Crepuscular Ray

Gone, indeed, except on the Soho magnetogram. More like a Cheshire cat than a sunspot.

They seem to be a bit more positive about it now. Given its latitude, it's more likely to be cycle 24, but it's still almost invisible at visible wavelengths and a bit wimpy on Soho's magnetogram images. Ho hum.

Interesting stuff from NASA about the macro changes in the Sun during the sunspot cycle.

Ooh, where do you get your info from? The sites I look at are saying that which cycle the one south of the equator belongs to has not yet been identified, although the one at higher latitude in the northern hemisphere is definitely cycle 24.

There's usually a period when spots from both cycles can occur. It's how long the switchover is taking and how little activity there has been for so long that's odd. http://www.ucar.edu/communications/newsrel...00/maunder.html

James wins, though. From their positions, one near the equator and the other at a fairly high latitude, there's a possibility that one may be cycle 23 and the other cycle 24.

Two new spots emerging. It's not obvious which cycle they belong to yet, though. http://www.spaceweather.com

I think Yeahbabyyeah's original post said that nothing had showed up on the ATC radar.

None of mine are that close-up as I have only a cheapy 3mB digital camera but within those limits, I'm quite pleased with these for the subject, if not the photos.

That's beautiful - I think it's a juvenile Hobby. Amazing shot, anyway. That's gorgeous, too. I'm not sure, but is that a juvenile Peregine?

Kelly that is absolutely stunning - to get the smoke trails with that level of detail of the structure is amazing!

Well you did ask for suggestions...

Only the village? St Michael's Mount across Mount Bay emerging from the early morning mist (only partly weather-related)

Beautiful moth and lovely photo showing detail.

From what friends found this year, I'd say don't bother paying for Padstein's fish'n'chips - according to them the fish was overpriced, overcooked and underseasoned with lumps of flour in the batter and the chips weren't cooked through - try a picture of someone else enjoying Padstein fish and chips.

jellyfish (preferably alive)

Near Helston.

His name's Arthur. http://www.goonhilly.bt.com Good family attraction for wet days, too.

A surfer not falling in the water

The official NASA press release - or at least the most relevant and succint http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/23...d.htm?list72553

Quick explanation The major meteor showers of the year are: Quadrantids January 1-6 (peak Jan 3-4) Lyrids April 19-25 (peak Apr 21-22) Eta Aquarids May 1-10 (peak May 5) Delta Aquarids July 15-August 15 (peak July 28-29) Perseids July 23-August 20 (peak Aug 12-13) Orionids October 16-27 (peak Oct 20-22) Taurids October 20-November 30 (peak Nov 4) Leonids November 15-20 (peak Nov 17-18) Geminids December 7-15 (peak Dec 13-14) Meteor showers are associated with the remnants of the tails of comets and occur when the Earth's orbit crosses the path of a comet's tail (the Leonids are associated with Comet Tempel-Tuttle). The particles are mostly minute and burn up in the upper atmosphere within a second or two. Sporadic meteors can occur at any time: there are usually two-three an hour visible from any one place in good dark skies. They are just random dust particles hitting the atmosphere. Bigger lumps - bits knocked off asteroids, the Moon or Mars, or bits of space hardware re-entering the Earth's atmosphere - can also occur at any time and these burn up lower in the atmosphere, and I suspect that this is what caused the fireball yeahbabyyeah saw. The biggest of the non-man-made ones hit the ground as meteorites.

http://fedastro.org.uk/fas/index.php?optio...er&Itemid=8 They have lists of all the affiliated societies in the UK. CR

There's no shower expected around now, and they normally consist of far smaller particles that burn up much higher up. It sounds as if you saw one that's not associated with a meteor shower. The local astronomy society may be interested in your sighting if you can pinpoint the time, where it came from and what its trajectory was.

According to NASA, it did in 2001, at the peak of the sunspot cycle. The spot appears to be fading rapidly already, although Soho's it's growing on the SoHO's magnetogram.

Well, it's a welcome start, anyway. It was getting very, very boring.