Sunset Sky Show Tonight

What's up in space
Sunday, Mar. 25, 2012

Don't just watch shooting stars. Wear them! Authentic meteorite jewelry for Valentine's Day is now available in the SpaceWeather Store. MIDNIGHT ROCKET PLUMES: On  Tuesday, March 27th, between midnight  and 3 am EDT, NASA plans a rapid-fire  launch of five sounding rockets from the  Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.   The rockets will deliver a chemical tracer  to the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere,  forming milky white plumes that reveal  high-speed winds at the edge of space.  The display should be visible to the naked  eye from coastal areas between South  Carolina and New Jersey. [full story]  [updates] SUNSET SKY SHOW, AGAIN: A month  ago, Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon  aligned beautifully for evening sky  watchers around the world. Tonight it's  happening again. On March 25th and  26th, the trio will appear side by side in  the western sky at sunset. Marek Nikodem photographed the Moon making a beeline  for the planets over Szubin, Poland, on   March 24th: Observing tip: Try catching them before   the sky fades completely black. Bright  planets are extra-beautiful when they are  framed by twilight blue.  Sky maps: March 25, March 26. more images: from Toke Brødsgaard of  Nuuk, Greenland; from Evan Ludes of  Omaha, Nebraska; from Mara Reed of  Wall, South Dakota; from Jim Tegerdine  of Marysville, Washington; from Dr. Fritz  Helmut Hemmerich of Tenerife, Canary   Islands; from Stefano De Rosa of Avigliana,  Italy; from Adrian New of San Antonio,  Texas INCREDIBLE SUNSPOT AR1429: Big  sunspot AR1429, the source of so many  strong flares and geomagnetic storms  earlier this month, is still erupting.  The active region produced a significant  coronal mass ejection on March 24th at  00:39 UT: movie. Because of the sunspot's  location on the farside of the sun, this  particular CME will not hit Earth. An  animated forecast track prepared by  analysts at the Goddard Space Weather  Lab shows the trajectory of the expanding  cloud: The leading edge of the CME is expected  to arrive at the STEREO-B spacecraft on  March 25th at 13:08 UT (+/- 7 hours).  None of the inner planets will be affected. Since March began, sunspot AR1429 has  propelled CMEs into every corner of the  solar system, stirring up stormy space  weather around every planet and spacecraft.  If the sunspot remains active for another  week or so, it will turn back toward Earth  for a new round of geoeffective eruptions.  Stay tuned.