Remote solar eclipse seen almost everywhere - even at sunset in Patagonia

Nowhere along the track of the total solar eclipse of July 11 had the weather statistics been great - and yet a majority of those undeterred eclipse chasers who made it into the zone of totality seems to have been successful in seeing the glorious corona which, with the solar cycle on the increase, has become more complex again. All along Polynesia it had been touch-and-go w.r.t. local cloudiness, and sometimes a few kilometers made a difference, and even three ships had to struggle, while on Rapa Nui it had rained for 2 days before mostly clear skies met the eclipse. The greatest surprise, however, awaited observers in Argentina's Patagonia region where the clearest skies imaginable permitted perfect views of the eclipsed Sun at 1.5° elevation while a dramatic shadow sky show played above. Which came as a huge relief in particular for those who had expected to board a plane here for an eclipse flight - which was broken and couldn't fly ...

• From Mangaia a report.
  
  
• From Tatakoto pictures (earlier), a picture series, more pictures [alt.] and one more by Art Lee. From Hikeru pictures and a video. From Hao pictures, a good and a bad video, a recorded webcast and a still from it.
  
  
• From a plane following the shadow for 9 minutes and 23 seconds early pictures and one more, plus an article.
  
  
• From the l'Aremiti ferry a video. From the Aranui 3 ship a video, a slide show, pictures and another video. From the Paul Gauguin cruise ship a report, pictures (more), a video and another one.
  
  
• From Rapa Nui a report, another, another, another and another one, a video, another report, another video, another report (more), another video, more pictures (context), more, more, more, more and more, press releases from Williams College and NASA, an APOD, another picture, more views, reports in Dutch and German, another video and a TV live report.
  
  
• From Patagonia east of El Calafate a report by yours truly with 18 pictures linked; these picture were also reproduced and/or linked to by SpaceWeather (also gallery and submission page), S&T, B. Loy, Space.com (also in their gallery), Nat'l Geogr., Universe Today, Rare Readers, Area Voices, Eclipse HD, Pars3c, AstroNation and Cosmic Log. At the same spot these and these pics were also taken.
  
  
• On a hill above El Calafate this report (more), these pictures (more), this, this, this, this and this video (context) originate. Not quite as high was this observer [alt.]. From El Calafate itself this image collection (earlier) and this picture as well as this, this, this and this view originate - while this videographer was just too low ...

The eclipse was also used by PROBA 2 (which saw it partially from orbit) for science. More reports and pictures can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (more). Some news reports are linked here (with more pre-eclipse coverage linked here); there are CNN Chile's live coverage, an ITN clip and stories by the Daily Telegraph (more), Thilinaheenatigala, ZEIT, Area Voices, BBC, Discovery, Lippeblatt, La Razon, Clarin, La Nacion and El Mercurio. No sightings of comet McNaught (a last view of June 29) were reported. Also links regarding the last TSE (Indian sites) and detail images of the Sun from July 21, July 20 (more and SDO detail) and July 16. And with other variable stars updates for Eps Aur (middle of eclipse) and Del Sco (bright).

In other news The bright star occultation by asteroid Roma was well observed, though the published track was a bit off: a AstroTreff thread, chords (only from good data), individual videos and reports here, here and here and early impressions. As expected the large angular size of the star caused shallow flanks in the light curves. • An optical dust trail of comet 10P/Tempel can be seen right now with the Earth crossing the orbital plane as these [alt.] and these pictures show. • There seems to be a new impact crater in Egypt, while Nemesis is even more unlikely now (more, more, more).

• Great pics of Jupiter and its large moons were obtained in recent days, on July 22, July 21, July 20 (b/w) and July 19 - and a July 16 pic of Uranus also shows detail! • There is now a seamless picture of the whole sky with one terapixel resolution from the DSS, also explained here and here. • The first IR sky survey by WISE is completed and the next one is running (more, more and more). • A nice narrated slide-show on NLCs and an attempt to predict them plus observations of July 15/16 (more), July 9 (more), July 4/5 and July 3/4, also a space picture of the layer, a panorama and videos here, here, here and here. • Finally a Chinese UFO story quickly evaporated.

Total solar eclipse, bright star asteroid occultations, planet 'dance' highlights of July

A lot will happen this month, though most of the highlights are not global events - as was the partial lunar eclipse last month: stories here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, picture collections here, here, here, here and in this forum and good individual pictures or sets here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here (the latter from the ISS), scenic views here, here, here, here and here and some less convincing samples here, here and here and esp. here and here. The highlights for July (see summaries here, hier, hier, here, here, hier und hier) also include the beginning of many planet constellations in the evening sky as discussed hier and here.

• July 7: A 3rd magnitude star is occulted by an asteroid, visible in Africa and the Indian Ocean.
  
  
• July 8: A 2nd magnitude star is occulted in several parts of Europe, see also here, hier and hier, plus here for a similar earlier event.
  
  
• July 9/10: Venus within 1° of Regulus.
  
  
• July 11: Total eclipse of the Sun in the Pacific and South America - many links here, a video from the last TSE in 2009 and the Saros predecessor in 1992.
  
  
• July 14-16: Crescent waxing Moon passes the chain of planets Venus/Mars/Saturn low in the West. Also the best time of a - poor! - Mercury evening apparition.
  
  
• July 27: Conjunction of Mercury and Regulus - hard to see!
  
  
• July 31: Conjunction of Saturn and Mars, within < 2°, with Venus in the area.

Comet McNaught has faded instead of brightened and thus remained stuck at 5th mag. as this analysis and these data show - thus it's extremely unlikely that it will be spotted during the solar eclipse when it is close to Mercury. Nonetheless the tail remained nice as pictures from the nights of June 29/30, June 27/28, June 24/25, June 23/24 (also a movie and more, more and more pics), a visual report from June 22/23 and pics from June 21/22 (more, June 19/20, June 18/19 (more) and June 16/17 (more, more) show. Also a Russian article, a pic w/weird colors, a German radio report - and a paper on comet C/2010 A2 (LINEAR) arguing for more than just an asteroid collision.

SEB-free Jupiter remains impressive as pictures e.g. from June 29, June 28 (note the chain of dark dots!) and June 25 (more and one year earlier) show. Also the history of these SEB fadings, an animation from last year and an ESA Release and article on the June 3 impact. • Also more on the star occultation by a KBO in a Williams College Release, a Stuttgart Univ. PM and stories here, here, here, here and hier. • On the Sun prominence sequences from June, a CME in May, solar sonifications (more) and a visualization of the solar cycle which is making more strange headlines.

In other news a Brazilian meteorite fall right after a bolide, a bolide in Washington, the - invisible - AMNH meteorite collection, a meteor tracking system at NMSU, more Giacobinids nonsense and a video report on the 2002 fullmoon Leonids. • The NLC season is now clearly underway (125 years after these clouds were first noted): great pictures from several nights in June (dito, earlier, still earlier, even earlier) and from the nights of June 28/29 (more, more), June 25/26, June 24/25, June 20/21, June 19/20 and June 18/19. And July may well be the best month to watch!

The State of McNaught: stagnant at 5 mag., long tail for photographers, visibility worsening

Have we seen the best of comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) already? The first two weeks of June produced a flurry of great photographs, but this has come to an end as the window of (good) visibility is decreasing again. And a detailled analysis also raises doubts that McNaught will reach 2nd magnitude: It may stop at 3.5 to 4 mag. which is pretty bad given the poor viewing geometry. The report also hightlights the fact that the coma is very small, only a few arc minutes, and the ion tail - which photographers saw at up to 7° in length - very faint visually: In 'normal' binoculars (which this blogger has also pointed at the comet repeatedly) McNaught is just a tiny fuzzball, reminiscent of a distant globular cluster perhaps, and the same goes for small telescopes. Only in huge binoculars and big telescopes does the comet give something to the visual observer.

Here are selected pictures from the mornings of June 16, June 15 (also a drawing and another one), June 14, June 13 (also with NLCs, more wide views, more, more, more and a visual report from a large scope), June 12 (more, more, very small and a visual report), June 11 (an animation; more, more, more and more pics), June 10 (more, more), June 9 (more, more,more), June 8 (more, more, more, more, more, more), June 7 (more, more, more) and June 6 (more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more). Numerous general articles on the comet appeared e.g. here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, hier, hier und hier - some very misleading, of course, touting a "bright green comet" easy to find by just looking North ...

The June 3 Jupiter impact left not the slightest trace in the clouds of Jupiter, even with the vision of the Hubble Space Telescope, as also reported here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and hier. There are many ideas why nothing was seen after the impact which had earlier made news also here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. • Constellation-wise here are Venus & the Moon on June 15; it's now a good time for this and other planets in the evening. E.g. here are Mars on June 4, the Mars/Regulus conjunction on June 6 (more and the view from down under) and a Tethis-Dione event at Saturn on June 5. • In the distant solar system the results of the first-ever observed stellar occultation by a Kuiper Belt Object have been published and a rather big one has been discovered - while comet Hale-Bopp was detected by Herschel at 30 AU from the Sun.

In other news the first two dwarf planets are in opposition (with Ceres being much easier than Pluto, of course), and a stellar occultation by asteroid (80) Sappho has yielded nice chords. • There is some speculation that the 2011 Draconids could have an outburst, while others see a maximum ZHR of just 40 to 50 or even just 10 - nonetheless commercial tours like this and this one are being offered to watch the shower/outburst/storm. Which happens around full moon, though. • Another "meteor caused fire" nonsense evaporated quickly in Canada, also the story of NWA 5400 and NASA asking for help in finding meteorites. Plus more arguments against an impact/Dryas link and about the meteor poem (more). • Speculations and warnings regarding the future behavior of the Sun made many headlines, such as this, this, this, this, this, this and this, letting some scratch their heads over contradictions.

• There is no mid-eclipse brightening of Epsilon Aurigae so far, while something strange is happening regarding Eta Carinae's stellar wind. • Sightings of NLCs are now on the increase, with observations e.g. on June 16, June 15 (also a video), June 14 and June 13; earlier they were rare, and a claimed sighting in Austria on the 9th is thought erroneous now. • A nice sunset from the ISS made headlines, and there is an analysis of the Icelandic ash from the volcano plume. • An ISS transit and more on the Falcon 9 spiral over Oz (more, more, more). • The reentry of Hayabusa resulted in a brilliant sky show over Oz: more images here and here. • PanSTARRS is now operational and finding supernovae. • And finally a transportable 107-cm amateur scope with a convenient eyepiece position!

Impact flash on Jupiter seen - but no traces detected yet

The two most avid Jupiter watchers in the 'Eastern hemisphere' have simultaneously observed something hit Jupiter on June 3rd at 20:31 UTC, causing a short bright flash - but since then no dark stuff has been reported at the impact site as had been seen easily after the 1994 Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts as well as the July 2009 impact. Anthony Wesley in Australia observed the impact in realtime and got a great video at 60 fps. He immediately alerted the world, including Cristopher Go in the Philippines who had been recording Jupiter blindly at the same time: His video caught the same flash at the same time in the same location, and since he was in a very different place on Earth, the reality of the event is out of the question. (A similar flash on Jupiter in 1983 lacks such confirmation, unfortunately.) As reported in this forum, this report and on SpaceWeather, no traces whatsoever of the impact have since been seen; see also pics from June 4 and June 5 that show the site and follow further developments through JALPO's collection.

As usual these days, reporting of this solar system event fell largely to astronomy websites and blogs, with the 'main-stream media' lagging behind (though getting some soundbites from bewildered experts): Here are some stories from Sky & Telescope, the Planetary Society Blog (earlier, still earlier), the Cosmic Diary, the Gish Bar Times (earlier), Random Thoughts, AstroBob, Comets & NEOs, Cosmic Log, Catching the Light, Discovery, Astronomy, Ars Technica, Nat'l Geographic, Bad Astronomy, New Scientist Blog, Eureka, Science Blogs, KosmoLogs, Astronomy Now, Space.com, News.com.au, Science News and BBC. And for historical context, the author of this paper tells this blog that he still sees not one clear historical case of a Jupiter impact pre-1994. • Talking about Jupiter, the 'loss' of its SEB is still making headlines, e.g. here, here, here, here and here. • Interesting data from last years occultation of 45 Cap by Jupiter were presented at the Planetentagung 2010, notably a lightcurve from Hakos (Namibia) and a glorious video from Calar Alto (Spain): The star went and came back multiple times over 1/2 hour while 'scanning' Jupiter's atmosphere!

• Numerous events involving Saturn's moons were observed by B. Gährken, including transits of Titan (from Australia). Also a May 24 pic of Saturn, rings still narrow. • Two results from the opposition of Mars 2010: a map and the best pictures by another observer. • Venus on June 3rd. • The Moon occulting Venus was observed in the Philippines (more, more, more, more and more) and Hongkong at night and India (video; low-res pic) and Greece (more, more, more and more) in daytime, while a close daytime apparition was seen from Germany and the ISS (dito). More pics from the 16th are here, plus further evening views of Venus & the Moon from May 17 in Namibia, May 16 in the U.S. (more), the U.K. (more, more, more, more, more, more), India (wider, very wide, dito, wider, dito, dito, dito and an animation) and Australia and May 15 from the U.S. (earlier, more, more, more), the U.K. (earlier, other site) and India. Meanwhile this handy calculator gives you more planet occultations by the Moon! And we have weather stats for the 2010 Transit of Venus.

The McNaught show is underway as the comet C/2009 R1 - see previews here, here, hier, hier and hier - has now brightened to ~6th mag and has a nice structured plasma tail: You can find growing picture collections here, here and here as well as selected pictures of June 5 (more, more, more and more), June 4 (more and more), June 3 (more and more), June 2, May 31, May 30 (more), May 29, May 26 (annotated, animation, more), May 25 (more), May 24, May 23 and May 22 (more, more, more). • For C/2010 H2 (Vales) we have another analysis and pics of June 5, June 2, June 1 (more), May 22, May 16 (more), May 15 and May 14. Also a paper on the outburst of Holmes. • Wild 2 on May 18. • Joint STEREO & SOHO observations of a comet hitting the Sun (more, more, mehr). • Talking about the Sun, thoughts on its irradiance and effects as well as recent behavior, also summarized here.

In other news There seems to be the - predicted - mid-eclipse brightening of Epsilon Aurigae, we have a supernova impostor and the real SN 2010dn in NGC 3184 (the discovery photo by Koichi Itagaki w/60 cm) as well as a transit of TrES-3b. • "Asteroid" 2010 KQ is probably man-made (more, earlier, more, earlier, more, mas and more). • A report on the fast fly-by of 2010 KO10, a possible impact-role in Antarctica, a meteorite recovery in Oregon, a twisted meteor (probably only the camera was shaking) and a meteor story in an old poem (more, more and more) • Plus a visit to Arecibo - and astrophotography from Puerto Rico.

• The first NLCs (a preview), subtle volcanic dust effects on the Sun (also nighttime tracking w/Calypso, the need for a space-based laser, volcano science, measuring flights and the need for limits). • A veeery old newsreel on amateur astronomer Percy Wilkins. • How to build your own planetarium. • A sky show over Australia - great video! - after the Falcon 9 launch. • Amateur imaging of KH 11 satellites (with some doubts re. image processing), the X-37B (see also here ["Amateurastronomen ..."] y aqui) and the ISS on May 16 and May 22 (more) by T. Legault and May 23 (hi-res) as well as in daytime.

• Finally some highlights of this month (see also here, here, here, hier und hier):

• June 6: Mars close to Regulus, should feel equally bright although Regulus is 3x10^6 times farther away.
  
  
• June 8: Uranus only 28' from Jupiter, first of 3 conjunctions 2010/11
  
  
• June 11: Venus in one line with Castor and Pollux
  
  
• June 19: Dwarf planet (1) Ceres in opposition, reaching 7.1 mag.
  
  
• June 20: Comet McNaught - see above - close to Capella (and possible some NLCs as well). Also Venus in/near the Beehive cluster
  
  
• June 26: Partial lunar eclipse in the Pacific area, max. magnitude 0.53

Also noteworthy are two spaceflight events which are 'unavoidable' thanks to celestial mechanics: On June 13 Hayabusa will return to Earth (the third of four trajectory corrections was just successful, with Australia now in the crosshairs), and on June 27 EPOXI will fly by Earth (a necessary trajectory correction was successful, too) enroute to comet Hartley 2.

Lost belt of Jupiter, storm on Saturn - and the Moon occults Venus (for some)

When the planet Jupiter had re-emerged from the Sun's glare in late March it was already obvious that something was amiss: The South Equatorial Belt had nearly disappeared. Within weeks the view of the planet got much clearer, and the SEB's loss was widely known in the amateur community - yet only after one blog and then other showed hi-res views by A. Wesley and C. Go did the news spread beyond, e.g. here, here and hier. • Also a detailled paper on the July 2009 impact on Jupiter. • Another storm on Saturn - pics on Apr. 28; more and many more - is again uniting amateurs & Cassini, also reported here and here. • The only significant predictable sky event this month - see here, here, hier, hier and hier - is an occultation of Venus by the Moon in Africa and Asia on April 16, mostly in the daytime: predictions for India and the Philippines.

In other news a Near Earth Asteroid, 2005 YU55, was imaged by radar (more, more, more, mehr). • More meteorites have been found in Wisconsin, plus the story of Almahata Sitta. • Lots of coverage around an alleged destructive meteorite - no cosmic matter recovered so far! - in Indonesia here (video clips), here (earlier), here, here (earlier), here, here, here (earlier), here, here and hier. • The 'meteorite' in Israel definitely was none. • And I have no clue whether the 'ice from the sky' in Bavaria - reported hier, hier, hier und hier - was a 'megacryometeorite' or something else.

• After the outburst of comet Vales interesting coma structure is being observed with large telescopes as reported here (earlier) and here (pics) - new images with smaller scopes also of May 8, May 7, May 6, May 4 (more), May 1 and April 30. • A mid-April animation and May 11 and May 7 pics of 29P in outburst. • Siding Spring on May 9 and April 22. • McNaught on May 9 and May 8 (more). • Wild on May 8. • New comets C/2010 J1 (Boattini) (on May 12, May 9 and May 7) and C/2010 J3 (McMillan). • Another McNaught (C/2009 R1) (mehr, mehr, mehr and a May 10 pic) is now visible - and could be so during the July eclipse. • The nucleus of Hartley 2 - EPOXI's target - at aphelion. • And a prediction of big thing in the Oort cloud.

• Observations by SOHO's MDI over one solar cycle strongly suggest that the solar diameter is very constant, also reported here and here. • A big archive of solar eclipse images and a 66-page report about a TSE 100 years ago in Tasmania. • There is a moderately bright transient in Pegasus. • A science fiction website explains sun dogs - and Wired has a remarkable gallery of terrestrial clouds imaged from orbit. • A detailled ISS picture resolves the cupola - and others show the ISS in 3D in motion (more).

Quite a meteorite shower after a fireball over Wisconsin - and much more

Quite a collection of meteorites (alt.) has come together already in the days after a bright fireball streaked over Wisconsin and several other U.S. states late on April 14! A lot more reports - in no particular order - about the bolide and the string of meteorite recoveries can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. • Meanwhile a "meteorite" fall in Israel quickly turned out to be nothing of the sort; the hot temperature had shown that early on. • And the Lyrids of 2010 delivered an average ZHR of ~15.

A comet suddenly appeared out of nowhere

and is now P/2010 H2 (Vales): prediscovery observations, the actual discovery, also reported here and here as well as by the discoverer and images and reports of April 21, April 20, April 19, April 18 (more, more) and April 17 (more, mehr). • A fragment has apparently broken off comet C/2009 K5 as images from April 24 show; on April 25 the comet was inbetween a galaxy and a star cluster (description, b/w version; animation by different observers).

• Details about the current outburst of comet SW1, also an April 5 picture. • P/2010 A2 on April 17 with a star cluster and April 7. • Siding Spring on April 22, April 17 and April 12. • Comet Wild on April 16 and April 10 (from this observatory in Namibia). • A new Comet C/2010 G2 (Hill). • Studies of Churyumov-Gerasimenko's coma (also the German original). • And Ulysses data show that McNaught had the longest tail ever, plasma-wise (another and another press release and a story).

Planetary action, continued - with many Saturn moon shadow transits

Neptune is currently close to where it was discovered; next year it will have completed one orbit. • Saturn on April 24 (more, more) and April 23 (more, more), with various moon shadows in transit (compare that to these and these 2009 reports), and April 12. • Mars on April 20. • The Moon/Venus/Mercury evening show in a composite and invidually on April 17 from Germany (more, more), April 16 from the U.S. (more), Italy (more, more), the U.K. (more, with Venus close-up, more), the Isle of Wight, Germany (more) and India (more in the stream) and April 15 from the U.S., from the U.K. and Germany (more).

An observation of the Moon exactly at new

was successful on April 14 - but an elongation record as claimed it was not: Already in in 2008 the Moon was imaged at the same distance from the Sun! • Two solar prominences on April 25, a CME movie of April 13 (stills, a still), sunspots on April 6 and Proba 2 observations of April 3. Plus science news on a CME tracked from Sun to Earth all the way, ACE & STEREO in space weather forecasts and yet another Sun/Earth climate claim, also reported here, here, here and hier. And how the Earth's orbital changes affect its climate.

• A possible nova in Sco (pics), a nova in Sgr, more analysis (ctd.) of the Eps Aur pics and the Nature paper as a preprint, plus a cataclysmic variable in the Kepler field. • The ISS in transit over the H-Alpha Sun, a lot of hi-res ISS and Discovery images here (also a Discovery flare), here (explained here), here (analysis), here and here - plus the view down at night!

No significant atmospheric optical effects due to the Iceland volcano

The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (the pronounciation is given here at the end!) had mostly subtle effects on sky colors and visibility as already outlined here a week ago as well as by seasoned sky observers here and here. Sometimes observations were attributed without evidence to the volcano's ash, and it remains to be seen whether the sky near the Moon has something to tell. Hard data on the state of the atmosphere over Europe have been collected a lot with more sophisticated means and are summarized e.g. hier, here, here or here.

There is a detailled report (earlier English version) about the 1st DLR research flight of April 19 (mehr, mehr, mehr, mehr, früher, mehr), and there was a 2nd flight (outcome and conclusions). Also reports about another, another and yet another research flight and groundbased work in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Hohenheim plus from the Helmholtz Soc. (more).

Some thoughts on the real danger (more), a lot of satellite pics (also from Radarsat 2, Proba 1, ALOS, EO-1 [also from yesterday] and Terra), a dramatic video with shock waves in the plume and another one, pictures of flashes in the plume, general thoughts about volcanism in the solar system, what Earth has in store and what the plane-free skies meant, some pseudoscience and also some humor (more, more). • The variation of NLCs has been modelled. • And particle acceleration over thunder clouds.