Just hours ago, Mahdi Zamani used a Canon 30D to photograph the pair over Tehran, Iran:

more images: from Wienie van der Oord in the eastern Negev desert, Israel; from Minghelli of L'Escarène, Alpes Maritimes, France; from Patrick Jablonski of Normandie, France; from Eleazar Sánchez of Shanghai, China; from Mike O'Leary of El Cajon, California; from Larry Fischer of Topeka, Kansas; from Hal Schade of Rio Dulce, Guatemala; from Alfredo Garcia Jr of Torrance Beach, California; from Sam Cole of Austin, Texas;

Current conditions

NAMIBIA FIREBALL: Last night, Jan. 27th, around 2105 local time in Namibia, sky watchers witnessed a slow, bright fireball that disintegrated into "thousands of lights, almost like fireworks," says Crone Bergh of Windhoek. Fragments of "various sizes [appeared to be on fire] and left white smoke trails in the air," adds J.C. Vorster, also of Windhoek. This was probably the expected reentry of a Russian Molniya-M rocket, which launched a military satellite in Dec. 2008. The ground track of the decaying rocket passed over Namibia in a direction that fits the description of the witnesses

Green is a sign of poisonous gas. The comet's atmosphere contains toxic cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C₂). Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight via a process called "resonant fluorescence."

In 1910, many people panicked when astronomers revealed Earth would pass through the cyanogen-rich tail of Comet Halley. False alarm: The wispy tail of the comet couldn't penetrate Earth's dense atmosphere; even it if had penetrated, there wasn't enough cyanogen to cause real trouble. Comet Lulin will cause even less trouble than Halley did. At closest approach on Feb. 24, 2009, Lulin will stop 38 million miles short of Earth, a distant fuzzball easily seen in binoculars, possibly visible to the unaided eye, utterly harmless.

Comet Lulin Photo Gallery
[Comet Hunter telescope] [sky map] [ephemeris]

More photos and info below

ANIMATED ANNULAR ECLIPSE MAP - THIS IS REALLY COOL

an animated map of the eclipse prepared by graphic artist Larry Koehn. A regional map of Indonesia shows the best dry places to see the ring of fire: Borneo, Sumatra and Java.

Outside the narrow path of annularity, the Moon will cross the sun off-center, producing crescent suns of varying depth over south Africa, Madagascar, Australia, southern parts of India and southeast Asia. Sky watchers in those places should attend to the ground: crescent sunbeams will dapple the earth beneath leafy trees and garden latticework. Solar telescopes trained on the sky will show the Moon taking a bite out of the sun. Stay tuned for photos!

On Monday, Jan. 26th, something did. The disk of the sun transformed into a ring:

SOLAR ECLIPSE: The jagged spires of Candi Prambanan, an ancient Hindu temple in Java, never fail to make a deep impression on visitors. An atmosphere of celestial expectation swirls through the grounds as the architecture itself draws attention to the heavens. It feels like something amazing is about to happen.

On Monday, Jan. 26th, something did. The disk of the sun transformed into a ring:

"It was an annular solar eclipse," explains photographer Sangku Kim of Merak, Indonesia. The Moon passed in front of the sun--dead center--covering 93% of the solar disk. "I photographed the event at 10 minute intervals using my Canon 5D and a Baader solar filter."

Similar rings of fire, crescent suns, and strangely-shaped shadows were witnessed along an "path of annularity" spanning the Indian Ocean from the waters off South Africa to the islands of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Browse the gallery for the latest photos:

UPDATED: Jan. 26 Solar Eclipse Gallery
[Submit your photos] [Animated eclipse maps]

See photos and information about annular eclipse under photo below:

Current conditions

Ring of Fire Eclipse - An Annular eclipse - moon in front of the sun - January, 1982

SOLAR ECLIPSE: Oh to be in Borneo! On Monday, Jan. 26th, inhabitants of that heavily forested island will witness the sunset of a lifetime. Just as the sun descends into the waves of the Indian Ocean, the Moon will pass in front of the sun--dead center--covering 93% of the solar disk. The ensemble will form a stunning "ring of fire," something like this:

Similar sunset rings will appear over the nearby islands of Java and Sumatra: map. Astronomers call such an event an annular eclipse.

*Umbra is the Latin word for 'shadow'. The umbra is the darkest part of a shadow. From within the umbra, the source of light is completely concealed by the occulting body. In astronomy, an observer in the umbra is said to be in the shadows experiencing total eclipse.

Elsewhere, the Moon will pass off-center producing crescent suns of varying depth over south Africa, Madagascar, Australia, southern parts of India and southeast Asia. Sky watchers in those places should attend to the ground: crescent sunbeams will dapple the earth beneath leafy trees and garden latticework. Stay tuned for photos! Related links:

• Animated eclipse maps -- from Shadow & Substance
• Eclipse home page and time tables -- from NASA
• Recommended: safe solar telescopes
• Solar eclipse photo galleries: #1, #2, #3, #4

A new sunspot is emerging inside the circle region--and it is a strange one. The low latitude of the spot suggests it is a member of old Solar Cycle 23, yet the magnetic polarity of the spot is ambiguous, identifying it with neither old Solar Cycle 23 nor new Solar Cycle 24. Stay tuned for updates as the sunspot grows. Credit: SOHO/MDI
 images: from Pavol Rapavy of Rimavska Sobota, Slovakia

Current conditions

TITAN TRANSIT: Saturn's rings are almost perfectly edge-on to Earth and this is giving astronomers a chance to see unaccustomed things. On Jan. 7th, Christopher Go of the Philippines photographed one of them--a transit of Titan

"This type of transit is so rare, the last time it happened was in 1995," says Go. "After March 12th, the next one will be in the year 2025. The last four transits of this season will be on 1/23, 2/8, 2/24 and 3/12. The March 12th transit is the rarest as it will feature both Titan and it's shadow."

"All of the Titan transits this season are visible only from the Austral-Asia region of Earth," notes Go. Astrophotographers in the area, ready your cameras!

more images: from Roman Breisch of Erdweg, Germany; from Mark Seibold of Portland, Oregon; from Stuart Thomson of Melbourne, Australia; from Stefan Seip of Stuttgart, Germany; from William Rison of Newburg, Maryland; from Mike Borman of Evansville, Indiana;

The American Meteor Society has received over two dozen reports of a brilliant fireball occurring over southern California. The event occurred at 5:3>

ov/ace/MAG_SWEPAM_24h.html">more data
Updated: Today at 2343 UT

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0 2340 UT Jan17
24-hr: A0 0915 UT Jan17
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2340 UT

SWEDISH FIREBALL: A meteoroid of unknown size hit Earth's atmosphere over Sweden last night (Jan. 17 at 1909 UT) and exploded, turning the sky "lightning blue and green." Witnesses say the fireball was brighter than a full moon, casting shadows and booming like thunder. It was visible from Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and possibly as far away as Spain. Readers, if you saw or photographed the event, please send a report.

Video of a massive fireball was captured in Sweden as stunned residents witnessed night turn into day. Last report was near the southern tip of Sweden near Malmo. This celestial event occurred at approximately 11 AM Pacific (Jan 17th or 8 PM (Sweden).

 

911 received a large number of calls frightening many of the area residents. Astronomer Gunnar Larsson-Leander from University of Lund says: "Indications suggest that it was a large meteor that entered the atmosphere and burned up.

 

 

Även Peter Linde, President of the Astronomical Society Tycho Brahe, has an observatory in Oxie outside Malmö. He believes it was a meteor. "It is extremely rare for such bright meteors, so it grieves me that I missed this phenomenon. It happens maybe once every ten years at any given location."

 

It is yet to be determined if the meteor made impact, or shattered upon entry. Areas mentioned spread from Southern Sweden to Denmark to Norway.

 

VIDEO: http://www.expressen.tv/KVP/1.1435804/se-himlafenomenet-har
 

ASTEROID FLYBY: NASA's Goldstone Radar in the Mojave Desert is trained on asteroid 1998 CS1. The 1.3 km-wide space rock is flying past Earth today only 2.5 million miles away. Radar images should reveal much about the asteroid including its shape, spin, and precise location. This information will help astronomers better forecast future encounters with the asteroid, which is considered potentially hazardous. [ephemeris]

images: from Ivan Majchrovic and Roman Piffl of Marianka, Slovakia

Fireball Sighting Reports - Sweden

FROM: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/15jan_marsmethane.htm

MARS IS ALIVE: A team of NASA and university scientists has discovered "substantial plumes" of methane floating through the atmosphere of Mars. Their discovery indicates Mars is either biologically or geologically active. Get the full story from Science@NASA.

Current conditions

HOURS OF VENUS: Today, Jan. 14th, Venus reaches its maximum elongation (greatest apparent distance) from the sun. Go outside at sunset, face south, and take a long look. Venus won't set for more than three hours.

images: from Ugur Ikizler of Mudanya - Bursa / Turkey; from Wienie van der Oord of Eilat, Israel; from Marko of Stojnci, Slovenia;

Wiggins took 76 pictures which fellow astronomer Howard Jackman combined into the composite image shown above. "The data spans the time period 0514 to 0547 UT on Jan. 14th," says Jackman.

Stardust-NeXT is now hurtling toward Comet Tempel 1, a place NASA has been before. In 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft flew past Tempel 1 and blasted a hole in its nucleus. This was supposed to give astronomers their first look inside a comet. Just one problem: they couldn't see a thing. The debris cloud kicked up by the impactor was surprisingly dense and hazy, and prevented photography of the underlying crater. No one knows what the impact revealed! Stardust-NeXT is going back for a second look now that the dust has settled: full story.

more images: from Timur Kryachko of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Russia

The blue flash is an elusive first cousin of the better-known green flash. Both are caused by air temperature gradients that distort the shape of the sun and magnify wisps of color on the sun's upper rim. Although these mirages happen frequently, the blue flashes they produce are seldom seen. Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains why: "The reason is that rays of the setting sun travel through miles of our dense lower atmosphere and the air preferentially scatters away the blue light. Dust and aerosol dim it further. But when the air is exceptionally clean and we are above ground level we see the blue!"

Fortunately, a TV tower is not required to experience the phenomenon. Cowley offers these observing tips.

more images: from J. Fairfull and J. Stetson of South Portland, Maine; from Peter Desypris of Athens, Greece; from Andy Yeung of Hong Kong , China;

See below for photos

SPACE WEATHER
Current conditions

COMET LULIN PHOTO GALLERY

Right now, Comet Lulin is gliding through the constellation Libra in the southeastern sky before dawn: sky map. It glows like an 8th magnitude star, so a mid-sized backyard telescope is required to see it. Visibility will improve in February as the Earth-comet distance shrinks. At closest approach (0.41 AU) on February 24th, the comet should brighten to about 5th magnitude--dimly visible to the unaided eye and an easy target for binoculars: ephemeris.

Surprises are possible. The near-parabolic orbit of Comet Lulin suggests this could be the comet's first visit to the inner solar system. How it will react to increasing sunlight is anyone's guess. Stay tuned for updates in the weeks ahead.

more images: from Babak Tafreshi in the Alborz Mountains of Iran; from Riccardo Di Nasso of Pisa, Italy

The first sunspot of 2009 has materialized: Sunspot 1010 is a member of new Solar Cycle 24. Credit: SOHO/MDI
 

Full report: Severe Space Weather Events--Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts (National Academy of Sciences)

SEVERE SPACE WEATHER: The National Academy of Sciences has just released the results of a study entitled Severe Space Weather Events--Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts. The 132-page document examines what might happen to our high-tech modern society in the event of a super solar flare followed by an extreme geomagnetic storm. Such a storm did occur in the year 1859. It electrified telegraph lines, shocking technicians and setting telegraph papers on fire; Northern Lights as far south as Cuba were so bright, you could read a newspaper by their eerie glow.

No one knows how often super solar storms occur. We've only seen one like it in the past 200 years. The next one could be another 200 years away--or just 200 days. All the more reason to study space weather!

X-ray Solar Flares
6-hr max: A0 2350 UT Jan05
24-hr: A0 1705 UT Jan05
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at: 2350 UT

A solar wind stream flowing from the indicated coronal hole could reach Earth on or about Jan. 8th. Credit: SOHO Extreme UV Telescope

Current conditions

Iimages of Venus and the Moon : from Beery Remon of Arava desert, Israel; from Bader Eddine & Abdellatif Hamdi of Debila, Eloued, Algeria; from Carl Blesch of Basking Ridge, New Jersey; from P-M Hedén of Tänndalen, Sweden; from Mac Libid at the Eternal Gardens in Dagupan City, the Philippines; from Karen Schmeets of Manassas, Virginia; from Morten Ross of Sandbukta, Norway; from Anton Balatskiy of Port Provideniya, Chukotka, Russia; from Hassan Alsabbar of Diwaniya, Iraq; from Paco Burguera Catalá of Valencia, Spain; from Terry Tedor of North Pole, Alaska; from Babak Tafreshi of Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert), Iran; from David Williams of Frederick, Maryland; from Gary A. Becker of Coopersburg, Pennsylvania; from Alan C Tough of Elgin, Moray, Scotland; from Martin Mc Kenna of Maghera, Co. Derry, N. Ireland; from Žiga Golobi� of Pokljuka, Slovenia;