Star trails at Balanced Rock in the Arches National Park in Utah on May 30, 2014. Credit and copyright: César Cantu.
Wow! This video brought tears to my eyes because of its sheer beauty. Our friend and frequent astrophoto contributor César Cantu fulfilled a lifelong dream this past month of taking a trip through the southwestern of the United States, to “see and feel the shocking nature reflected in the Grand Canyon, in the Arches National Park and in the terrible atmosphere of Death Valley,” he told us via email.
Although César produced this video entirely on his own, the US Park Service and the states in the US Southwest couldn’t have a better promotional video! It is simply stunning, showing both the splendid landscapes during the day and the magnificent starscapes at night.
He drove from his native Mexico to the US Southwest, carrying several cameras to capture multiples landscapes, “to show different characteristics from the nature of our planet.”
“I drove just over 7,000 miles in 32 days and I visited all these extraordinary places,” César said. “I believe that nature, humanity and society, have found support and positive, creative, respectful and viable response from the National Park Service of the United States of America.”
Make sure you see the night sky footage starting at about :50 — it’s amazing! And the video César took while driving down a desert road is really fun to “ride along.”
The Milky Way over Saguaro National Park on June 17, 2014. Credit and copyright: César Cantu.
“I must say that the trip was so exciting, and I am already planning another for next summer!” he added.
We can’t wait to see more of his travel pics!
You can see more images from César’s “dream” trip at his website.
Thanks once again to César Cantu for sharing his work with Universe Today!
A solar prominence imaged on May 27, 2014. Earth and Moon are shown to scale at the bottom. (NASA/SDO)
Caught on camera by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a prominence blazes hundreds of thousands of miles out from the Sun’s surface (i.e., photosphere) on May 27, 2014. The image above, seen in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths, shows a brief snapshot of the event with the column of solar plasma stretching nearly as far as the distance between Earth and the Moon.
Watch a video of the event below:
The video covers a span of about two hours.
Although it might look fiery in these images, a prominence isn’t flame — it’s powered by rising magnetic fields trapping and carrying the Sun’s superheated material up into the corona. And while this may not have been a unique or unusual event — or even particularly long-lived — it’s still an impressive reminder of the immense scale and energy of our home star!
The June 2012 "Honey Moon" rising. Photo credit: Stephen Rahn.
Ah, Friday the 13th. Whether you fear it or it’s just your favorite slasher flick, it’s coming right around the bend later this week. And while it’s pretty much a non-event as far as astronomy is concerned, there’s bound to be some woo in the works, because the June Full Moon — dubbed the “Honey Moon” — falls on the same date.
Well, sort of. We made mention of this month’s Full Moon falling on Friday the 13th in last week’s post on the occultation of Saturn by Earth’s Moon. We’re not out to alarm any triskaidekaphobics, but we always love the chance to have some fun with calendars in the name of astronomy.
What we’re seeing here is merely the intersection of three cycles of events… and nothing more. These sorts of things can be fun to calculate and can provide a teachable moment, even when that well meaning but often misinformed relative/coworker/stranger on Twitter sends it your way . Hey, some people golf or collect steel pennies, this is our shtick.
A “Friday the 13th Honey Moon” is basically the subset of: 1. Fridays that fall on the 13th day of the month (OK, that’s two input parameters, we know) that also 2. Fall in the month of June, and 3. Occur on a Full Moon.
Friday the 13th occurs from one to three times a calendar year, so you can already see that one will occasionally happen to land on a Full Moon date fairly frequently… but how ‘bout in June? To this end, we compiled this handy listing of “Full Moons that fall on the 13th day of the month” — 15 in all — that occur from 1990 to 2030:
Full Moons that fell on the 13th from 1990-2030 as reckoned in Universal Time. Only two (March 1998 and June 2014) fall on a Friday the 13th. Chart by author.
That’s about one every two to three years. But you have to go aaaaall the way back to June 13th, 1919 to find a Full Moon that fell on a Friday the 13th in the month of June. This will next occur on June 13th, 2098.
Of course, this is just an interesting intersection concerning the vagaries and nuances of our Gregorian calendar and the lunar cycle. You could just as easily see significance where there is none in the Full Moon coinciding with the next Superbowl or Academy Awards. Humans love to pick out patterns where often none exist.
(Fun homework assignment: When is the last/next total lunar eclipse that occurs on Friday the 13th?)
And keep in mind, the instant of the Full Moon this week occurs on Friday at 4:13 UT… this means that from the U.S. Central time zone westward, the Full Moon actually falls on Thursday the 12th.
The rising Moon just hours before Full on Thursday June 12th. Note Saturn to the upper right. Created using Stellarium.
Fun fact: the 13th falls on a Friday more than any other day of the month! It’s true… in a span of 400 years following the institution of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, Friday fell on the 13th a total of 688 times, while Thursday and Saturday the 13th fell in last place at 684.
But there’s is something else that’s special about the June Full Moon. It also falls closest to the June solstice, marking the start of astronomical northern hemisphere summer and winter in the southern. This means that the Full Moon nearest the June solstice rides at its lowest to the southern horizon for northern hemisphere observers, but is high in the sky for observers south of the equator.
The June 2012 Full Honey (or do you say Strawberry?) Moon. Photo by author.
The June solstice this year falls on Saturday, June 21st at 10:51 UT /6:51 AM EDT. The Full Moon closest to the June solstice is nearly, but not always, in June… It can occur up to July 6th, and the last time it fell in July is 2012 and the next is 2015. The July Full Moon is known as the Full Buck Moon.
Our good friends over at Slooh will be webcasting the Full Honey Moon this Friday the starting at 1:30 UT/9:30 PM EDT (Thursday June 12th) for two hours from its Canary Islands site and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile observatory near Santiago, Chile. The broadcast will be hosted by Slooh astronomer Geoff Fox, astronomer and author of The Sun’s Heartbeat Bob Berman, and Slooh engineer Paul Cox.
Is there a connection between late spring weddings, the June Full Moon and the modern term “honeymoon”? Well, the rising June Full Moon certainly takes on an amber color for northern hemisphere observers as it rises low through the sultry summer skies. The Moon’s orbit is actually tilted five degrees relative to the ecliptic, which means it alternates from “flat” to “hilly” about every 9 years varying from 18 to 28 degrees relative to the celestial equator. We’re approaching a flat year — known as minimum or minor lunar standstill — in 2015, after which the Moon’s apparent path across the sky will begin to widen once again towards 2024.
The ~9 year variation between major and minor lunar standstill. Credit Wikimedia Commons graphic in the Public Domain.
Bob Berman has this to say about the origin of the term: “Is this Full Moon of June the true origin of the word honeymoon, since it is amber, and since weddings were traditionally held this month? That phrase dates back nearly half a millennium to 1552, but one thing has changed: weddings have shifted, and are now most often held in August or September. The idea back then was that a marriage is like the phases of the Moon, with the Full Moon being analogous to a wedding. Meaning, it’s the happiest and ‘brightest’ time in a relationship.”
It’s also worth noting the June Full Moon was known as the Strawberry Moon to the Algonquin Indians of North America. Huh… and here we thought most weddings were in May.
Whatever the case, you can get out enjoy the rising Full Moon with that significant other this week… and don’t fear the Honey Moon.
Aurorae were once believed to be warring clans of spirit soldiers, the skyward ghosts of virgin women, or the glow of fires burning inside celestial caves. Today we know they’re caused by ions in the atmosphere getting zapped by charged solar particles caught up in Earth’s magnetic field. But the knowledge of what creates aurorae doesn’t make their shimmering dance any less beautiful for those lucky enough to see them. I’ve personally never witnessed an aurora, but photographer Ole Salomonsen has — and he’s created yet another gorgeous time-lapse of the northern lights over his native Scandinavia to share their beauty with the world.
Illustration of the ESA Planck Telescope in Earth orbit (Credit: ESA)
In 1964 the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) were founded, on February 29 and March 20 respectively, marking the beginning of Europe as a major space power and player in the new international venture to explore beyond our planet. A decade later these two entities merged to become ESA, and the rest, as it’s said, is history.
The video above commemorates ESA’s service to the cooperation and innovation of European nations in space, and indeed the entire world with many of the far-reaching exploration missions its member states have developed, launched and maintained. From advanced communications and observational satellites to its many missions exploring the worlds of the Solar System to capturing the light from the beginning of the Universe, ELDO, ESRO, and ESA have pushed the boundaries of science and technology in space for half a century… and are inspiring the next generation to continue exploring into the decades ahead. So happy anniversary, ESA — I can only imagine what we might be looking back on in another 50 years!
Source: ESA. See more key dates from ESA’s history here.
Gene Cernan on the Moon during the final EVA of the Apollo 17 mission, Dec. 13, 1972 (NASA/JSC scan)
On December 14, 1972, at about 5:40 a.m. GMT, Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Andrew “Gene” Cernan returned to the lunar module Challenger after the end of the third mission EVA to join Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, completing nearly two and a half days of surface operations within the Taurus-Littrow site and officially becoming the last human to set foot upon the lunar surface. No one has returned since, and to this day the 80-year-old Cernan still holds the title of “last man on the Moon.”
If that’s not the perfect setup for a documentary film, I don’t know what is. Luckily for us there’s one in the works.
“The Last Man on the Moon,” from UK-based Mark Stewart Productions, tells the story of Gene Cernan and his accomplishments against the backdrop of the Apollo era, when superpowers competed for dominance in space and hotshot flyboys became international heroes. With firsthand accounts from Cernan himself and his family, along with several other astronauts and NASA celebrities, it’s an emotional and intimate account of America’s last lunar voyage.
Watch the trailer below:
According to IMDB the 99-minute documentary directed by Mark Craig is slated for release in the UK (and hopefully U.S.!) sometime this year, although an exact date isn’t listed. There have been advance screenings very recently, at some of which Cernan was present for Q&A sessions. Some viewers are calling it “the best space documentary they have seen” so needless to say I’m pretty excited about it!
A stunning view of the night sky over Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in Arizona, USA. Credit and copyright: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures.
One of our favorite timelapse artists, Gavin Heffernan from Sunchaser Pictures recently was invited to Northern Arizona University as an artist in residence to speak with their photography students about his timelapse experiences. While there, he also took shooting field trips to some of the magnificent locations a few hours away, most notably Grand Canyon National Park and Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. There, Gavin shot footage to create this incredible timelapse that includes incredible sky views and some of the most unique star trails we’ve ever seen. He titled this timelpase as YIKÁÍSDÁHÁ (Navajo for Milky Way or “That Which Awaits the Dawn”).
“The weather was very intense at times, with high winds, frigid temperatures, and stormfronts passing over us,” Gavin wrote on Vimeo, “but the locations were absolutely stunning and the clouds parted for long enough to reveal some incredible starscapes, meteors, and the clearest Milky Way I’ve ever seen!”
Below are some beautiful stills from the film:
Native Star Trails over Grand Canyon from the YIKÁÍSDÁHÁ timelapse. Credit and copyright: Gavin Heffernan/Sunchaser Pictures.
We asked Gavin how he created this unique “split” effect on this star trails image: “The split star trails shot was done using the mirror effect in final cut, which essentially splits the screen in half. I then bent the angles a little with a fisheye filter — a little creative license/fun! Obviously nobody’s going to mistake it for a real sky, I hope!”
X1-class solar flare on March 29, 2014 as seen by NASA's IRIS (video screenshot) Some stars emit even stronger "superflares" similar to these, but much brighter. Credit: NASA/IRIS/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center
Are giant dragons flying out of the Sun? No, this is much more awesome than that: it’s an image of an X-class flare that erupted from active region 2017 on March 29, as seen by NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft. It was not only IRIS’s first view of such a powerful flare, but with four other solar observatories in space and on the ground watching at the same time it was the best-observed solar flare ever.
(But it does kind of look like a dragon. Or maybe a phoenix. Ah, pareidolia!)
Check out a video from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center below:
In addition to IRIS, the March 29 flare was observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), NASA’s Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), JAXA and NASA’s Hinode spacecraft, and the National Solar Observatory’s Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico.
With each telescope equipped with instruments specially designed to observe the Sun in specific wavelengths almost no detail of this particular flare went unnoticed, giving scientists comprehensive data on the complex behavior of a single solar eruption.
Also, for another look at this flare from SDO and a coronal dimming event apparently associated with it, check out Dean Pesnell’s entry on the SDO is GO! blog here.
Auroral arcs are topped by red rays light up the northeast while the moon and Jupiter shine off to the west in this photo taken last night over a small lake north of Duluth, Minn. Both moon and aurora light are reflected in puddles on the ice. Credit: Bob King
Expect the unexpected when it comes to northern lights. Last night beautifully illustrated nature’s penchant for surprise. A change in the “magnetic direction” of the wind of particles from the sun called the solar wind made all the difference. Minor chances for auroras blossomed into a spectacular, night-long storm for observers at mid-northern latitudes.
6-hours of data from NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft, which measures energetic particles from the sun and other sources from a spot 1.5 million kilometers ahead of Earth toward the sun. By watching the Bz graph, you’ll get advance notice of the potential for auroras. Click to visit the site. Credit: NOAA
Packaged with the sun’s wind are portions of its magnetic field. As that material – called the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) – sweeps past Earth, it normally glides by, deflected by our protective magnetic field, and we’re no worse for the wear. But when the solar magnetic field points south – called a southward Bz – it can cancel Earth’s northward-pointing field at the point of contact, opening a portal. Once linked, the IMF dumps high-speed particles into our atmosphere to light up the sky with northern lights.
A large red patch briefly glowed above the bright green arc around 11:15 p.m. CDT last night May 3. The color was faintly visible with the naked eye. Credit: Bob King
Spiraling down magnetic field lines like firefighters on firepoles, billions of tiny solar electrons strike oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the thin air 60-125 miles up. When the excited atoms return back to their normal rest states, they shoot off niblets of green and red light that together wash the sky in multicolor arcs and rays. Early yesterday evening, the Bz plot in the ACE satellite data dipped sharply southward (above), setting the stage for a potential auroral display.
After an initial flurry of bright rays, the aurora scaled back to two bright, diffuse arcs with subtle rayed textures before erupting again around 11:30 p.m. Credit: Bob King
Nothing in the space weather forecast would have led you to believe northern lights were in the offing for mid-latitude skywatchers last night. Maybe a small possibility of a glow very low on the northern horizon. Instead we got the full-blown show. Nearly every form of aurora put in an appearance from multi-layered arcs spanning the northern sky to glowing red patches, crisp green rays and the bizarre flaming aurora. “Flames” look like waves or ripples of light rapidly fluttering from the bottom to the top of an auroral display. Absolutely unearthly in appearance and yet only 100 miles away.
VLF Auroral Chorus by Mark Dennison
I even broke out a hand-held VLF (very low frequency) radio and listened to the faint but crazy cosmic sounds of electrons diving through Earth’s magnetosphere. When my electron-jazzed brain finally hit the wall at 4 a.m., flames of moderately bright aurora still rippled across the north.
Just when you thought it was over, the whole northern sky burst into rays around 1 a.m. CDT this morning. The human eye is much more sensitive to green light than red, one of the reasons why the aurora rarely appears red except in time exposures made with a camera. Credit: Bob KingAround 2 o’clock, flames pulsed from bottom to top in patchy aurora. It’s very difficult to photograph, but here it is anyway! Credit: Bob King
So what about tonight? Just like last night, there’s only a 5% chance of a minor storm. Take a look anyway – nature always has a surprise or two up her sleeve.
This timelapse of the lunar eclipse that took place April 15, 2014 will have you checking over your shoulder for aliens! Photographer Andrew Walker shot this footage at the Caltech’s CARMA Array (Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy) in the Inyo Mountains of California. You can find out more about his impressive equipment details here, but the very fitting music you may be familiar with: it’s from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Continue reading “Dramatic Timelapse of the Recent “Blood Moon” Eclipse”
