will crash into the Moon on Wednesday, June 10th, at around 1830 UT. The timing favors telescopic observers in east Asia, Australia and New Zealand, who may be able to see a brief flash of light or a plume of debris rising from the Moon's southeastern limb close to selenographic coordinates 80ºE, 63ºS. Kaguya is a big spaceship. It masses 2,900 kg and will hit the Moon at an oblique angle traveling approximately 6,000 km/hr. Whether it tumbles and bounces along the lunar surface or runs headlong into some towering crater wall, no one can say. Clues to the end of Kaguya will come on June 10th in the form of an explosive flash (or lack thereof) and high-res images of the crash site taken by future lunar orbiters. June 9, 2009: On a day when imagination is fired up when Mercury is both Square Neptune and Sextile Uranus According to Ptolemy the bright stars with the exception of Betelgeuze and Bellatrix are like Jupiter and Saturn. It is said to give a strong and dignified nature, self-confidence, inconstancy, arrogance, violence, impiety, prosperity in trade and particularly by voyages or abroad, but danger of treachery and poison. It was thought by the Romans to be very harmful to cattle and productive of storms. Popular Giant Star: Betelgeuse, Shrinks Mysteriously A massive red star in the constellation Orion has shrunk in the past 15 years and astronomers don't know why. Called Betelgeuse, the star is considered a red supergiant. Such massive stars are nearing the ends of their lives and can swell to 100 times their original size before exploding as supernovae, or possibly just collapsing to form black holes without violent explosions (as one study suggested). June 8, 2009: Incredible phenomena high above the clouds with the Aquarian Triple Conjunction led by Neptune Retrograde STRANGE LIGHTNING AND SPRITES: High above Earth, in the realm of meteors and noctilucent clouds, a strange and beautiful form of lightning dances at the edge of space. Researchers call the bolts "sprites"; they are red, fleeting, and tend to come in bunches. June 6, 2009: Approaching a major full moon gate way in Sagittarius ARIETID METEOR SHOWER: The annual Arietid meteor shower peaks this weekend on Sunday, June 7th. The Arietids are unusual because they are daytime meteors; the shower is most intense after sunrise. Early risers could spot a small number of earthgrazing Arietids during the dark hours before dawn on Sunday morning. June 5, 2009: Both Jupiter-Neptune (now retro) will be stationing together as we move to Full Moon in Sagittarius on Jan 7th Jupiter is the ruler of Sagittarius Io and Ganymede cast shadows simultaneously on the face of Jupiter from 8:06 to 10:16 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on June 9. A small telescope at 100x or more should give you a good view. The event will look a little like this… Jupiter Double Transit June 4, 2009: Venus now void in Aries (where Sun is exalted) deals with impulsive decisions and new experiements Mercury Sextile Uranus is furthering these progressive-simulated experiments. Fake Astronaut Gets Hit by Artificial Solar Flare June 3, 2009: In 1972, Apollo astronauts narrowly escaped a potential catastrophe. On August 2nd of that year, a large and angry sunspot appeared and began to erupt, over and over again for more than a week, producing a record-setting fusillade of solar proton radiation. Only pure luck saved the day. The eruptions took place during the gap between Apollo 16 and 17 missions, so astronauts missed the storm. So scientists are creating an artificial solar radiation storm right here on Earth. And they're testing its effects on an artificial human: Matroshka, the Phantom Torso. June 3, 2009: Combination of Moon/Libra Trine Neptune/Aquarius (sensitivity to unique cloud formations) and Mercury Square Neptune (to classify and order these mysterious formations) Meteorologists campaign to classify unique 'Asperatus' clouds seen across the world Whipped into fantastical shapes, these clouds hang over the darkening landscape like the harbingers of a mighty storm. But despite their stunning and frequent appearances, the formations have yet to be officially recognised with a name. MAGNETIC MAELSTROM: "Sunspot 1019 continues to put on a show," reports astronomer Pete Lawrence of Selsey UK. "Two distinct main spots are visible with a number of smaller pores scattered around a vast field of magnetic fibrils. The view through an H-alpha 'scope is stunning." The double spot is visible today: watch the movie. June 1, 2009: Moon will enter Libra this morning and oppose Venus in solar-hot Aries NEW-CYCLE SUNSPOT: Sunspot 1019 is emerging rapidly near the sun's northeastern limb: watch the movie. The high latitude and magnetic polarity of the spot identify it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24 May 2009 - A Month of Changing Solar Activity, More Discoveries, Planetary Weather and Geo-Magnetic Changes May 31, 2009: Right on time for Neptune stationing retrograde - a sure sign of mysterious cloud formations. FIRST NLCs of 2009: New data from NASA's AIM spacecraft show that noctilucent clouds (NLCs) are like a great "geophysical light bulb." They turn on every year in late spring, reaching almost full intensity over a period of no more than 5 to 10 days. Check out these pictures when Neptune-Jupiter where conjunct with Neptune stationing - taken from Maghera, Northern Ireland: May 30, 2009: As Mars-Venus prepare to leave pioneering Aries, more new discoveries from space announced. First find: Planet-hunting method succeeds at last (PLANETQUEST) -- A long-proposed tool for hunting planets has netted its first catch -- a Jupiter-like planet orbiting one of the smallest stars known. The technique, called astrometry, was first attempted 50 years ago to search for planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets. It involves measuring the precise motions of a star on the sky as an unseen planet tugs the star back and forth. But the method requires very precise measurements over long periods of time, and until now, has failed to turn up any exoplanets. May 29, 2009: Solar energies dominate as Moon in Leo trines Mars in Aries (where the Sun is both dignified and exalted) NEW SOLAR ACTIVITY: NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft, stationed over the sun's eastern horizon, is tracking a new active region. It is circled in this extreme ultraviolet image transmitted from STEREO-B just hours ago: The high-latitude of the region suggests it is a manifestation of new Solar Cycle 24. If so, this would continue a May trend of intensifying new-cycle activity. The active region is probably a proto-sunspot--a knot of magnetism struggling to form a fully-realized dark core. May 29, 2009: Sun Opposing Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius is great for predicitons involving Solar Acvitities NEW SOLAR CYCLE PREDICTION: An international panel of experts has issued a new prediction for the solar cycle which takes into account the surprisingly deep solar minimum of 2008-2009. Read today's story from Science@NASA to find out when they think solar maximum will return. May 29, 2009: Moon in dramatic Leo Opposing Neptune-Jupiter in Aquarius for amazing sights and discoveries Massive supernova is nearest in five years SYDNEY: European radio astronomers have discovered the hidden explosion of a massive star, in the nearby galaxy M82. Despite being the closest supernova discovered in the last five years, the explosion was only detected at radio wavelengths, as dense gas and dust surrounding it have rendered it invisible at other wavelengths. May 27, 2009: Powerful forces reflective of Jupiter-Neptune together in Aquarius square Mercury Retrograde along with sextile to highly active Venus-Mars in Aries Space storm caught slamming into Earth's atmosphere A space storm has been observed exploding from a central point in Earth's upper atmosphere for the first time. The result could one day lead to better predictions of the storms, which can harm satellites and power grids on the ground. The energy that powers space storms comes from clouds of plasma hurled at Earth by the sun. These clouds stretch our planet's magnetic field like a rubber band, storing energy in a long magnetic tail behind our planet. May 25, 2009: Cardinal signs focus activity on solar energies? reflected by ISS as Cancer moon squares Mars-Venus in Aries. SPACE STATION FLARES: Lately, a growing number of observers are reporting intense "flares" coming from the International Space Station (ISS). A typical sighting begins with a normal, sedate flyby: The station soars overhead, cutting silently through the stars with no hint that something extraordinary is about to happen. Then, a startling explosion of light boosts the station's luminosity 10-fold or more. Some observers have witnessed flares of magnitude -8, more than 25 times brighter than Venus. Watch a movie of the luminosity and flares - here. May 25, 2009: As Moon moves from Gemini to Cancer a Crescent Moon can be seen SKINNY CRESCENT MOON: When the sun goes down tonight, May 25th, step outside and look west. If you have a clear view of the horizon, you could see a super-skinny crescent Moon shining through the rosy glow of sunset. If naked eyes don't work, try scanning the horizon with binoculars. May 24, 2009: New Moon in Gemini and when Atlantis landed @ 8:39 AM Mercury-Sun-Moon in the 11th house of collective, group excitement and pioneering Mars-Venus in 10th house ATLANTIS LANDS IN CALIFORNIA: Space shuttle Atlantis landed at 8:39 a.m. PDT Sunday at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., completing the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis' astronauts conducted five successful spacewalks during their STS-125 flight. The improvements and repairs they made to the orbiting observatory will extend Hubble's life to 2014--and possibly beyond. [more] May 22, 2009: Gemini Sun and Gemini Moon coming on May 24th SEVEN SISTERS AND THE SUN: You can't see it, but the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) can. A conjunction is underway between the Pleiades and the sun. Using its coronagraph to block the sun's glare, SOHO is monitoring the heavenly encounter. Click here for a ringside seat. May 21, 2009: Moon in Aries meeting both Venus-Mars (of course Sun is exalted in fiery Aries) Stealth storm erupts from the sun The twin STEREO probes that image the sun's activityMovie Camera have caught sight of a burp of ionised gas that blasted into space from our star's surface without warning. The find confirms suspicions that some solar ejections can occur even though the surface of the sun looks tranquil. May 15, 2009: Air and Fire with Moon in Aquarius sextile Mars/Venus in Aries reflect beautiful and exciting photos: Extraordinary Photos of Hubble and Atlantis Transiting the Sun SPACESHIPS IN THE SUN: Award winning astrophotographer Thierry Legault wanted to image the Hubble Space Telescope and space shuttle Atlantis traveling together around Earth. But how? The pair wouldn't fly over his hometown in France during the ongoing servicing mission. To catch the rare meeting of spaceships, he decided to do some traveling of his own all the way to Florida. On May 12th, from a location near the Kennedy Space Center, he pointed his solar-filtered telescope at the sun and voilà!--there was Atlantis: May 14, 2009: Moon in Capricorn with Saturn ready to station along with risk oriented Mars-Venus in Aries plus Mercury retrograde creates a difficult space exercise. Risky space walk ahead for astronauts May 13, 2009: Capricorn Moon square both Venus-Mars in Aries for some dangerous space territory CLOSE CALL from Space Junk: A 10-centimeter piece of space junk passed within a few kilometers of space shuttle Atlantis at 7:28 p.m. EDT on May 13th. It was a piece of the Fengyun-1C satellite destroyed by a Chinese anti-satellite weapon in January 2007. Ground controllers knew the fragment was coming and decided correctly that no maneuvers were required to avoid it. May 12, 2009: Moon in Capricorn, Sun in Taurus and Saturn ready to station direct in Virgo - Easy to get stuck and bogged down. Mars rover Spirit is stuck in sand The long-lived rover Spirit is stuck in the sand on Mars, and controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge are scrambling to find a way to extricate the vehicle before it becomes entombed on the Red Planet. "This is quite serious," said JPL's John Callas, the project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity. "Spirit is in a very difficult situation. We are proceeding methodically and cautiously. It may be weeks before we try moving Spirit again." May 11, 2009: Chart for Atlantis lift off (2:01 PM EDT) shows Virgo rising and ruler Mercury retrograde and applying to meeting with the Sun on May 18th for combustion possible problems from Solar bursts. Their will be some major glitches and lots of publicity LIFTOFF! Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from the Kennedy Space today at 2:01 pm EDT. The shuttle and its crew of seven astronauts are picking up speed as they begin an 11-day mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope one last time. For more info. go here. May 10, 2009: Sagittarius Moon part of a Mutable Cross penetrates into deep space with ruler Jupiter square the Sun. SOLAR RADIO BURST: On May 9th at 1614 UT, the sun emitted a strong shortwave radio burst. Amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft recorded the event using a 21 MHz radio telescope in New Mexico. Click Here to see image and hear the sound. May 9, 2009: Jupiter is prominent now with Squares from the Sun and Moon EUROPA OCCULTS GANYMEDE: On May 8th, Anthony Wesley of Murrumbateman, Australia, recorded a very rare event--one of Jupiter's moons eclipsing another. "Here," says Wesley, "is an animation of Europa passing directly in front of Ganymede." May 9, 2009: Scorpio Moon TSQ Sun-Jupiter-Neptune no real strong sunspots as solar minimus continues with Solar Cycle 24 NOAA Predicts Solar Cycle 24 May 8, 2009: A new active period of Earth-threatening solar storms will be the weakest since 1928 and its peak is still four years away, after a slow start last December, predicts an international panel of experts led by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center. Even so, Earth could get hit by a devastating solar storm at any time, with potential damages from the most severe level of storm exceeding $1 trillion. NASA funds the prediction panel. May 8, 2009: Scorpio Full Moon/Taurus Sun with rulers Mars-Venus in fiery Aries where the Sun is exalted. Update: HERE THEY COME from the May 5/6th explosions: The first of two new active regions, described below, is emerging over the sun's northeastern limb: NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is monitoring a pair of active regions hidden behind the sun's eastern limb. Recent photos of sun's eastern limb - Here. They are the bright "hot spots" in this photo taken by STEREO-B's extreme ultraviolet telescope just a few hours ago: May 8, 2009: Powerful Full Moon in Scorpio to uncover hidden secrets about our Solar System Did Several Moons Once Orbit Earth? A Galaxy Insight The history of planet Earth is a fascinating story, involving catastrophic collisions with other small planets and a veritable plethora of asteroid impacts. The prevailing theory about the formation of the moon is called the giant impact hypothesis: the theory goes that a Mars-sized object, known as Theia, crashed in to the young Earth. What was left was Earth, and its moon. A new computer model suggests, however, that the Moon may not have been the only reminder of that big collision. Jack J. Lissauera of the Space Science and Astrobiology Division, NASA Ames Research Center, and John E. Chambers of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, have suggested that moonlets called Trojans may have been left behind in the collision. May 6, 2009: Powerful Sun square Jupiter-Neptune in Aquarius with Moon in Libra HALLEY'S METEOR ALERT: Today, Earth is inside a stream of dusty debris from Halley's Comet, the source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. Forecasters expect meteor rates to peak around 85 per hour over the southern hemisphere. So far, however, no reports of strong activity have been received. Earth may be passing through a relatively empty region of the debris stream. Stay tuned for updates. May 6, 2009: Mars-Venus in Aries as rulers of Scorpio Full Moon with Sun in Taurus (May 8th) Solar storms ahead: Is Earth prepared? When we look at the sun (carefully), it appears to be a uniform, unchanging star. But scientists and engineers have a much different perspective. To them, the sun is a dynamic, chaotic, and poorly understood caldron of thermonuclear forces, one that can spit out fierce bursts of radiation at any time. May 5, 2009: Moon Opposing Venus-Mars in Aries (where Sun is exalted) emphasis on Solar Activity. We could see massive CME in two weeks?! THE SUN IS STIRRING: The face of the sun is blank--no sunspots--but this could soon change. NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft is monitoring a new active region hidden behind the sun's eastern limb. Earlier today, it produced an impressive coronal mass ejection (CME, movie) and a strong Type II radio burst. This image from STEREO's extreme UV telescope shows the region just after the explosion: At the root of all this activity is probably a large sunspot. Its high latitude identifies it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. The putative sunspot is not yet visible from Earth, but the sun is turning the region toward us for a better view. Readers with solar telescopes should keep an eye on sun's northeastern limb for a possible emergence on May 7th or 8th. May 4, 2009: Combo of todays' Moon opposing Uranus and Neptune-Jupiter ongoing conjunction in Aquarius ramps up the excitement level re: the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. SOUTHERN METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Halley's Comet, the source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Wednesday morning, May 6th, with as many as 85 meteors per hour over the southern hemisphere. Rates in the northern hemisphere will be less, 20 to 30 per hour. The best time to look is during the dark moonless hour before local sunrise. May 2, 2009: Mercury applying to sextiles with both Mars-Venus in Aries for focus on the Sun and of course Moon in Leo SOLAR PROMINENCES: Today, the solar prominence count is seven. The largest one is a gorgeous arch shown here in a photo from amateur astronomer James Screech of Bedford, England. "I took the picture using my Personal Solar Telescope," he says. For scale, a pair of planet Earth's could fit through the enormous loop with room to spare. May 2, 2009: The unusual is becoming common place even in space with Moon opposing Neptune and Mercury moving into TSQ with Saturn and Uranus (first a retrograde cycle will delay the exact aspect) Nearby asteroid found orbiting sun backwards The discovery of a 2- to 3-kilometre-wide asteroid in an orbit that goes backwards has set astronomers scratching their heads. It comes closer to Earth than any other object in a 'retrograde' orbit, and astronomers think they should have spotted it before. May 1, 2009: Sun square Moon in Leo for start of critical First Qtr. Waxing Phase The Geomagnetic Apocalypse — And How to Stop It For scary speculation about the end of civilization in 2012, people usually turn to followers of cryptic Mayan prophecy, not scientists. But that’s exactly what a group of NASA-assembled researchers described in a chilling report issued earlier this year on the destructive potential of solar storms. Entitled “Severe Space Weather Events — Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts,” it describes the consequences of solar flares unleashing waves of energy that could disrupt Earth’s magnetic field, overwhelming high-voltage transformers with vast electrical currents and short-circuiting energy grids. Such a catastrophe would cost the United States “$1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year,” concluded the panel, and “full recovery could take four to 10 years.” That would, of course, be just a fraction of global damages. April 2009 - A Month of Fiery Activity, Solar Minimum and Space Revelations April 30, 2009: Focus on Mercury with ingress into Gemini where Mercury is dignified SPACE WEATHER ON MERCURY: Is it any surprise? The planet closest to the sun is experiencing space weather events at a rate 10 times greater than anything we ever see on Earth. This is just one of several new findings about Mercury announced in today's issue of Science magazine. Get the full story Huge Impact Crater Discovered on Planet Mercury New observations from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft reveal about 30 percent of the planet Mercury that has never been seen up close before. A giant crater and evidence of ancient volcanoes are among the findings. April 30, 2009: Venus-Mars in Aries along with Sun trine Saturn (older sunspots) OLDER SUNSPOT 1016 EMERGES: A ring-shaped sunspot numbered 1016 has emerged near the sun's equator. Its magnetic polarity identifies it as a member of old Solar Cycle 23. Until these old cycle sunspots go away, the next solar cycle will remain in abeyance. April 28, 2009: Venus-Mars in Aries trine South Node in Leo for fiery outbursts from the past! GAMMA-RAY BURST SMASHES RECORD: A gamma-ray burst detected by NASA's Swift satellite has smashed the previous distance record for the most powerful explosions in the Universe. Researchers are calling it "an incredible find" and a "true blast from the past." Get the full story here. April 28, 2009: Moon ingress into Cancer @ 3:38 PM with Sun in Taurus perfect time for Earth and Moon Shine. BRIGHT EARTHSHINE: According to NASA-funded research, the best time to see Earthshine is now. Sunlight reflected from Earth onto the Moon is most intense during northern spring. Indeed, "the Earthshine was very bright in last night's 2.6-day-old Moon," says photographer Tamas Ladanyi of Hungary: April 25, 2009: Sun-Mercury in Taurus with a square to Neptune setting the stage for tomorrrow's sky show. Twilight Sky Show for April 26th: On Sunday evening, the crescent Moon, Mercury and the Pleiades star cluster will gather for a three-way conjunction in the western sky. It's a must-see event. The show begins before the sky fades to black. The Moon pops out of the twilight first, an exquisitely slender 5% crescent surrounded by cobalt blue. The horns of the crescent cradle a softly-glowing image of the full Moon. That is Earthshine—dark lunar terrain illuminated by sunlight reflected from Earth. If the show ended then and there, you'd be satisfied. Shortly after the Moon appears, Mercury materializes just below it. The innermost planet has emerged from the glare of the sun for its best apparition of the year in late April—perfect timing for a sunset encounter with the Moon. To the naked eye, Mercury looks like a pink 1st-magnitude star. The planet itself is not pink; it only looks that way because it has to shine through dusty lower layers of Earth’s atmosphere. A backyard telescope pointed at Mercury reveals a tiny fat crescent. The innermost planet has phases like the Moon! April 24, 2009: New Moon in Taurus with Mars in Aries joined by Venus ruler of the New Moon - Sun is exalted in Aries NOT-SO-QUIET SUN: The sun produced an unexpected burst of activity on April 23rd when an enormous prominence rose over the northeastern limb and erupted. SOHO recorded the blast from beginning to end with a series of high-cadence UV snapshots. Click Here to set the scene in motion April 22, 2009:Balsamic Moon Phase begins with ingress of Mars/Moon into Aries will the Sun start to perk up or will the solar minimum continue? 'Quiet Sun' baffling astronomers The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century. There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time. The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting. April 22nd: Mercury square Neptune as news of great importance is disseminated and Mars enters firery Aries for pioneering discoveries/efforts in space Two planets identified as most similar to Earth After locating more than 340 planets orbiting other stars, astronomers have identified two that are the most similar to Earth so far. The most recently discovered one is almost twice as large as Earth, making it the smallest exoplanet -- for extra-solar planet -- found to date. The second one was found in 2007, but new observations have shown that it is the only exoplanet to date that orbits its star in the so-called habitable zone, where water remains a liquid. Thus, it is the only exoplanet discovered that is likely to have oceans. April 21st: Venus-Mars in exact conjunction close to Uranus for beautiful emotional reviews especially with Sun in Taurus (ruled by Venus) LUNAR OCCULTATION OF VENUS: Even if the Lyrids fizzle, there is still something wonderful to see on Wednesday morning, April 22nd. The crescent Moon and Venus are going to have a close encounter of jaw-dropping beauty. Look low and to the east just before sunrise. Observers in western parts of North America will see a lunar occultation: Venus will disappear behind the Moon's limb just after 5 am PDT and reappear again an hour or so later. Details may be found here. April 19th: Mercury Square Jupiter for news on big events both on earth and in space. Lyrid Meteor Showers: Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Comet Thatcher, source of the annual Lyrid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the shower to peak during the dark hours before dawn on Wednesday, April 22nd, when observers should count 10 to 20 meteors per hour: more information here. April 16th: Mercury in security consciious Taurus trine Saturn in techonologically oriented Virgo means more defensive measures in space with our magnetosphere being comprimised. U.K. and Portugal researchers developing portable magnetosphere for spaceships Researchers from the U.K. and Portugal are developing a portable miniature magnetosphere to protect spaceships from high speed particles traveling through space, such as plasma from solar flares or cosmic rays. The Earth's magnetosphere protects our planet from many of these particles, deflecting them harmlessly into space; a miniature magnetic field surrounding a spaceship could serve exactly the same purpose. April 15th: The fiery Aries Sun Sextiles Neptune for future visions of a new sun more ferocious in 2011-12. SLOW-MOTION EXPLOSIONS: How deep is solar minimum? Consider this: The most powerful solar explosions are now moving in slow motion. "Lately, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have become very slow, so slow that they have to be dragged away from the sun by the solar wind," says researcher Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Lab. April 13th: As Sagittarius Moon moves to trine Sun in Aries - the nature of solar storms or CME's is revealed. For the first time, scientists have managed to trace the 3D shape of ferocious solar storms called CMEs--and it's a croissant. Get the full story here The Surprising Shape of Solar Storms Researchers studying data from NASA's twin STEREO probes have found that ferocious solar storms called CMEs (coronal mass ejections) are shaped like a French pastry. The elegance and simplicity of the new "croissant model" is expected to dramatically improve forecasts of severe space weather. April 12th: Sagittarius Moon (Jupiter) ruler squares Saturn for some serious evidence of RADIO STORMS ON JUPITER: On April 11th, the loudspeaker of Thomas Ashcraft's 21 MHz radio telescope in New Mexico suddenly began to hiss and crackle. The sounds grew louder as Jupiter rose in the blue morning sky. "I am pleased to report," says Ashcraft, "a successful recording of Jovian S-bursts--the first of 2009." Click Here to listen April 10th: New messenger in the sky as Sun in pioneering Aries is Sextile Neptune in Far Out Aquairus - new visions COMET Yi-SWAN: It's up all night long. Northern circumpolar Comet Yi-SWAN is gliding through the constellation Cassiopeia where it can be seen at almost any hour of the night through amateur telescopes. Working at his backyard observatory in Ellisville, Missouri, Gregg Ruppel took this picture on April 9th: Unlike our last visitor: Comet Lulin, Yi Swan will not be visibile to the naked eye or will it?? At the moment, the green, fuzzy comet is about as bright as an 8th-magnitude star--too dim for the naked eye. If predictions are correct, it will remain a telescopic comet, brightening only a little as it approaches the sun for a 190 million kilometer not-so-close encounter on May 8th. Astronomers will get a better look at the comet in the evenings ahead as the bright light of the full Moon fades. April 9th: Full Moon in Libra and Sun in dynamic Aries sets the stage for beautiful auroras. AURORA WATCH: High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras tonight and tomorrow. A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and this could spark magnetic storms around the Arctic Circle: gallery. April 8th: Approaching tomorrow's Full Moon in Libra with Mercury-Venus-Uranus-Pluto all Void of Course and Mars-Uranus conjunct. Is a Death Star Poised for Final Supernova Detonation Aimed at Earth? Astronomers Say "Maybe" Australian astronomers have been studying an intergalactic assassin poised to wipe out life on Earth. Maybe. Observations indicate that cosmological curiosity WR104 may be a killer - and we might be the victim. April 8th: Approaching tomorrow's Full Moon in Libra some appropriate Lunar Discoveries Earthshine Reflects Earth's Oceans And Continents From The Dark Side Of The Moon ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2009) — Researchers from the University of Melbourne and Princeton University have shown for the first time that the difference in reflection of light from the Earth’s land masses and oceans can be seen on the dark side of the moon, a phenomenon known as earthshine. April 7th: With combo of Jupiter applying toward Neptune in airy Aquarius and Mars moving toward Uranus SULFUR DIOXIDE LOOP: A loop of sulfur dioxide gas approximately 600 miles in diameter is swirling off the coast of California. It came from Alaska where Mt. Redoubt unleashed its biggest eruption yet on April 4th. Click on the image to launch a 4-day animation of the volcano's SO2 emissions: April 6th: As Sun moves toward a Sextile with Jupiter for expansion... SOLAR ACTIVITY: No sunspots? No problem. Even without those planet-sized islands of explosive magnetism, the sun is putting on a nice show: A polar crown prominence, a towering wall of plasma about 50,000 km high, was photographed by Jerome Grenier using a backyard solar telescope in Paris, France. Grenier's half-hour movie shows a phenomenon sometimes called "plasma falls." Narrow streams of plasma at the top of the prominence are constantly falling back to the bottom. Mysteriously, the streams plummet faster than ambient magnetic forces seem to allow. Nuclear engineers would like to figure out how this happens, because it also happens on a smaller scale in fusion reactors on Earth, frustrating their efforts to sustain an energy-producing reaction. Maybe prominences hold the key to the problem. April 2nd: Pluto and Venus in hard aspect with Pluto stationing (April 4th) NEW VERB prompted by Mt. Redoubt: There's a new verb in Alaska: "to ash." It's like "to snow," only grayer and more sulfurous. Residents downwind of Mt. Redoubt are using it like this: "We don't run our ski lifts when it ashes because it damages the electric motors," says Michelle Cosper of the Alyeska Resort near Girdwood. April 1st: As Sun in Aries Squares Moon in Cancer Deep Solar Minimum April 1, 2009: The sunspot cycle is behaving a little like the stock market. Just when you think it has hit bottom, it goes even lower. 2008 was a bear. There were no sunspots observed on 266 of the year's 366 days (73%). To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days: plot. Prompted by these numbers, some observers suggested that the solar cycle had hit bottom in 2008. March 2009 - A Month of Mystery, Solar Winds and More Auroras March 30th: As Sun-Mercury conjunct to add to the applying Venus (Aries) Square to Pluto (Capricorn) - Volcanic clouds. VOLCANIC CLOUDS IN MOTION: Alaska's Mt. Redoubt volcano has erupted at least 19 times since March 22nd, and several of the larger blasts have hurled plumes of ash and gas into the lower stratosphere. The GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) sensor onboard Europe's MetOp-A satellite is tracking Mt. Redoubt's sulfur dioxide clouds, colored red in this 6-day animation March 29th: Taurus Moon square Neptune for visions along with Mars applying to square with Saturn (explosive actions) ATLANTIC COAST FIREBALL: Last night, March 29th around 9:45 pm EDT, people along the Atlantic coast of the USA from Maryland to North Carolina witnessed bright lights in the sky and heard thunderous booms. It was almost certainly a meteoritic bolide--a random asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere and exploding in flight. March 26th: While an Aries New Moon demonstrated power here on earth, super massive Black Holes show new powers... Erratic Black Hole Regulates Itself ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2009) — New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have made a major advance in explaining how a special class of black holes may shut off the high-speed jets they produce. These results suggest that these black holes have a mechanism for regulating the rate at which they grow. March 25th: Moon-Venus-Sun in Aries with Square to Pluto - Aries Sun is exalted in traditional astrology AROUND THE BEND: The sun has been without spots for nearly a month, but the blank spell could be coming to an end. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is monitoring intense activity on the sun's northeastern limb: March 22nd: With Sun in Aries exalted but square Pluto lord of the underworld, sunspots are at a minimum... DEEP SOLAR MINIMUM: Where have all the sunspots gone? As of yesterday, March 21st, the sun has been blank on 85% of the days of 2009. If this rate of spotlessness continues through the end of the year, 2009 will match 1913 as the blankest year of the past century. A flurry of new-cycle sunspots in Oct. 2008 prompted some observers to declare that solar minimum was ending, but since then the calm has returned. We are still in the pits of a deep solar minimum. March 21st: Aquarius Moon sextile Sun in pioneering Aries and a Mercury-Uranus conjunction for more discoveries in space. Is life bubbling up in Mars mud? S LIFE bubbling onto the Martian surface in muddy squirts? The discovery of what could be mud volcanoes on the planet suggest it is possible, providing a new focus in the hunt for alien microbes. March 20th: Vernal Equinox begins @ 11:44 AM UT as Sun enters Aries for more solar wind and auroras AURORA SPRING: The first day of northern Spring could end with a display of Northern Lights. A solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth on March 20th, and the impact could trigger geomagnetic activity around the Arctic Circle. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras: gallery. March 19th: Mercury-Uranus moving together in Pisces (sea water) for new discoveries. Mars Lander gets lucky break as 'water drops' discovered clinging to craft's leg The Phoenix Mars Lander has spent months searching for liquid on the Red Planet. Now it appears that water has found the intrepid spacecraft. Several photographs taken by Nasa's explorer show what look like water droplets clinging to one of its robotic landing struts. March 18th: Moon in space oriented Sagittarius Squares Sun in Pisces to began the critical last qtr. waning moon phase. ASTEROID FLYBY: Newly-discovered asteroid 2009 FH is flying past Earth today, March 18th, only 85,000 km (0.00057 AU) away. That's a little more than twice the altitude of a geosynchronous communications satellite. There is no danger of a collision with the 20-meter-wide space rock--just a close shave. March 17th: Moon in exciting Sagittarius TSQ Mercury-Uranus and Saturn AURORA BLARNEYALIS: Green auroras over Greenland? It must be St. Patrick's Day. The celebration began last night with this display over Nuuk: March 15th: With Scorpio Moon Void of Course, space shuttle Discovery lifted off Sunday evening @ 7:43 PM with Ascendant @ 28 Virgo 58 with an occult Sabian Symbol: " A man gaining secret knowledge from an ancient scroll he is reading. " Space Shuttle Discovery's "Night" Blast Off - 03/15/09 March 14th: Sun-Uranus still in orb moving into a trine to the Moon NEW SUNSPOT: A new sunspot may be emerging in the southeastern quadrant of the sun: images March 13th: Right on time for Friday the 13th with Libra Moon trine Mars and Neptune with Libra's ruler Venus SQ Pluto GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A solar wind stream hits Earth last light, sparking a magnetic storm around the Arctic Circle. Rune Christianse sends this picture from Nuuk, Greenland: TITAN TRANSIT: Last night, March 12th, Saturn's giant moon Titan cast its shadow on the ringed planet's cloudtops. March 12th - Full Moon Effect with Sun-Uranus causing the unexpected accidents as Mars is Void of Course Space station has close call with orbiting junk A piece of debris zipping by at astronomical speed forced the crew of the international space station to take shelter in its escape capsule Thursday, a rare close call for the orbiting platform, NASA said. March 12th - Full Moon Effect with Sun-Uranus causing the unexpected and crisis oriented. Magnetosphere Alert! Sun to be felt in full force... View current Real-time Magnetosphere Simulation GRAPHS EXPLAINED: The one in the top left corner is the magnetic field of Earth. A properly functioning magnetic field has an 'In' and an 'Out. The fact we have an 'Out' and no 'In' can only mean one thing. Zero magnetic field. The graph at the top right is a representation of the Magnetic field protecting Earth. Like a bow wave on a ship deflects debris, this field deflects radiation and space rocks. The sun is about to be felt full force on the surface. Pray for the red to start flowing again. Pray for no meteors and no solar flares. Wear your SPF 30+, March 12th - Full Moon Effect with Sun-Uranus causing the unexpected action along with delays of Mercury Opp Saturn DISCOVERY DELAYED: Space shuttle Discovery failed to launch on March 11th when a hydrogen leak was discovered during countdown. Engineers are dealing with the problem. Mission controllers say the next launch attempt could come as early as Sunday, March 15th. March 11th - Full Moon Phase with Sun touching Uranus and Libra Moon creating beauty LUCKY AURORAS: Friday the 13th could be a lucky day for Arctic sky watchers. A solar wind stream is heading for Earth, and NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of geomagnetic activity when it arrives on March 13th. Stay tuned for Northern Lights at the end of the week: gallery. March 10th - Full Moon with Sun touching Uranus and opposing Saturn-Moon COSMOS IS FALLING: The first fragments of shattered satellite Cosmos 2251 are about to reenter Earth's atmosphere. According to US Strategic Command, fragment 1993-036PX will reenter on March 12th, followed by 1993-036KW on March 28th and 1993-036MC on March 30th. These are probably centimeter-sized pieces that will disintegrate in the atmosphere, posing no threat to people on the ground. Click on this link to see the path of the falling debris. March 10th - Full Moon with Sun touching Uranus (exact 3-12-09) with solar wind reaching us on March 12th CORONAL HOLE: Extreme UV telescopes onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) are monitoring a dark hole in the sun's atmosphere--a coronal hole where a solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole should arrive on March 12th or 13th. March 8th - A busy day with Mars meeting Neptune to carry on ideals - the Comet Lulin still outshines our petty grievances. Comet Lulin is gone but not forgotten especially the last meeting with Regulus (the Heart of the Lion) signifies power transference on many leves! Here is an updated photo gallery of Comet Lulin March 4th: As airy Moon in Gemini trines Mars-Mercury and Neptune all in Aquarius more visions in the sky are replete with wonder AURORA WATCH: On March 3rd at 1:49 am, Alaska time, photographer Amara Eren stood shivering in the minus 20-degree air at Chena Hot Springs outside Fairbanks. "It was bitterly cold--even without the wind," she says. But, oh, what a view: March 3rd: First Qtr. Moon with conflicting Sun SQ Moon SOLAR ACTIVITY: With no sunspots in sight, the face of the sun is blank and dull. The edge of the sun, on the other hand, is pretty lively. March 1st: with Moon SQ Jupiter and imagination heightened along with reality in a seemingly distorted phase. ASTEROID FLYBY: Newly-discovered asteroid 2009 DD45 is about to fly past Earth only 73,000 km away (0.2 LD). The space rock is about 35 meters in diameter, similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908. At closest approach on March 2nd, around 1400 UT (6 a.m. PST), 2009 DD45 will speed through the constellation Virgo shining as brightly as an 11th magnitude star. Experienced amateur astronomers can track the asteroid using this ephemeris. February 2009 - A Month of Magic and Auroras Feb. 28th: Moon in Aries reflects the powerful solar wind since Aries is exalted with the Sun. AURORA SURPRISE: With little warning, a high-speed solar wind stream hit Earth yesterday, sparking a surprise display of Northern Lights around the Arctic Circle: gallery. High-latitude sky watchers should remain alert for more auroras tonight as the solar wind continues to blow. Feb. 27th: Moon Conjunct Venus as our emotions and relationships are enhanced. Moon and Venus Converge Friday Night It has been a superb winter for viewing the queen of the planets, Venus. February marks the pinnacle of its evening visibility as it stands like a sequined showgirl nearly halfway up in the western sky at sunset. You can't miss it. Just look west after sunset. In fact, you can see it during the day if you know where to look. Find it just after sunset one evening, then scan around the same spot just before sunset the next day. Feb. 27th: Forward thinking and acting Aries Moon meets Venus today The Beauty and Splendor of Moon meeting Venus tonight. Feb. 25th: Crazy, mysterious Pisces Moon reflects strange phenomena Residents In El Cajon Spot Bizarre Lights In The Sky Some residents in El Cajon had their eye on the sky after spotting some bizarre lights. NASA did launch a satellite Monday night, but the flashes over the East County were spotted way before that. Feb. 25th: NEW SUNSPOT: The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is monitoring a sunspot now forming in the sun's northern hemisphere. The spot's high latitude and magnetic polarity identify it as a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Feb. 24th: Pisces Sun/Moon Opposing Ceres in tropical Virgo Ceres will be at opposition on 25 February 2009 when it will be at its brightest, magnitude 6.9. Due to the inclination of its orbit, it will not be due north at local midnight until a few days later on 2 March 2009. The asteroid is at conjunction with the Sun on 31 October 2009, and too close to the Sun for observation about a month or more either side of this date. Feb. 24th: Pisces Moon and Aquarian alignments want to explore and explain the nature of alien life. Does a "Great Filter" Exist? (Or, Why We've Never Discovered Signs of Alien Life) Feb. 23rd: Balsamic Moon Phase in Aquarius moving towards mysterious Pisces New Moon - A Comet Comes Our Way! Stargazers to be offered a good glimpse of comet Monday Feb. 22nd: Moon in Aquarius meets Mercury-Jupiter-Mars as Mercury-Jupiter in Aquarius expand the cosmic energies streaming in to earth. WEEKEND AURORAS: A solar wind stream hit Earth on Saturday, Feb 21st, and stirred up geomagnetic activity around the Arctic Circle. "It was very quiet until midnight and then the sky lit up with beautiful Northern Lights," Feb. 19: Sun sextile Pluto to shed light on the mysterious COMET LULIN UPDATE: Last week, observers saw little of Comet Lulin because it was lost in the glare of the passing Moon. The glare is subsiding now and Lulin is back--better than ever. Observers say it is visible to the naked-eye (magnitude +5.6) as a faint gassy patch in the constellation Virgo before dawn. Backyard telescopes reveal a full-fledged comet, vivid green, that moves as you watch it. Feb. 18: Sun enters Neptune ruled Pisces for more confusion as space travel oriented Sagittarius Moon TSQ Saturn-Uranus Russia Wants to Land on Europa NASA is expected to announce next week whether its next mission to the outer planets will target Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s Titan, but the Russians apparently have their own game plan. Feb. 17: Fiery Sagittarius Moon to TSQ Saturn in Virgo Opposing Uranus in Pisces Comet Lulin Updates: Comet Lulin is approaching Earth for a 38-million-mile close encounter on Feb. 24th. Lulin has brightened so much, telescopic amplification is no longer needed to photograph it. Using an off-the-shelf digital camera, Alex Roca of Hortoneda, Spain, caught the comet passing 4th-magnitude star theta Virginis on Feb. 17th: Feb. 16: Mercury triggers and adds to the space oriented Aquarian Alignment with more incredible sightings! Fireballs recorded in Italy too! On the evening of Friday the 13th, around 2003 UT, multiple cameras in Italy recorded a fireball at least 10 times brighter than a full Moon. Astronomer Diego Valeri sends this movie from Rieti. (Note: DivX is required to view the movie.) Ferruccio Zanotti of Ferrara recorded that same fireball and two others. Italian scientists are plotting the trajectory of the brightest fireball to estimate where it might have hit the ground; a meteorite hunt will soon be underway. FIREBALL MANIA: Runners in Sunday's Austin marathon were astonished when a brilliant fireball raced across the Texas sky in broad daylight. The extremely-bright meteor descended at 11 am CST on Feb. 15th What you just saw was not satellite debris. The high speed of the fireball in the News 8 video is typical of a natural meteoroid hitting Earth's atmosphere at tens of km/s. Orbital debris, on the other hand, should crawl across the sky at a fraction of that speed. Astronomer Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office has analyzed the video and confirms "it's a natural meteor, definitely." According to Cooke's analysis, the source of the fireball was a meter-class asteroid traveling at about 20 km/s. Feb. 15: Aquarian alignment brings focus on cosmic events and space-related events of the unusual nature! Texans report fireball in sky, sonic booms (CNN) -- Sonic booms and at least one fireball in the sky were reported in Texas on Sunday, less than a week after two satellites collided in space and a day after the Federal Aviation Administration asked U.S. pilots to watch for "falling space debris," authorities said. KENTUCKY FIREBALL: On Friday, Feb. 13th, around 10:00 pm EST, people in central Kentucky heard loud booms, felt their houses shake, and some saw a fireball streaking through the sky. The nature of this event is still under investigation. Feb. 14: Magical Valentine's Day as Mercury enters Aquarius to joing the current alignment. AURORA WATCH: Arctic sweethearts, look up. Earth is entering a solar wind stream and, according to NOAA, there is a 35% chance of high-latitude geomagnetic activity. Valentine's Day could end with a sweet display of Northern Lights: view gallery. Feb. 12: With confusing Sun-Neptune together direction was uncertain along with Mercury Void of Course COLLIDING SATELLITES: Experts are calling it an "unprecedented event." Two satellites have collided in Earth orbit. Iridium 33 crashed into Kosmos 2251 on Tuesday, Feb. 10th, approximately 800 km over northern Siberia. Feb. 11: Sun and Neptune together for unusual events. SOLAR FLARE: Yesterday, Feb. 10th at 2310 UT, Earth-orbiting satellites detected a B1-class solar flare. Normally, such a small eruption would pass unremarked, but during this deep solar minimum, it's a relatively big event. Feb. 10: Moon moves together with Saturn to oppose Uranus for amazing view. TITAN TRANSIT: Saturn's rings are nearly edge-on to Earth and this is giving astronomers a chance to see unaccustomed things "There will be two more transits visible this year: Feb 24th and March 12th," notes Go. "The one on Feb 24th is special as it will be a quadruple transit of Titan, Mimas, Dione and Enceladus. At around 14:25UT on that day, all four moons will be within Saturn's disk." Feb 24th is special for another reason: Comet Lulin makes its closest approach to Earth on that date, coincidentally just a few degrees away from Saturn: sky map. In one quick sweep of a backyard telescope, you'll be able to see Titan, Saturn's edge-on rings, and a green comet with an active tail. Mark your calendar! Feb. 9: Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Leo with massive Aquarian stellium for surprises.... Lunar eclipse visibility in parts of North America, Australia and Asia - Visibility Map for Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Feb. 7: Aquarian stellium of Mars-Jupiter-Sun-Neptune are brining insights into deep space. An exceptionally Deep View Of the Strange Coma Galaxy Cluster Feb. 5: Powerful cosmic forces in play with Saturn Opp. Uranus along with Venus SQ. Pluto RUSSIAN AURORAS: Last night, the sun's magnetic field near Earth tipped south, opening a crack in Earth's magnetosphere and allowing solar wind to stream inside. Promptly, the skies over northern Russia turned green: Feb. 5: Powerful cosmic forces in play with Saturn Opp. Uranus along with Venus SQ. Pluto DISCONNECTED TAIL: On Feb. 4th, a team of Italian astronomers witnessed "an intriguing phenomenon in Comet Lulin's tail." Team leader Ernesto Guido explains: "We photographed the comet using a remotely-controlled telescope in New Mexico, and our images clearly showed a disconnection event. While we were looking, part of the comet's plasma tail was torn away." Feb. 3: Venus now in fiery Aries with Mars ready to ingress into Aquarius on Feb. 4th FIREBALL ALERT: During the next 48 hours, two big pieces of space debris are expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere: a 2000 kg Centaur rocket body on Feb. 3rd and a 2500 kg Delta III rocket body on Feb. 4th. People living along the reentry ground tracks should be alert for fireballs Feb. 2: First Qtr. Moon in Taurus with Venus ingress into Aries COMET LULIN BRIGHTENS: Veteran sky watcher Mariano Ribas of Argentina has been monitoring Comet Lulin in the skies of Buenos Aires. "In the past ten days, the comet has brightened by almost 60% (half a magnitude) to magnitude +6.5," he reports. "Even with our heavy urban light pollution, the comet is an easy target for small telescopes and binoculars. January 2009 - New Visions from Space Jan. 29th: Crescent Moon in mystical Pisces meeting Venus now Void of Course SUNSET SKY SHOW: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look southwest. Venus and the crescent Moon are having a lovely close encounter. They're so bright, you can see them even before the sky fades to black. Venus and the Moon framed by twilight blue is a scene of special beauty. Jan. 26th: Solar Eclipse in far out Aquarius brings in new visitor: STRANGE ASTEROID: Newly-discovered asteroid 2009 BD is slowly passing by Earth today only 400,000 miles away. The small 10m-wide space rock poses no threat, but it merits attention anyway. The orbit of 2009 BD appears to be almost identical to the orbit of Earth. 2009 BD may be a rare co-orbital asteroid, circling the sun in near-tandem with our planet. Jan. 25th: Sun-Jupiter-Neptune in Aquarius as the far reaches of our solar system are explored NASA Gets First Look at Far Side of Sun Jan. 24th: Mighty Jupiter meeting Sun in the sign of unexpected events Aquarius with rulers in opposition MASSPIKE FIREBALL: Last night a meteoroid of unknown size hit Earth's atmosphere over New England. Its bright, blue-green disintegration startled motorists driving along the Massachusetts Turnpike and surrounding areas: eye-witness accounts. Jan. 22nd as Sun and Jupiter move together (exact on Jan. 23rd. ) BIRTH OF A SUNSPOT: Two weeks ago, a sunspot was born. The event could not be seen from Earth because it happened over the sun's eastern horizon. The sunspot was a member of new Solar Cycle 24; we know this because of its high latitude where new-cycle sunspots are always born. By the time the region rotated around to face Earth, it was fading away; no dark sunspot core was visible but that has changed. Jan. 21st as Venus and Uranus move together and Aquarian planets continue their strong transits. COMET LULIN UPDATE: "Right now, Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3) is an easy target for binoculars and small telescopes," reports Mariano Ribas of Buenos Aires, Argentina. "It is visible despite our strong urban light pollution. Jan. 19th as Sun enters electric Aquarius - Scandinavian Fireball Sightings and detailed info. SCANDINAVIAN FIREBALL: A meteoroid of unknown size hit Earth's atmosphere over Scandinavia on Jan. 17th (1909 UT) and disintegrated in a thunderous explosion. The fireball was so bright it turned the nighttime sky blue: Video here Jan. 18th - with Venus (beauty) applying to a conjunction with Uranus (far out events) AURORA WATCH: High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for Northern Lights. A solar wind stream is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field during the next 24 hours, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle. Check out the incredible gallery for January 2009. Jan. 17th-with Mercury meeting Jupiter in Aquarius one of the signs that rules space weather Meteor over Denmark Jan. 17th - Libra Moon moves into challenging 3rd. Qtr. Phase with a SQ to the Sun in Capricorn Source of Moon's Magnetism Found Their findings fit in with the prevailing theory that the moon was born when a Mars-sized body crashed into the Earth and blasted much of its crust into space, where it clumped together to form the moon. Jan. 16th - As Mercury meets Jupiter in Aquarius with new theories and explorations in learning. Our world may be a giant hologram per the GEO600 experiment. The idea that we live in a hologram probably sounds absurd, but it is a natural extension of our best understanding of black holes, and something with a pretty firm theoretical footing. It has also been surprisingly helpful for physicists wrestling with theories of how the universe works at its most fundamental level. Jan. 15th - with Virgo Moon VOC moving into Libra to trine Mercury and SQ Pluto for revelations? MARS IS ALIVE: A team of NASA and university scientists has discovered 'substantial plumes' of methane floating through the atmosphere of Mars. Their discovery indicates Mars is either biologically or geologically active. Jan. 14th - with Venus moving toward a meeting with Uranus the awakener HOURS OF VENUS: Today, Jan. 14th, Venus reaches its maximum elongation (apparent distance) from the sun. Go outside at sunset, face south, and take a long look. Venus won't set for more than three hours. Jan. 12th as we move into Eclipse Season dominated by galactic Aquarius Comet Lulin will make it's closest approach (0.41 AU) on February 24th, the comet should brighten to about 5th magnitude--dimly visible to the unaided eye and an easy target for binoculars: ephemeris. Surprises are possible. Jan. 11th with Moon in Leo ruled by the SUN... NEW-CYCLE SUNSPOT: It's not big, but it is significant. Emerging sunspot 1010 is a member of new Solar Cycle 24. This small but growing active region is the latest in a series of new-cycle spots that began popping up on the sun about four months ago. Solar activity is still low, but we appear to be leaving solar minimum behind and beginning the slow ascent to Solar Max in 2011-2013. Jan. 10th: BIGGEST FULL MOON OF THE YEAR: This weekend's full Moon is the biggest full Moon of the year. It's a "perigee Moon" as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser Moons we'll see later in 2009. Jan. 8th with Gemini Moon SQ Uranus for the unexpected... APPROACHING COMET: Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3), discovered in 2007 by a Strait-bridging team of astronomers from Taiwan and China, is swinging around the sun and approaching Earth. Here is a sky map of Lulin gliding through the constellation Libra Jan. 7th with Moon in Gemini trine Uranian Jupiter in Aquarius thought travels faster then light Faster than the Speed of Light? A New Theory Says, "Yes" Jan. 6th with Jupiter now in Aquarius expanding our knowledge of exoplanets and exopolitics Habitable Exoplanets Could Be Common in Our Galaxy Jan. 6th: As Taurus Moon makes an harmonious trine to Capricorn Sun watch the northern skies for lights. AURORA WATCH: "Last night the Northern Lights made their first appearance of 2009. What a sight! The half moon cast its glow on the freshly fallen snow while the lights danced overhead." Check out the Aurora Gallery for January 2009 Jan. 5th: As Aries Moon (where the Sun is exalted) ends and Taurus begins we look back at yesterday's perihelion. Does this perihelion make my Sun look fat? Jan. 4th: With Aries Moon in the First Qtr. Phase: QUADRANTID RECAP with Gallery: Saturday's Quadrantid meteor shower was even better than expected. "It was an awesome spectacle, showering us with meteors faster than we could count," Jan. 2nd: With Moon meeting Uranus and Applying Sun Sextile Uranus for exciting cosmic events and our reactions FIRST METEORS OF 2009: The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on Jan. 3rd when Earth enters a stream of debris from shattered comet 2003 EH1. The timing of the encounter favors observers in western North America who could see dozens to hundreds of meteors during the dark hours before dawn on Saturday morning New Years Eve Sky Show with Dazzling Venus touching the Moon December 31st - NOW A NEW ENGLAND FIREBALL: On Dec. 29th, around 9:30 pm EST, a blue-green fireball 100+ times brighter than Venus soared over New England and exploded colorfully in mid-air. Onlookers saw the flash from at least nine US states: eye-witness reports. December 2008 - Fireballs and More December 29th with the Aquarian Moon ready for beautiful meeting with Venus on New Years Eve. SUNSET PLANETS: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look southwest. A beautifully-slender crescent Moon is approaching Venus for a lovely conjunction on New Years Eve. Meanwhile, closer to the horizon, Mercury and Jupiter are converging for their own Dec. 31st conjunction. There's a lot going on in the sunset; take a look! Sky maps: Dec. 29, 30, 31. December 27th: with the Capricorn New Moon a CALIFORNIA FIREBALL: CALIFORNIA FIREBALL: A remarkable fireball blazed across Califonia on Dec. 27th around 1:50 am PST. Its brilliant blue-green light caught the attention of onlookers (some inside their homes) all the way from San Francisco Bay in the north to the Los Angeles metropolitan area in the south--a range of more than 340 miles. December 23rd: with Jupiter Void of Course and sextile the Moon in probing Scorpio Unmasking Jupiter's Europa -Does Its Hidden Ocean Harbor Life? December 22nd - With Scorpio Moon sextile Mercury lets look a little deeper into the Global Warming Myth watch the video December 21st - Solstice Meteor Showers URSID METEORS: Earth is entering a stream of debris from comet 8P/Tuttle and this is causing the annual Ursid meteor shower. Forecasters expect the Ursids to peak on Dec. 22nd with 8 to 10 meteors per hour flying out of the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Dipper). The display is usually mild, but outbursts of Ursids occasionally surprise observers with rates many times normal. December 17th and 18th: Virgo Moon translating the light of the Saturn-Uranus Opposition NACREOUS CLOUDS: For the second time in a week, nacreous clouds have made an appearance over Scandinavia. On Dec. 17th they were sighted over Trondheim, Norway. Yesterday, the clouds came to Kittila, Finland: Nacreous clouds are located in the stratosphere some 9 to 16 miles high. Their iridescent "mother of pearl" colors come from sunlight striking tiny ice crystals inside the clouds. Very low temperatures near -85o C are required to form the crystals, which is why nacreous clouds are seen mainly during winter over places like Alaska, Iceland and Scandinavia. View an Amazing Gallery of 2008 Nacreous Cloud Images. NOTICE the E-mail address has changed Send Comments and Your Links to Aquarian Solutions Confirmation Code: GNNDFCX16332169 Navigational Tools Home |Astrology Updates | Mystical Topics | Mission Statement | Writer's Guidelines | Current Reports | Shamanic Return | AquaSoul's Literary Archives | Hypnotheraphy Empowerment| Free Membership Services "Implementing Solutions for Beyond the 21st Century" © 1997 by Aquarian Solutions All rights reserved. Get a GoStats hit counter Art Gianfermo is a member of This Site is Hosted by Site Action Web Hosting for the Real World