Today’s (very) partial eclipse begins today at 12:50. It will peak at 1:45, end at 2:38.
There are details here: https://montrealgazette.com/news/partial-solar-eclipse-montreal-wednesday-perseids-shower/
Also, the Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight. Best seen under a dark country sky, the shower will be at its best since it is also new moon. The weather is not promising, but the shower eases off gradually, so you might catch a few later in the week.
EXPLODING COMET MCNAUGHT: There’s an exploding comet in the morning sky. Comet 220P/McNaught was a nondescript speck of 17th magnitude in late May when it suddenly multiplied in brightness 7000-fold. It was fading back toward obscurity when, on Aug. 5th, it exploded again. The second outburst (650x) propelled the comet to 7th magnitude, an easy target for binoculars and small telescopes.
This is what it looks like now:
“We observed the comet in outburst on August 8th,” say photographers Gerald Rhemann and Michael Jäger, who used a 12-inch robotic telescope in Namibia. “It has a shock wave front.”
The comet is in the constellation Cetus near the star Mu Ceti, best seen around 4 AM local time. Its expanding atmosphere is already wider than 7 arcminutes–a quarter the size of a full Moon–with a short tail pointing away from the sun.
Some observers are comparing 220P to Comet 17P/Holmes, which famously exploded in 2007. Holmes brightened a million times, becoming a naked-eye object that you could watch expand from night to night without a telescope. “Mini-Holmes” might be a better name for 220P, although the resemblance is undeniable.
After the first outburst in May, telescopes monitoring 220P’s debris found it rich in gas. Some astronomers suspect a fragment broke off the nucleus, exposing fresh ice to sunlight. If so, more explosions may be in the offing. The comet is near its minimum distance from the sun (a 1.64 AU perihelion on June 14th) and still being exposed to disruptive solar heat.
If only one more fragment falls off, you won’t even need binoculars.
more images: from Ismael Civera of Villatoya, Spain; from Mike Olason of Tucson, Arizona; from Rafael Etges of Huntsville, ON Canada
Space Weather News for Aug. 5, 2026
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THE SUN’S SURFACE IS WEIRDER THAN YOU THOUGHT: A giant telescope in Hawaii just saw something unprecedented on the sun. The surface of our star, it turns out, is covered with tiny ripples and whirlpools that previous telescopes could not see. The images were published Aug. 5th in the journal Nature:
Solar physicists have long suspected these swirls exist, but they were simply too small to see. The Inouye Solar Telescope, the world’s largest with a 4-meter mirror atop Haleakalā on Maui, finally has the resolution to catch them.
The Maui-sized whirlpools are caused by Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. Van Gogh famously painted them in Starry Night.
Here on Earth, Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities make ocean waves curl when wind blows across water. On the sun, the “wind” is plasma. Where magnetized plasma and non-magnetized plasma slide past one another at different speeds, the boundary between them rolls up into vortices.
This could help solve the long-standing puzzle of where solar flares get their power. These explosions are driven by magnetic energy. The newfound whirlpools build up that energy, creating little reservoirs of power for flares and CMEs.
Even if you don’t believe it or understand it you will love the movies. Watch them here.
Potential target for binoculars or small telescopes–CPL
Space Weather News for July 28, 2026
A SPACEX ROCKET IS ABOUT TO HIT THE MOON: On Aug. 5th, a dead SpaceX rocket will slam into the Moon near Einstein crater. The explosion itself will be hidden in lunar daylight, but a new study says the debris plume could rise above the Moon’s edge, visible from Earth for as much as 10 minutes. https://spaceweather.com/
Space Weather News for July 7, 2026
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A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SUNSPOT: A big new sunspot emerged during the 4th of July weekend, announcing itself with an X-class solar flare. Today, it topped that by hurling a million-kilometer loop of plasma into space. Earth is entering the strike zone of this active sunspot, bringing a chance of geoeffective solar activity later this week. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.
Did you miss the 4th of July aurora outburst? Next time get a personalized real-time alert from our new Backyard Astronomy Alert Service.
Above: An eruption from sunspot 4482 on July 7th. Image credits: GOES-19 and Maximilian-Vlad Teodorescu
Space Weather News for June 12, 2026
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A SPACEX ROCKET IS GOING TO HIT THE MOON: NASA says amateur astronomers might be able to observe the debris when a Falcon 9 upper stage crashes into the Moon on Aug. 5, 2026. Observers in the Americas will have the best view of the plume rising over the lunar limb.
Above: Approximate location of the Falcon 9 impact on Aug. 5, 2026
For the full story, visit https://spaceweather.com/
Space Weather News for June 8, 2026
VENUS IS ABOUT TO ‘KISS’ JUPITER: Look west after sunset. Venus and Jupiter are converging for a beautiful conjunction, only 1.6 degrees apart on June 9th. Later this week, Mercury and the crescent Moon will join the show, too. Full story and night-by-night sky maps @ Spaceweather.com.
Above: Venus and Jupiter converging over France. Photo credit: Valerie Liard
VENUS-JUPITER CONJUNCTION: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west. The two brightest planets in the Solar System are converging for a beautiful conjunction. Last night in Austria, Michael Jaeger watched them set together in a blizzard of Starlink satellites:
“What a beautiful pair in the sky,” says Jaeger. “Venus and Jupiter are the stars of the night as darkness falls.”
At closest approach on June 9th, Venus and Jupiter will be just 1.6 degrees apart–similar to the Great Conjunction of 2002. And this is just the beginning. During the nights ahead, Mercury and the crescent Moon will join Venus and Jupiter to form a must-see quartet in the twilight sky. It’s a marvelous week-long sky show.
https://www.planetary.org/the-downlink/shortchanging-nasa-is-simply-not-smart
A hardy fungus may challenge planetary protection efforts. A recent study has identified a fungus called Aspergillus calidoustus living in NASA cleanrooms even after decontamination. This species could potentially survive the radiation, near-vacuum, and temperature conditions of deep space, meaning it could be carried on spacecraft to Mars or other worlds.
Space Weather News for March 16, 2026
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EQUINOX AURORA WATCH: The first auroras of northern spring are only days away. A CME (described below) is expected to hit Earth on March 19th just hours before the vernal equinox. Its impact could spark G2-class geomagnetic storms with photographic auroras at mid-latitudes.
Would you like an instant text message when the CME arrives? Sign up for CME Impact Alerts.
EARTH-DIRECTED SOLAR FLARE AND CME: Surprising forecasters, sunspot 4392 produced an M2.7-class solar flare on March 16th (1215 UTC). NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the extreme ultraviolet flash:
On the Richter Scale of solar flares, “M2.7” is not very strong. However, this one hurled a CME almost directly toward Earth. NOAA models and NASA models agree: The CME will arrive on March 19th, mere hours before the northern vernal equinox.
This is perfect timing because auroras love equinoxes. It’s called the “Russell-McPherron effect.” At this time of year, the magnetic field of Earth can link to the magnetic field of the sun, providing a superhighway for solar wind to enter our planet’s magnetosphere. Even a weak CME can can penetrate to spark mid-latitude auroras.
There’s more: A New Moon on March 19th will provide dark skies for long exposures. Even if you can’t see the auroras, you might be able to photograph them. Point your smart phone at the sky and take a nighttime exposure. You could be surprised by what appears on the screen.
Aurora alerts: SMS Text
Space Weather News for March 4, 2026
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LUNAR ECLIPSE REVEALS HOT SPOTS ON THE MOON: Millions of people witnessed yesterday’s total lunar eclipse–but only one photographed it using a thermal camera. An amateur astronomer’s rare infrared image reveals dozens of hot spots scattered like stars across the lunar surface. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.
