For the Fourth—Forget Fireworks, Bring on the Auroras and the Moon and Mars and Jupiter and Venus!

This short video is from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory which captured views of Monday’s M5.6-class solar flare in multiple ultraviolet wavelengths.

According to Alan Boyle at MSNBC.com:

The sun is in the midst of an upswing in its 11-year activity cycle, heading toward an expected maximum in 2013. Right now there are five sunspot regions on the sun’s Earth-facing side, and two of them — 1513 and 1515 — are considered capable of sending out M-class flares. Such flares are generally associated with moderate disruption of radio communication and navigation systems. As for today’s CME, the most likely effect will be heightened displays of the northern and southern lights.

CME or not, it looks as if it’s a good week for auroras, judging from the pictures being sent in to SpaceWeather.com’s real-time image gallery. The prime time for auroras generally begins at just about the time of night that the fireworks shows are finishing up. And there’s more to see besides the fireworks: This happens to be a great week for seeing the full moon and Mars in sunset skies, or seeing Jupiter and Venus just before dawn. Sky and Telescope has the week’s rundown.

And if anyone gets any great images (of auroras or the moon or anything else, even fireworks), submit them here. We will publish them on this Tumblr and on our site.



Source: msnbc.com

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    Solar Flares! Whooo!!
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