Auroral Show To Dazzle Just Before the New Year; Best View From the ISS (forbes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: When the Sun emits a flare or a mass ejection in the direction of Earth, these fast moving particles are when Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere are of the utmost importance for shielding us. The magnetic field bends these ions harmlessly away from our planet, only funneling a small fraction down into a ring surrounding the poles. The atmosphere absorbs the impact, shielding all living creatures below from this radiation, while simultaneously putting on a show. Thanks to a coronal mass ejection on the 28th, the northern and southern lights will put on quite a display on the night of the 30th for all skywatchers at or above 50 degrees latitude, with chances that observers further towards the equator might have something to see, too. But the best views of all will belong to the unshielded astronauts aboard the ISS, who will pass around the Earth a full 7 times during our "night," and at the peak of the storm.

Comments

Excellent - if only I had a time machine

[TigerNut]

Would have been helpful to post this, um, yesterday?

Re:Excellent - if only I had a time machine

[dotancohen]

Would have been helpful to post this, um, yesterday?

Why? It's another Forbes link. Don't even bother trying to go to TFA, just read the comments here which are more insightful and don't require you to rm your hosts file.

Re:Excellent - if only I had a time machine

[Anonymous Coward]

Why?! Did you not even read the summary? If it had been posted yesterday (well, the day before yesterday now) then some of us, at least, may have been able to go outside and see this aurora. That is the point TigerNut was making, not that he wanted to actually RTFA.

Re:Excellent - if only I had a time machine

[dotancohen]

Then go out next week when the comet will be closer to Earth and brighter. That's when most of us amateur astronomers will be bringing our layman friends out to see the comet. You'll still want a pair of binoculars, though.

On the 30th?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, Slashdot posts news late, but a story that's all about telling us to watch for something that's already over?

Re:On the 30th?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not over by any means... it's happening right now, on the 31st. Check out SpaceWeather.com

Anti ad-blocking

[Anonymous Coward]

fuck you, fuck javascript, fuck compromising my computer so you can be fucking lazy and not sell your own fucking ads that you can guarantee are not laden with malware and don't auto-play bandwidth-devouring video ads with shitty blaring audio.

I'll wait for Starts to post it to his own blog or I just won't fucking read it from now on. Thanks, I seriously love reading your stuff man, but fuck Forbes right in the eyesocket.

Re:Anti ad-blocking

[ickleberry]

Forbes can take a long walk off a short pier

Gee thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

For posting this on the 31st, since it already took place on the 30th...

Re:Gee thanks

[TigerNut]

In case you haven't seen it yet: See Comet Catalina tomorrow morning before dawn

I'd post this as a story but it would probably go front-page on the 2nd.

Re:Gee thanks

[BlackPignouf]

Note: Not just tomorrow/today. It's just that the comet will be close to Arcturus as seen from Earth.

Re:Gee thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

That sounds nice, but I nearly went blind last time the internet told me to view some astronomical event!

Re:Gee thanks

[dotancohen]

In case you haven't seen it yet: See Comet Catalina tomorrow morning before dawn

I'd post this as a story but it would probably go front-page on the 2nd.

Actually, comet Catalina is expected to be brightest next week, when it is closest to Earth. And it could have a gas outburst at any time, which will make it much brighter no matter when that occurs.

Re:Gee thanks

[dotancohen]

That sounds nice, but I nearly went blind last time the internet told me to view some astronomical event!

As funny as that stupid headline is, the real mess on that page is your fonts! Seriously google for .fonts.conf or try this for a good start:
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
<dir>~/.fonts</dir>
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
<const>hintslight</const>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

So last night, in other words

[Anonymous Coward]

Night of the 30th but posted on the 31st. Article should have been written in the past tense. Even the original article was posted the afternoon of 30th. Oh well.

Stop With the Forbes Links

[Anonymous Coward]

Are they paying you to post their links?

I can't wait to see this

[Anonymous Coward]

Morons.

Unshielded?

[ColaMan]

They're not "unshielded" - the Van Allen belts - which trap a good proportion of the charged particles from the sun - are a fair bit further out than the ISS. Ok, they might be less shielded when they orbit over the poles, but still.

Re:Unshielded?

[lazy genes]

I think there is a shielded section of the ISS. It was a small section. Not sure if they can all fit in it.

Why not link to the source?

[ThaumaTechnician]

Does Forbes pay for clicks? The ISS HD Earth-pointed, real-time, HD camera system: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/

Re:Why not link to the source?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because then Ethan "I'm Totally Not A Spammer But My Starts with a Shitty Blog Gets Spammed All Over Every News Aggregator on the Internet" Siegel wouldn't get paid.

Fuck him, fuck Forbes, fuck his shitty blog, and fuck whatever editor greens his shit.

Happy New Year

[PopeRatzo]

I'm watching Dick Clark on New Year's Rockin' Eve and he's not looking so good:

http://static.comicvine.com/up...

Re: Happy New Year

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the funniest fucking thing ever

Holy sentence structure Batman!

[Anonymous Coward]

"When the Sun emits a flare or a mass ejection in the direction of Earth, these fast moving particles are when Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere are of the utmost importance for shielding us."

Is it just me, or is this sentence impossible to parse as written? It would read better to me as:

"When the Sun emits a flare or a mass ejection in the direction of Earth, Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere are of the utmost importance for shielding us from such fast moving particles"

Seriously editors, please edit.

Re: Holy sentence structure Batman!

[Anonymous Coward]

Lolololol. Editing. Here? Are you fucking nuts?

Thanks for the info

[penguinoid]

I'll be sure to park my time machine on the International Space Station.

It's still happening tonight

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out spaceweather. they have live graphs and charts. They have a photo album that gets frequent additions. Anywhere north should get a rockin view.