Good evening and welcome to the MABW weather desk.
Current conditions are not great for aurora viewing, both due to poor alignment of the IMF and also the 90% moon. There is a smallish substorm in progress, but, with the moon, I don’t think we will have much chance.
- Solar Wind Speed: 467 km/sec
- Solar Wind Magnetic Fields: Bt 7 nT, Bz -1 nT
The main news is that we “fell behind,” (as in, I was behind before) which means that UTC is now five hours ahead of us. This is the time of year that it makes all kinds of sense to set up UTC as a separate time zone in your “world clock” on your phone. I’m including a screenshot of what mine looks like so you see what I mean.
You’ll also notice at this point, UTC is aligned with London/Edinburgh time. I will also include some light reading about the “wrong” meridian, the Prime Meridian. This is leading up to a dissertation on solar coronal hole orbits as well, so, there is one concept from this article worth bearing in mind: “To understand how there can be two different prime meridians, both being in the correct location for their purposes, it’s important to bear in mind that meridians and longitudes are a human invention, so there is essentially no right or wrong way to place them.”
However, tonight is very clear, and you might be able to pick out the Seven Sisters, or the Pleiades, just with your eyes, despite the bright moon. Draw a line from Orion’s belt up to Aldebaran in Taurus, and from there, is the hazy cluster that looks like a little dipper. It’s clear where I am, with a lot of moon, but, at least some good stargazing.
