On the east side of the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) is a circular area of low clouds rotating counterclockwise. High clouds above it are moving clockwise. Deep convection is bursting near the center.
UPDATE: A satellite loop of the system described is in comment 1. Similar systems continue to appear. Below I've added self updating satellite images and surface maps of the area.
I'll add loops of similar systems that I see to the comments. Currently there are loops in comments 1 and 7.
Click on image for loop.
Click on image for loop.
Click on image for loop.
Locations of Visitors from the Past 24 Hours
Create your own visitor map!
Last launch of a Delta II after 22 years. It was a Heavy so the sound rolled on a while. It is carrying twin satellites that are headed to survey The Moon. Beautiful launch NASA!
Grail Moonbound on the last Delta II (
Skyepony)
Last launch of a Delta II after 22 years. It was a Heavy so the sound rolled on a while. It is carrying twin satellites that are headed to survey The Moon. Beautiful launch NASA!
A Super Scooper Fixed Wing Aircraft Makes A Water Drop Directly Behind A Home At The Wagon Fire.
Development Of A Severe Thunderstorm (
anvilhead)
I watched this storm develop for about an hour before it slowly bled off the mountains and turned severe in the Santa Clarita Valley. 60+ mph winds and dime sized hail. Wild weather day here !
Waxing Gibbous Moon (
Ralfo)
Full Moon on 10,11,11
Cagtripodi Sun Spots (
Ralfo)
Mr. Cagtripodi discovered these sunspots on the Sun today from Italy as shown here earlier before on this site. This is a picture angled from Yonkers, N. Y. USA. All credit and thanks Must go to Mr. Cagtripodi for making us aware of the phenomena
Longs Peak beneath the lunar eclipse (
PCG)
The moon is nearing entirely in the Earth's shadow as Longs Peak sits below.
Another near infrared image. The bright part of the mountain is bright because it is covered in snow still.
The clouds moved in and covered the moon just after I took this shot.
Everett, WA
I had to bundle up this morning as temps were in the teens..
Over the Santa Clarita Valley
Winter Solstice – The Shortest day of the Year (
Ralfo)
Every Year on the Winter Solstice for many years now I have taken the Sunrise. It is always in the same spot behind that Evergreen Tree. This year there are some clouds but you can still see the Sun Blazing through. Today is the shortage amount daylight. The Good News! We will start picking up daylight from now on! Happy Holidays, Make it The Best Ever! P.S. In the Northern Hemisphere the Winter Solstice starts: Dec. 22, 12:30 A.M. EDT (05:30 UT*), Sun enters sign of Capricorn; winter begins.
A very bright meteor from the Quadrantids at 3:00:08 am EST captured by the wide field sky camera on the roof of Ladd Observatory.
Delta 4 rocket launching the Air Force's Wideband Global SATCOM 4 military communications satellite.
Because the night belongs to lovers. (
Altred)
Not the best due to all the local light pollution but still better than a black sky.
It was approximately 5 below with a slight wind while waiting for the lights to appear.
I did this in Charcoal. It is ~6"X8". It should be the first in a series of three.
I did this in pen & ink it is STS-120 Discovery, launched on October 23, 2007. It's ~6
Full Moon Tomorrow. 2/7/12.
Atlas 5 rocket launching the Navy's MUOS 1 mobile communications satellite.
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..After I eat, I'm REALLY looking forward to Kicking the Tire's and Lighting the Fire's....
Black Hole Picture, Never Before Possible, To Be Planned At University Of Arizona Conference
At the center of our galaxy, an enormous black hole has worked invisibly for billions of years, and now scientists are gearing up to snap its picture.
A conference will be held to discuss the never-before-attempted photographic gambit on January 18 at the University of Arizona (UA). There scientists will map out an interstellar imaging project that astronomers of previous decades never could have imagined.
Why unimaginable? According to the statement,
Even though the black hole suspected to sit at the center of our galaxy is a supermassive one at 4 million times the mass of the sun, it is tiny to the eyes of astronomers. Smaller than Mercury%u2019s orbit around the sun, yet almost 26,000 light years away, it appears about the same size as a grapefruit on the moon.
Getting the picture will be a herculean task. The team will connect 50 telescopes of all sizes, from Hawaii to the South Pole, and use them as components of a single, enormous virtual telescope. The Event Horizon Telescope, as the project is called, will bring scientists "as close to the edge of black hole as we will ever come," according to the telescope's website. "In essence," said Sheperd Doeleman, principal investigator of the project, "we are making a virtual telescope with a mirror that is as big as the Earth."
Dimitrios Psaltis, co-organizer of the conference and associate professor of astrophysics at UA's Steward Observatory, spoke of the project in ambitious terms. "We need the entire world to come together to build this instrument because it is as big as the planet," he said. "People are coming from all over the world because they have to work on it."
And for good reason: the black hole image will verify or disprove a part of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. General relativity predicts that the swirl of dust and gases around a black hole which is all the telescope will be able to see, since the hole itself is, of course, black should form a perfect circle. If it looks even slightly distorted, we may have to rethink parts of Einstein's important theory.
Video News Release 25: Unprecedented 16-year long study tracks stars orbiting Milky Way black hole (eso0846b)
Went out in it, looked up, said Thank You!
And, no lightning. That's a big concern this time of year because it's our dry season...fire season.
Cool!
We could use some rain sans lightning too. It's been mostly warmer than average this winter (our rain season) which is nice but it's also drier than average at this point which is not so nice. Every Santa Ana wind, weak or strong, is accompanied by some level of fire weather statement lately.
Pat :^) That reminds me I better be sure to have the dogs walked before you light the fires.
Thanks for the stories and video on the Milky Way's black hole. Wasn't that long ago that black holes were an unverified theory. Maybe you also heard that LSU astronomers discover origin of thermonuclear supernova and it ain't what everyone thought was most likely after all. Seems like astronomy books need rewriting every few months which is pretty cool actually.
Very cool, this one is fer sure,,LC
Find live status updates at
Spaceflight Now | Delta Launch Report | Mission Status Center
Find live webcast info and a link at
:::: United Launch Alliance, LLC ::::
Rob Thanks for the report.
Viewing weather is GO for South, North and West Florida too. It's helpful to view from a tall bridge or building in those areas.
A final full-up briefing from the launch weather officer to mission managers just occurred. Skies remain crystal clear with good visibility, winds have decreased to 5 knots but have remained northerly and didn't switch around to the more-easterly direction as had been expected. But the weather is green across the board.
The final guidance update on upper level winds is being loaded into the rocket.
Payload: WGS 4
Date: Jan. 19, 2012
Window: 7:38 to 9:11 p.m. EST
Site: SLC-37B, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Feed: SES 2, Transp. 21, C-band, 87° West
Been awhile
Thanks again LowerCal for the heads up on this launch.
Rob You're welcome and thanks for the report. The Space Shuttle would go NE when headed for the International Space Station. This miltary communications satellite was going almost due east on the way up.
Here's a (very) quick and (very) dirty exposure montage of this evening's launch:
Thanks for the blog Lo-cal
Thanks for Neo's montage.
Regardless of the numbers of soldiers, ships or airplanes would you want to trade today's military capability for that of WWI or WWII?
The launch time was ideal too. Fit well into a really busy day.. There is a crowd of launch junkies in my 'hood. We all gather in the one area with the best view..Yell real geek stuff like "DELTA IV, DELTA IV, DELTA IV. WOO Woot woot WOO!! GO DELTA!"
Thrilled to get a even kinda decent pic for the rest of my launch junkie friends worldwide. The night ones are tough. I should try & get a time lapsed one sometime.
Short of video a trail best conveys the experience online. Next up from the Cape is an Atlas V with 5 smoke producing solid boosters scheduled for right around sunset on February 16. Should be a very nice photo op if your weather is as nice as last night again.
Another CME occured today that should increase aurora activity on the 24th and 25th. Keep an eye out for it at the following live aurora cams:
Sodankyla, Finland,
Kiruna, Sweden,
Yellowknife, Canada (click on CONNECT AURORAMAX LIVE)
& Poker Flat, Alaska
Inbound storm should light her up later.
Whatever, it's beautiful. I've never watched one of these when there was so much activity.
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