From frank at mclc908.org Wed Jan 21 18:43:42 2015 From: frank at mclc908.org (Frank) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 18:43:42 -0500 Subject: [MIham] Fwd: Bright Asteroid Flyby In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <54C039AE.6060706@mclc908.org> Space Weather News for Jan. 21, 2015 http://spaceweather.com Early next week, a large asteroid named 2004 BL86 will fly past the Earth-Moon system. There's no danger of a collision, but NASA radars will be monitoring the mountain-sized space rock as it passes by only 745,000 miles away. Amateur astronomers can watch the flyby, too. Glowing like a 9th magnitude star, 2004 BL86 will be an easy target for backyard telescopes on the night of closest approach, Jan. 26-27. Checkhttp://spaceweather.com for observing tips and more information. From frank at mclc908.org Mon Jan 26 20:16:33 2015 From: frank at mclc908.org (Frank) Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 20:16:33 -0500 Subject: [MIham] Aurora Surprise Prompts Rocket Launch In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <54C6E6F1.5080605@mclc908.org> Space Weather News for Jan. 26, 2014 http://spaceweather.com AURORA ROCKETS: A geomagnetic storm erupted during the early hours of Jan. 26th, sparking a surprise display of bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. Scientists took the opportunity to launch four sounding rockets from Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range to study the effect of solar storms on the upper atmosphere. Pictures of the colorful launch are available on today's edition of http://spaceweather.com. DON'T FORGET THE ASTEROID FLYBY: A mountain-sized space rock is approaching Earth for a harmless but eye-catching close encounter on Monday night, Jan. 26-27. The incoming asteroid, named 2004 BL86, will be just 740,000 miles away (3.1 times farther from us than the Moon) and visible in ordinary binoculars. More information and observing tips are available on http://spaceweather.com.