2013 Space Weather Discussion

[venture]

NASA TV will have coverage of the fly by today at 1PM. Apparently observatories in Australia are going to be used to show it in near live/real time.

NASA to Broadcast Asteroid Flyby of Earth - NASA Science

[venture]

If anything to learn from the Russian event, it is a good reminder there are plenty of things off our little marble that we can't control. These things have been hitting since the planet was formed and won't stop anytime too. We are impacted by roughly 100 meteors a day. The ones like Russia doesn't happen all that often though, somewhere like once every few years.

[OKCisOK4me]

BADASS!!!!!!!!!! I would've loved to have been there! Man why does all the crazy sh*t happen in Russia? lol... It's been said the world has became cooler since video cameras were introduced there lol

Reminds me of the scene in Deep Impact, accept that, after having watched what happened in Russia, I now know that the scene in Deep Impact is way off (ie, the asteroid making a shuttle noise as it barrels over the interstate on its way out to the ocean). If that were real life, it would have sent a shockwave and probably imploded everyone in that part of the movie!

[Plutonic Panda]

Reminds me of the scene in Deep Impact, accept that, after having watched what happened in Russia, I now know that the scene in Deep Impact is way off (ie, the asteroid making a shuttle noise as it barrels over the interstate on its way out to the ocean). If that were real life, it would have sent a shockwave and probably imploded everyone in that part of the movie!

*LIKE* lol

[OKCisOK4me]

Interesting article I'm currently reading on weather.com:

Rainbow-Colored Cloud Hides Baby Black Hole - weather.com

[venture]

A few big updates today...

CHANCE OF FLARES: New sunspot AR1678 has developed a delta-class magnetic field that harbors energy for strong explosions. NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of M-flares and a 15% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours.

FAST-GROWING SUNSPOT: At the beginning of this week, sunspot AR1678 didn't exist. Now it is five times wider than our entire planet. NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the sunspot's rapid emergence on Feb. 19-20:



Comet wise...looks like we have 3 now to look forward to this year.

Panstarrs comes into view for us in the Northern Hemisphere next month...



Comet Lemmon shows up in late April/May



Finally Ison should be bright enough by December to be view-able by the naked eye.

[Plutonic Panda]

F***in awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this....

[venture]

SpaceWeather reporting that newly discovered Comet Siding Spring (2013 A1) is currently projected to pass with in 31,000 miles of the surface of Mars and NASA is not ruling out an impact now. Should be a good reminder our solar system is a dangerous place, though not as much of a "wild west" it use to be.



NASA - Comet to Make Close Flyby of Red Planet in October 2014

Reminder, starting March 12th Comet Pan-STARRS will start to be visible on the western horizon at sunset near the crescent moon.



Comet Panstarrs
Taken by Emilio Lepeley on March 5, 2013 @ Observatorio Mamalluca, Vicuña, Chile.

[Plutonic Panda]

I saw this the other day. I wonder what will happen to our rovers?

[ljbab728]

I saw this the other day. I wonder what will happen to our rovers?

They will wave hello to the comet as it passes and then go back to their drudgery.

[Plutonic Panda]

They will wave hello to the comet as it passes and then go back to their drudgery.

Let's hope haha.... Maybe take a few fan shots as well ;P

[venture]

Good resources for the updates on the comets:
The Transient Sky - Comets, Asteroids, Meteors | Bringing you cool stuff about Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors
Comet ISON Explained (Infographic) | Comet of the Century | Space.com

Couldn't find a chart for Comet Lemmon which comes into view for us in April I believe. ISON is the main show this year and could be very bright, if it survives its first trip around the Sun.

Pan-STARRS


Comet ISON

[venture]

Tomorrow evening should be clear it seems, so get cameras ready as Pan-STARRS is now visible for us.

[BG918]

I'm going to be in Iceland at the end of March. Curious if the solar activity will be active enough for a good Northern Lights show after dark. I hope so, I've never seen the Lights before.

[jn1780]

I'm going to be in Iceland at the end of March. Curious if the solar activity will be active enough for a good Northern Lights show after dark. I hope so, I've never seen the Lights before.

Hard to know what the sun will be doing at the end of March, but right now solar activity is low.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm going to be in Iceland at the end of March. Curious if the solar activity will be active enough for a good Northern Lights show after dark. I hope so, I've never seen the Lights before.

Well, you are lucky my friend! If you see anything, please take some pics or videos. I've been wanting to go up in that part of the world for some time now. Will likely be going to Norway next year, so that will be interesting!

[venture]

Clearing line is just now to Lawton, so its going to probably be too late for us to get the first look at Pan-STARRS tonight.

[venture]

Few more minutes of being able to see it here...well if anyone is able to. Here is a pic from VA this evening to give a good guide.



Comet
Taken by Ray Dileo on March 12, 2013 @ Smith Mountain Lake, southwest of Lynchburg VA

[OKCisOK4me]

^^^Yeah, that's a lot further away from the moon then where they've been saying to look (that being in Oklahoma, just above and to the left of the moon). It will skirt diagonally up and to the right of the moon through the 18th. I've heard the best night will technically be the 16th. I looked tonight after I got off work at 8pm and never saw it. Will continue the hunt!

[venture]

It's funny that viewers of KFOR sent in some pics yesterday. They were basing them off that graphic going around giving an example of placement. However all they were sending in pics of were contrails and didn't realize it...yet KFOR still posted them online? Sigh.

No visual for me today. Plenty of time still though!

[OKCisOK4me]

I watched Freedom 43 and the weather guy (Chase or whatever his name is) said no pics were coming in tonight as compared to last night so maybe it was a change in the quality and crispness of the atmosphere.

[venture]

I watched Freedom 43 and the weather guy (Chase or whatever his name is) said no pics were coming in tonight as compared to last night so maybe it was a change in the quality and crispness of the atmosphere.

Looks like they got a good one on the Facebook page, well at least KFOR's side. The only two pics I saw from KFOR (which owns Freedom 43) were jet contrails and not the comet.

[ljbab728]

Looks like they got a good one on the Facebook page, well at least KFOR's side. The only two pics I saw from KFOR (which owns Freedom 43) were jet contrails and not the comet.

The pic I saw on their news program looked exactly like the picture you posted earlier.

[venture]

The pic I saw on their news program looked exactly like the picture you posted earlier.

This is what I was talking about: PHOTOS: Did you see the comet? | KFOR.com

Pictures 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are either contrails or just clouds. Yet the news still puts them on there. :-P

[silvergrove]

Using my boss's telescope and my camera phone, I was able to nab this image. It was hard to get the phone aligned with the eyepiece while my hands were shaking. You can see the comet with the naked eye at the periphery.