GEOMAGNETIC UNREST POSSIBLE THIS WEEKEND: NOAA forecasters say that geomagnetric unrest is possible on Jan. 13th in response to one or more passing CMEs. These are near-miss CMEs, not direct hits. The ripple effect of the passing clouds is likely to disturb Earth’s magnetic field without triggering full-fledged geomagnetic storms. Aurora alerts: SMS Text
COMET 12P VISITS THE CRESCENT NEBULA: Astronomers around the world have been waiting for a geyser to blow on cryovolcanic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. It’s overdue. Last night, the comet quietly passed by the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888):
Michael Jäger photographed the conjunction from his backyard observatory in Austria. The picture is a 10-minute exposure through 4 independent color filters: R, G, B and Hydrogen-alpha. The H-alpha filter captured the red glow of hydrogen in the nebula, while the G filter picked up green light from diatomic carbon in the comet’s atmosphere–a beautiful contrast in hue.
Comet 12P is drifting away from the nebula now. It’s still worth monitoring, though. An icy geyser has been breaking through comet’s crust every 15 days or so, and pressure is building for a new blast. Look for it in the constellation Cygnus.
more images: from Georg Klingersberger of Kobernaußen Upper Austria; from Rok Palcic of Kamnik, Slovenia; from the Association Astronomique de l’Indre of Le Poinçonnet, Indre, Centre Val de Loire, France;
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SO MANY MAGNETIC FILAMENTS: Today, there are a dozen sunspot groups crossing the face of the sun. This spectroheliograph image reveals an even greater number of magnetic filaments:
Click to view the full-sized image
Francois Rouviere captured the image from Cannes, France. It shows the sun in the monochromatic wavelength of red light emitted by solar hydrogen. Each irregular dark line is a magnetic tube filled with dense hydrogen gas. These filaments are just as likely to erupt as the sunspots, more than doubling the chances of a flare today. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
Synchronicity is the Source of Consciousness 
