Is this the night, with the Moon vs. Jupiter, some aurora and NLCs?

If Nature conspires the coming night could bring a double or even triple treat to Europe, weather permitting, of course: guaranteed is an occultation of Jupiter by the Moon in the wee hours, but there could also be some mid-latitude aurora following a solar X flare & CME - and the season for noctilucent clouds is also still in full swing, with several good displays recently. The Jupiter occultation early on July 15 has spawned countless previews, e.g. in English (more, more, more and more), German (more, more, more, more and more) and Romanian; animated simulation for various places can be downloaded here. The lead-up to the show was the Venus/Hyades/Jupiter/Pleiades/Moon line-up in the morning sky, as imaged today (dito) and on July 13, July 12, July 11, July 10, July 9, July 8 (dito), July 7 (dito), July 5, July 3 and July 1. Regarding Jupiter also an unusual call for satellite photometry and the NEB action.

A CME should hit the Earth in the coming hours, following an X flare on July 12 (more plus videos here, here and here) from the big activity region (1)1520 (more, more and more): as so often confusion abounds about what's gonna happen as does the usual hype (also in Germany; more). Rather monitor what the the ACE satellite feels and follow this discussion thread, in German and full of data. Meanwhile pictures of AR 1520, AR 1515 - which flared a lot - and the full disk from today (at sunrise) and July 13, July 12 (more and at sunset), July 11 (more, more and more), July 10 (more, more and more), July 9 (more and more), July 8, July 7 (more and more, also an X flare in AR (1)1515, more), July 6, July 5, July 4, July 2 (also a SID) and June 30. Plus explosive solar activity, the Sun's interior motion and the H-IC and Sumi rocket flights.

In other news the 4th nova of the year has broken out in Sagittarius and reached 8th mag.: details here, here, here, here, here and here, also on Nova #3. • Comet 96P/Machholz is again in SOHO's FOV (more and more), PanSTARRS is doing well, the Siding Spring NEO hunt is in trouble (video and more) and dwarf planet Pluto has a fifth moon (more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more and more). • Amateur astronomers and exoplanets - and supporting Lowell Obs. • Aurora sound has been recorded (more - and other links here, here, here and here), plus South Pole pics. • A sprite imaged from the ISS (more and more). • NLCs on July 11/12 (more) and July 1/2 (more, more and more) - and from Calar Alto (German). • And another mistaken contrail (more).