frogesque

978 is a beauty but as it's eqatorial I'd say it's ~23 spot. However, what's that bright spot doing on the Eastern side in the top half of the frame? Will this develop into a full blown ~24 spot - it looks as if it corresponds with the Stereo behind image. http://www.spaceweather.com/images2007/13d...li92eqervtg0567

Earth Science Picture of the Day (ESPOD) http://epod.usra.edu/

Still a blank sun but the Kp is cooking at 6 due to a strong solar wind from a coronal hole. http://www.spaceweather.com/ We are only a day past full moon though and the weather's pretty grotty here so I don't think I'll be out looking for aurora. We really need a good solar flare to head our way with a Kp of 7+ - I'm getting withdrawl symptoms during this solar minimum

According to Spaceweather it WAS a meteorite and the ill health was from asenic fumes released from local volcanic rock where the meteor impacted. No radiation or space virus involved (though old ladies wearing lace were reportedely seen at the scene. <_< http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?vi...9&year=2007

Link has excellent photos and descriptions of flatworms as well as leech and earthworm for comparison. http://www.kitchengardens.dial.pipex.com/flatworm.htm NZ Flatworms are 'orrible buggers. First met them when I lived in N. Ireland and they are common in Fife as well as the rest of Central Scotland and N. Egland now. Look under stones, slabs and other damp, dark places. Black polythene held down by bricks makes a good trap and when I find any they get dusted with dry salt - see's 'em off no bother. Egg cases look like shiney black currant but slighly ovoid. A new egg case can contain up to 12 embryos. To give some indication of just how harmfull they are, a garden I work has some large borders (30m x 10m) and I'm lucky if I see any earthworms while digging.

The Old Astronomer to His Pupil Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet, When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet; He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how We are working to completion, working on from then to now. Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete, Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet, And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true, And the obliquy of newness may fall bitterly on you. But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn, You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn, What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and smiles; What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles. You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late, But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate. Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. Sarah Williams http://3ap.org/sarahWilliams.shtml

Shoooo! This is a hard one but in the end I had to plump for Aurorae. I was fortunate enough to see a full Solar Eclipse in Turkey last year and I also saw the spectacular 2001 Leonid meteor storm but for sheer awesomeness nothing matches being under a highly active full corona aurora. The only phenomena I've seen to better it is a brilliant display of Nacreous Clouds

Here's another one for the collection! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=27aa0e988e

Cloud cover nearly total now so going to bed. Night all!

Saw a handfull including a couple of nice ones that left trails. Best one had an orange tint to it. Cloud, streetlights and damned insecurity lights are really spoiling things though. Don't feel the weather is good enough to warrent a drive for dark sky.

Wait 'till you've had a horse snicker down your lug from the other side of a hedge on a pitch dark night!

Jupiter is up now. SSE low on the horizon. Has a yellowish tinge to it whereas Venus is normally a brilliant white and currently sets (my location) at 20.14

Desperately Seeking. Photo is a world beater. Absolutely stunning!

All excellent advice above, especially with regard to a pond. . One thing I would add to the 'tools' list would be a trailer for collecting and shifting stuff about. AND! Get onto your local Freecycle group(s). Slabs, bricks, rockery rocks, plants even sheds and greenhouses all come up from time to time.

One of my better ones taken earlier just after totality. Still a bit blurred with star trailing, this was a 3 second exposure with a 1:4-5.6, 75-300mm zoom lens fully extended without tracking .

Mammatus Cloud: Falling cold air though moisture laden levels produces these 'upside down' clouds Kelvin-Helmholtz Cloud, caused by wind shear, these sometimes form if the conditions are right Noctillucecnt Cloud. These are summer events when electric blue clouds illuminate the night sky

Mammatus Cloud. Possibly a Netweather first. These clouds were spotted on the 4th. March by Hiya in Glasgow, Mondy (above) caught them as they travelled over Stirlingshire and I snapped them over Fife before they headed off NE over the North Sea.

Thanks for the info Blackie, and well done to everyone who tried. Great pool of info on this thread For my part I was down at the beach near Kirckaldy with the camera propped up on a large boulder. Canon D60, Sigma 75-300 zoom lens, cable release but no tracking. I stuck with ISO 200 throughout and increased exposure as required and was up to 5 seconds (hence the trails and elongated smudging of the moon. Doesn't show too bad in the cropped version I put up but the full frame is pretty awful.

Not had time to look through all my pics yet but the cloud cleared and it's been abeautifull night Blackie: that's really excellent, much better than mine. Did you use tracking? Mine are smudged and have star trails.

If it's clear (doubtfull) I'll give it a try - at least it's at a 'sensible' time

Jewels in the Sky Mercury and Venus. Overlooking Loch Leven, Kinrosshire, 7th. February 2007; 15 sec @f16; 50mm prime lens.

We are still cooking then! I think the current Kp rise is due to the coronal hole and not 940 and it's new companion. I doubt if the Kp will go above 6 for the moment but I'm charging up the camera batteries just in case http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

Sunspot 940 (?) has arrived! Latest doppler image http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realti...024/latest.html Region is very active as we've seen, relatively quiet today but still plenty of potential Extreme UV Image, EIT 171 Å http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/latest_eit_171.gif

Parden my ooops! It's kind of difficult to keep up! And just when I thought it was safe to go out for a chippie another C flare goes off. http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif I hope it doesn't cook itself out too soon though. Whilst I like the pretty profile pics an nice X class Earth directed in a few days would be better.

And check out the magnetic field loops! http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cgi-bin/late...i?eit_171+jpg24 http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cgi-bin/late...i?eit_195+jpg24 http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cgi-bin/late...i?eit_284+jpg24 http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/cgi-bin/late...i?eit_304+jpg24 And finally - Boommmkabooom! http://lasco-www.nrl.navy.mil/current_mpg/current_c2.mpg