SUNSPOT NUMBERS REMAIN HIGH: So far this month, average sunspot numbers are hovering between 200 and 250. If this continues for another 12 days, August 2024 will end up as the spottiest month. It will be the spottiest month in more than 20 years. August 2024 will rival the peak of old Solar Cycle 23. No mainstream forecasters predicted that Solar Cycle 25 (the current cycle) would be so strong. The sun has its own plans. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
WAITING FOR THE NEXT SPACEX SPIRAL: For more than a year, Zach Goldberg has been wondering what he saw. The aurora photographer was camping in Denali National Park in April 2023. Out of nowhere, a giant blue spiral pinwheeled across the night sky.
“We had no idea what it was,” says Goldberg. “Fortunately, we already had our cameras out for the auroras.” This is what he saw:
Mystery solved: It was a “SpaceX spiral.” On April 15, 2023, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. It carried 51 small satellites to Earth-orbit, a mission known as Transporter-7. When the rocket’s discarded upper stage passed over Alaska, it vented its unused fuel.
Spirals are a common side-effect of Transporter ride share missions. Within these Falcon 9 rockets, satellites from various clients have different destinations. SpaceX must rotate the rocket’s second stage for deployment. The de-orbit burn and fuel dump naturally spirals.
Another spiral appeared on March 5, 2024, when Transporter-10 deployed 53 satellites:
“I caught this in Akureyri, Iceland, around 1 a.m. local time,” says photographer Shang Yang. “It looked otherworldly against the Northern Lights!”
When will it happen again? Possibly in two months. The Transporter-12 mission is currently scheduled for October 2024. It could dump its fuel into a northern autumn sky filled with equinox auroras and Orionid meteors. Arctic photographers are encouraged to monitor the launch schedule and submit your images here.
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Synchronicity is the Source of Consciousness 