Astro Bob's Astronomy for Everyone

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Solar flare launches another CME — Strong G3 storm expected Monday night, June 8 It's great seeing the sun active again ...
06/07/2026

Solar flare launches another CME — Strong G3 storm expected Monday night, June 8

It's great seeing the sun active again after a lethargic May. Looks like another coronal mass ejection (CME) is headed our way Monday night with a good possibility for widespread aurora. We won't count on it as a sure thing. But we can at least savor the possibility and enjoy the anticipation.

Last night, June 6-7, there was a lot of natural airglow lurking about the sky. I took photos of it — including the remarkable emerald-green band in the second picture — and also a brief, very red aurora low in the north after midnight here in Duluth.

Earlier in the evening, Jupiter and Venus were just spectacular. I hope you've been enjoying the sight as much as I have.

Modest but lovely aurora on Friday night, June 5 It wasn't the hoped for big storm, but the sun came through for us with...
06/06/2026

Modest but lovely aurora on Friday night, June 5

It wasn't the hoped for big storm, but the sun came through for us with a modest auroral display. Even in twilight, my camera picked up a low green arc just above the northern horizon.

As it got dark, the arc expanded and intensified. Around 11 p.m. Central Time, I could sense it was on the verge of breaking apart. About 15 minutes later it did exactly that and splintered into lots of delicate pink and purplish rays.

It was great being outside listening to the frogs calling (peepers, tree frogs and mink frogs), plus geese and loons and other sounds from the water and woods.

Around midnight, activity diminished, but I wouldn't doubt there's more to come. These photos are from near Duluth, Minn. Exposure around 6-8 seconds, ISO 4000, and f/2.8 with a Canon R6.

Long, bright, green arc in the north 11 p.m. Central Time from Duluth. Good things are coming!
06/06/2026

Long, bright, green arc in the north 11 p.m. Central Time from Duluth. Good things are coming!

UPDATE 7 p.m. Central Time: The latest space weather forecast predicts a G2 moderate geomagnetic storm Friday night. Sho...
06/05/2026

UPDATE 7 p.m. Central Time: The latest space weather forecast predicts a G2 moderate geomagnetic storm Friday night. Should it occur, observers in the northern states would see a fine aurora with arcs and rays across the northern sky. It may even be visible as far south as places like Iowa — at the least using a camera and time-exposure.

Aurora possible Friday night, June 5-6

I know. You stayed out late and didn't see aurora last night. Me too. I did get to enjoy a great thunderstorm though. Hopefully, your time under the stars was well spent.

Solar storms have this bad habit of arriving, well, when they arrive. Unfortunately, the first signs of this CME's appearance — a shockwave — didn't occur until around midnight.

Although the total energy of the magnetic domain around the Earth increased at that time, the orientation of the storm's own magnetic field was poorly aligned with Earth's. As a result, the two didn't couple, and nothing happened . . . until around sunrise Central Time today!

Of course, that's no good. All morning, there's been a storm but we can't see aurora in the daytime. However, there is a possibility that additional CME (coronal mass ejection) effects will extend into Friday night, June 5. So don't give up yet!

The picture is of the most recent aurora I photographed from Duluth on June 3, just before all the hubbub. It was a diffuse aurora with subtle green and pink-purple colors. I'm sure you can spot the W-shaped constellation as well. The stars are bloated due to thin clouds

Strong G3 geomagnetic storm forecast for Thursday night, June 4-5Update 12:15 a.m. Central Time — The CME has arrived at...
06/04/2026

Strong G3 geomagnetic storm forecast for Thursday night, June 4-5

Update 12:15 a.m. Central Time — The CME has arrived at Earth’s outskirts! We still need a little time to see just how and when it will rattle Earth’s magnetic field. No auroral activity yet.

The forecast looks great for aurora tonight with a strong storm expected. Should it occur as predicted — and there's no ironclad guarantee it will! — observers as far south as the central U.S.

should be able to spot northern lights possibly as early as nightfall.
Find a location with a dark sky to the north and watch for activity in that direction. The cause of the excitement are a couple of CMEs (coronal mass ejections) launched our way from recent solar flares, mostly from the sunspot group 4455.

I'll have an updated forecast and more tips later today. The photo is from our last nice aurora, which lit up the northern sky on May 15. That's Venus at lower left.

The sun as a layer cake / Aurora alert June 4 and 5!Yesterday (June 2) I observed and photographed the sun in both white...
06/03/2026

The sun as a layer cake / Aurora alert June 4 and 5!

Yesterday (June 2) I observed and photographed the sun in both white light with a standard solar filter and also in hydrogen alpha light with a more specialized filter. Hydrogen alpha is a specific, deep-red light emitted by hydrogen atoms in a layer of the sun's atmosphere called the chromosphere just above its glaring surface. The white light photo shows that glaring surface — what we normally see with our eyes.

The third photo was taken in ultraviolet light by NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory and shows the next layer up from the chromosphere called the corona. Each different color or wavelength of light probes a different solar layer. All three photos are centered on the sunspot group 4455.

The bright explosion to the right of center in the UV photo is a strong solar flare that popped late on June 2 in 4455. The flare blasted out a coronal mass ejection in Earth's direction, which could bring us northern lights on Thursday and / or Friday night, June 4 and June 5.

When I took the hydrogen alpha photo (the red one) there were two smaller flares in progress in sunspot group 4455 and in 4458, located below it. Keep 'em comin'!

Your phone's an astrophoto champ!Cell phones do an amazing job at recording night and twilight scenes. Last night, I use...
06/02/2026

Your phone's an astrophoto champ!

Cell phones do an amazing job at recording night and twilight scenes. Last night, I used my iPhone 13 to take this photo of Jupiter and Venus an hour after sunset in the western sky.

You've probably noticed that these two bright planets have been getting closer and closer together. Every night's another opportunity to freeze the moment in a photo. Just find something nice in the foreground to include, hold your phone to the sky and press away.

For twilight shots, 3 seconds is plenty, which is the iPhone default. You don't have to set anything — just point and press. If you need a longer exposure, and you're using an iPhone, tap the Photo button and select "Night Mode" from the menu. At the top of your screen you'll see "Night Mode Max". That's the 10-second setting. Tap the screen once to make sure the stars are in focus, then take the picture while holding your phone steady. Android phones have similar settings.

You can try out "Night Mode Max" by laying your phone on a table, which covers the camera lens and tricks it into thinking it's dark. Clear skies!

Moonlight as paint brush Look at how deftly the moon painted the clouds Sunday night (May 31). I was looking somewhere e...
06/01/2026

Moonlight as paint brush

Look at how deftly the moon painted the clouds Sunday night (May 31). I was looking somewhere else, when I turned around to the deeply orange Blue Moon at work.

Attack of the Vegans No, not those vegans. I'm talking about the inhabitants of Vega, one of the brightest stars in the ...
06/01/2026

Attack of the Vegans

No, not those vegans. I'm talking about the inhabitants of Vega, one of the brightest stars in the spring and summer sky. A dense cirrus cloud lit by the moon stationed itself over the bright star for many minutes on Sunday night. The sight reminded me a scene from "War of the Worlds".

Have a Blue Moon weekend! This weekend we'll see our second full moon of the month, popularly known as a Blue Moon. It t...
05/30/2026

Have a Blue Moon weekend!

This weekend we'll see our second full moon of the month, popularly known as a Blue Moon. It takes 29.5 days for moon phases to repeat. Since the last full moon occurred on May 1, there was enough time to squeeze in a second one before month's end. We get a Blue Moon every 2-3 years.

The moment of maximum "fullness" happens Sunday morning, May 31 at 3:45 a.m. Central Daylight Time, so the moon will look full to the eye both Saturday and Sunday nights, May 30 and 31.

It will shine very low in the southern sky in Sagittarius and look golden the entire night especially for observers in the northern U.S., where the moon takes a lower path across the sky. The lower the path, the more air we look through and the more colors are scattered away by air molecules. The cooler hues are preferentially scattered, the reason the moon looks orange.

At moonrise, denser air near the horizon acts like a prism and bends (refracts) the moon's light upward. The densest air hovers just above Earth's surface at the horizon, where the bottom of the moon is. Refraction is so strong here it "pushes" or folds the bottom half into the top, squishing the moon's circular outline into a cigar like you see in the photo. If you could wave a wand and remove the atmosphere the moon would instantly pop back into a circle.

To see these effects, watch the moon rise from a location with an unobstructed horizon. Find your local moonrise time at https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/ In Duluth, Minn. the moon comes up at 8:56 p.m. Saturday night.

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