NOAA has outdone themselves. http://helios.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation is a new tool that not only estimates the strength of the current auroral conditions, but how easily they can be seen on the ground, which is where Astropotamus lives.
Check it out, and make sure to say thank you to your congressperson the next time that NOAA’s funding comes up for renewal!
I’ll let NASA speak for itself, but I wanted to put the first picture from Curiosity here for all to see:
Leave it to a comic to put things in perspective.
Leave it to a comic to put things in perspective.
Rather than posting them here, I’ve put them on dropbox. You can see pictures of the transit of Venus occurring at the same time as a solar flare (look at about the 7:00-8:00 point on the solar disc) at:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gcksdhs0fq9jfeg/Mx44sKE0tr
Happy viewing!
Today is June 6, 2012. The day after the last transit of Venus that everyone alive today will ever see. Well, there may be a few people that were born on June 4 that will live to be 105 1/2, and see the transit that occurs in December of 2117, but we’re discounting those few. By now, you’ve probably heard that transits of Venus occur in pairs separated by 8 years, but those pairs are separated by 105 or 121 years. So the last one was in 2004 and the next will be 2117.
Transit of Venus, 2012
A picture is worth 112 years worth of words. Warning – Clicking on this image will open a 4MB high resolution version of this image. Of course, I highly recommend it.
The Mass Transit of Venus
I wish I could take credit for this, but I can’t. Love the image, though.
On May 20, 2012, a rare and spectacular annular solar eclipse will take place for the Western half of the United States. Sadly, this Astropotamus is in the Eastern half of the United States and won’t see it. If you are interested in this annular eclipse, lots of information is available on the Internet. If you want to know more about what makes an annular eclipse special (and not an annual eclipse), then read on.
In playing with the new camera, I came across a particular fact of life as an Astropotamus: I do not have night vision. As a result of not having night vision, I cannot see in the dark without an external light source. And if I shine a bright light in the dark, my eyes will stop being dark adapted for a while. It’s then that you should avoid walking on a raised concrete walkway.
Throughout the ages, Orion has played a prominent role in astronomy. The Pyramids are said to be aligned with its belt, though most Astropotamuses don’t believe this. The Orion Nebula (the middle “star” of his belt”) has been a form of eye test for thousands of years. And my favorite, it signifies the return of cold, dark, clear winter skies.