Stars / Astronomy / Astrophotography / Telescopes / Astro

Coronal Mass Ejections typically reach Earth one to five days after leaving the Sun

Electromagnetic radiation from the CME (light, alpha, gamma, x-rays, etc...) would hit far earlier.

magnetosonic might be my new favourite phrase

I just spoke to my solar scientist friend sat next to me and that wikipedia article sums it. The CME's are massive, as in not photons, so will not travel relativistically and are moderated by the solar wind.

The solar wind moves at speed that takes 4 days to reach the Earth and hence the delay. A CME has a mass around 1000 billion tonnes, to shoot that at the Earth against the suns surface gravity requires massive amounts of energy and that's another reason they come quite 'slowly'.

( sssswwwwwwhhhhhssswwwwwwwhhhhhhwwwwwsssshhhhhh )*
sorry nic you are breaking up, repeat, over

• white noise from radio dial
  

Family Guy - Over - YouTube

We may get some aurora then... Nice...
unplugs all electrical items in flat

We may get some aurora then... Nice...
unplugs all electrical items in flat

Aurora? Is that the rice pudding that comes in a can? Do we get it free or will I be expected to pay for it?

And with all these space rays on their way should be putting an extra layer or two on my tin foil hat?

Thanks guys, was bugging me didn't realise there was a denser/ larger material released. My thoughts were that the substance in a flare has to leave at a velocity that could reach earth in a few hours, or it would be insignificant to break gravity and would be re absorbed by the sun. However, a greater mass means greater deceleration due to gravity so it makes seance that there would be slower partials that still escape and take days.

^ excellent

In other news the International Space Station will be overhead twice tonight
9:35 PM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 48 degrees, Appears: SW, Disappears: E
and
11:11 PM, Visible: 5 min, Max Height: 85 degrees, Appears: W, Disappears: E

Nice, thanks for the heads up. Forecast is a bit cloudy though.

Will try remember to check the live feed

http://www.calsky.com

my new favourite site. Has an email alert service which lets you choose which astronomical events you want to be notified about, includes everything from weather conditions to ISS passes and Iridium Flares if you want them.

heavensabove.com does a good satellite service

Tonights predictions for London.

And a massively bright Iridium flare on the 11th, but at 2am. Could be worth looking out for if you're awake at that hour...

supermoon

Perseid meteor shower: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/perseid-meteor-shower-2014-google-doodle-marks-one-of-the-great-celestial-light-shows-9660526.html

super moon 20 X taken by iPhone telescope combination

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filter? what resolution is it? if its big enough that would make a really cool background!

I didn't even know the supermoon was a thing until I was about to go to bed last night. Went to draw the curtains and couldn't understand where the bright light was coming from, proper distinct shadows on the houses opposite. Went to the front window, fantastic sight with the intermittent clouds passing across it.

Got the camera and 300mm lens out to take a photo. Was so bright it needed a 1/500th second exposure at F5.6. Doubt the pics will be anything special but will see once I get them off the camera.

was an awesome site through my scope last night, unfortunately it was blowing a hooley outside so too wobbly to take pics.

Pretty cool, ISS closely followed by ATV5 on what looked like the same path (from my point of view), directly towards the supermoon.

Dodgy camera on eyepiece photograph of tonight's Moon/Saturn conjunction.

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I read about this then forgot :-(

@hairnetnic thanks for directing me here. Nice visuals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENyyRwxpHo