A question for the astronomers among us

[cvanc]

Is there something green in the night sky right now?

I watch the Mauna Kea livestream from time to time and find this today. Any idea what the green blob at the top is? It's rising with the night sky.

 

[sriegel]

Jupiter and Venus are both quite bright. Looks like an overexposed image of one of those. There is nothing "big and green" like a comet that I know of. And any come that bright would have a spectacular tail with it.

 

[NTP2]

Jupiter and Venus are both quite bright. Looks like an overexposed image of one of those. There is nothing "big and green" like a comet that I know of. And any come that bright would have a spectacular tail with it.

+1

 

[cls]

Big solar flare and coronal mass ejection 2 days ago, big aurora yesterday. But probably not visible from low latitudes like Hawaii.

 

[Huxter]

We've also seen second stages burning up in the atmosphere around Hawaii before - kinda greenish. They were the beautiful spial off-gassing of fuel.

 

[cvanc]

In motion here, looks like Jupiter. Odd it looks green - weird camera artifact?

 

[teepot]

Venus or Jupiter would be my guess too. If you see two bright lights the brightest is Venus. The green tinge, air pollution would be my guess. The effect would be more pronounced close to the horizon.

 

[gdjsky01]

Or laser for optical image stabilization... Could be.

 

[teepot]

There is a Phone app called Star Chart that I use. It's free. You can point your phone at the sky and the app will show you what it is.

 

[Azamiryou]

There is a Phone app called Star Chart that I use. It's free. You can point your phone at the sky and the app will show you what it is.

OP isn't at Maunakea.

 

[teepot]

OP isn't at Maunakea.

I thought of that. Thought he might like the app though.

 

[Capt. Eric]

Looks too big to be one of the planets. My guess is that it's the moon. Looks smaller than you might expect because of the wide angle of the lens.

 

[cvanc]

More research is needed. I should book a flight

That video shows it rising just below the nearly full Moon. It's Jupiter... still no idea why the tint. It's looked the same over the last couple days.

 

[b.wieting]

It's not astronomical (unless I missed an unreported supernova).
Huxter's suggestion seems reasonable.

Your observatory screen shot clearly shows the "sickle" of the constellation Leo with the green object just above the star at tip of the sickle, epsilon Leonis. (The sickle represents the head of the lion).

Planetarium app SkySafari shows no bright object at that location/time. The moon is about 10 degrees west, out of the field of view at top of image, and the moon's track passes to the right of the sickle, not above it.

 

[Dotini]

From spaceweather.com:

STRONG GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A Cannibal CME struck Earth's magnetic field on Dec. 1st, sparking a strong G3-class geomagnetic storm with auroras in both hemispheres. "We witnessed an incredible show on the Canterbury coastline overlooking the Pacific Ocean," reports Mike White from New Zealand. "The sound of waves crashing onto the beach and washing across the stony pebbles created the perfect soundtrack for these Southern Lights."

​

"The Cannibal CME arrived just as New Zealand skies were darkening. The resulting cloud of charged particles rained down Earth's magnetic field lines and delivered a light show that lasted for hours. It was easily visible to the naked eye."

 

[Dotini]

From spaceweather.com, Dec 1 edition,

In Canada, the auroras were so bright they competed with the waning full Moon. Harlan Thomas photographed the two side-by-side north of Calgary, Alberta:

​

"The aurora 'went coronal' and met up with a 22-degree Moon halo," says Thomas. "The outburst was so powerful it overpowered the cloud cover."

 

[cvanc]

Slo-mo tells me it's a lens flare.

Watch the Moon rise behind the dome and see when the green dot first appears. It's moving with the Moon but not in the night sky.

I've worked with spendy optics in a pro space and don't recall a lens flare that was so strongly colored before! But then again this is a night view so maybe the camera gain is set sky high. (SWIDT?)

 

[MAT2000]

In motion here, looks like Jupiter. Odd it looks green - weird camera artifact?

The green halo is likely chromatic aberration of the overexposure of Jupiter.

 

[Dane Ronnow]

Slo-mo tells me it's a lens flare.

That's what I see too.

 

[Dane Ronnow]

Also, on 11/28/23 (the date of that video in post #6) moonrise in Hilo, HI was at 19:00 local time. Jupiter rose more than three hours earlier, at 15:50.

https://www.almanac.com/astronomy/moon-rise-and-set/HI/Hilo/2023-11-28https://www.almanac.com/astronomy/planets-rise-and-set/HI/Hilo/2023-11-28

 

[Capt. Eric]

Looks too big to be one of the planets. My guess is that it's the moon. Looks smaller than you might expect because of the wide angle of the lens.

I just watched the video, not just the still. I'd have to agree with others that its a lens aberration or a flare. That can come in colors too.

 

[b.wieting]

Flare seems plausible since the moon at that instant was just out of FOV at top (star pattern visible in image lets you know exactly relative location of moon and planets at time stamp

 

[cvanc]

Geminids are all over this feed today, some brightly illuminating the domes even. Beautiful.

 

[teepot]

I'm disappointed in them. As soon as I heard about them I made plans to go out in the desert to watch. They were supposed to start peaking about 10pm PST and go through until the early morning hours. At 10 I went outside and watched for 20 minutes. Nothing. I went out every half hour until midnight. Gave up on going out. At 1:30aam I went out and saw some. But since it was 27*F I only stayed out for 20 minutes. Oh well, maybe it will be warmer next year.

 

[Dotini]

One of the more invigorating astronomy questions is whether "Carrington Event" solar storms will ever have any serious affect on us. We may have another chance to safely study these X-flares and their CME's over the next few days.

From today's edition of spaceweather.com:

A FUSILLADE OF SOLAR FLARES: Sunspot 3514 continued to flare today with a strong M7-class event following close on the heels of yesterday's X2.8-class boomer. The X-flare on Dec. 14th was the strongest flare of Solar Cycle 25 (so far) and the most powerful eruption the sun has produced since the great storms of Sept. 2017.

​

Only the fact that AR3514 is approaching the sun's western limb prevents it from causing strong geomagnetic storms here on Earth. Eruptions from the sunspot are a little off-target. Nevertheless, we will not escape unscathed. The X2.8-class flare hurled a fast-moving CME into space, and it will probably graze Earth's magnetic field on Dec. 17th. We are still awaiting the results of NOAA modeling to confirm the timing of impact and the possible strength of any resulting geomagnetic storm. Stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text

 

[Dotini]

From today's edition of space weather.com:

THE "MARTIAN SUNSPOT" IS FACING EARTH: A sunspot big enough to see from Mars is now turning to face Earth. NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars first noticed the sprawling sunspot group last week, photographing it using the rover's MASTCAM. It was a behemoth then, and it has only grown bigger since. Here's how AR3576 looked Wednesday from Argentina:

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"The view was fantastic," says Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, who photographed the sunspot using a solar-filtered telescope in the town of Rafaela. "AR3576 appeared as a large archipelago containing a multitude of dark cores."

In fact, the sunspot is even bigger than the picture suggests. There's more of it visible in Poupeau's full frame image. From end to end, the sunspot group stretches more than 150,000 km with at least 4 dark cores larger than Earth. You can see it using ISO-approved eclipse glasses--no magnification required.

AR3576 is big, yes, but of even greater interest is the sunspot's magnetic complexity. This magnetic map from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a mixture of polarities in the sunspot's core:



In the circled region, positive and negative magnetic polarities are so closely-packed, you may need to look at this unlabeled map to see them clearly. Opposite polarities bumping together can cause explosive magnetic reconnection. Indeed, NOAA forecasters say this sunspot poses a threat for strong X-class solar flares--and Earth is directly in the line of fire. Stay tuned. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text

 

[dr-ws]

Proof that the Moon truly IS made of green cheese. . .

 

[sriegel]

Took some solar glasses out at lunch yesterday and let dozens of the JH kids get a look at the big spot.

 

[Dotini]

Major X-Class flare alert! Effects are still underway.
From spaceweather.com, an outlet of NASA:

PROTONS ARE RAINING DOWN ON EARTH: An S2-class radiation storm is underway following today's strong X3.4-class solar flare, described below. Energetic solar protons raining down on Earth's upper atmosphere are causing a polar cap absorption event, interfering with the reception of shortwave radio signals at high latitudes. Click here to view a realtime blackout map. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text

MAJOR X-CLASS SOLAR FLARE: Today at 1314 UT, the sun produced one of the most powerful solar flares in years, an X3.4-class explosion from just behind the sun's southwestern limb. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash:

​

The source of the flare appears to be departing sunspot AR3575. Because the blast site was eclipsed by the edge of the sun, the flare was probably even stronger than its X3.4 classification suggests. This was a big explosion.

Hours after the flare's peak, Earth is still feeling the effects of the blast. Solar protons energized by the flare are following curved magnetic field lines from the sunspot back to our planet. The resulting hailstorm, called a "radiation storm," is still intensifying at the time of this writing and has just reached category S2:



This plot shows what NOAA's GOES-18 satellite is seeing right now. The colored lines count the number of energetic protons streaming past the satellite en route to Earth. Green and blue are of special interest because they trace "hard protons" capable of upsetting spacecraft electronics, e.g., causing reboots of onboard computers and temporarily fogging cameras.

The explosion also hurled a bright CME into space. It will not hit Earth. Instead, a NASA model of the CME shows it is heading for Mercury, Venus and Mars. It will hit all three planets this weekend.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Fascinating how they have the ability to measure events.