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Star Chart for Mickleham, Victoria |  |
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Astronomy Fact
Scientists believe that we can only see about 5% of the matter in the Universe. The rest is made up of invisible matter (called Dark Matter) and a mysterious form of energy known as Dark Energy.
Sunspot Activity
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Sunset: 19:35 Sunrise: 06:36 DIY Sunspot Viewer |
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74% illuminated - Waxing Gibbous Moon Moonrise: 14:32 (13/10/2024) New Moon: 01/11/2024 23:48 Full Moon: 17/10/2024 22:27 |
- Sunspots are solar magnetic storms. The spots appear darker because the temperature of the spots are lower than the surrounding photosphere.
- They serve as a reservoir for solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which cause Aurorae, power/communication outages, and satellite anomalies.
- The Sun's activity waxes and wanes in an 11-year sunspot cycle; Solar Minimum is when the number of sunspots are lowest.
- There seems to be a correlation between Solar Min/Maximum and Earth's weather. The extent to which Ozone, stratospheric winds, global circulation patterns, and cloud seeding are all affected are still being studied.
Mickleham, Victoria, Australia Sky Forecast
Key
Octet-gram of cloud cover, blue is for clear while white is for cloud. e.g. the "cake" on the left is 0% cloud while the one on the right is 100% cloud.
Astronomical seeing. From left to right: <0.5", 0.5"-0.75", 0.75"-1", 1"-1.25", 1.25"-1.5", 1.5"-2", 2"-2.5", >2.5". In short, the smaller/bluer, the better the seeing condition is.
Atmospheric transparency. From left to right: <0.3, 0.3-0.4, 0.4-0.5, 0.5-0.6, 0.6-0.7, 0.7-0.85, 0.85-1, >1 (unit: mag per air mass). In short, the fewer bars/bluer, the better the transparency is.
Chances of rain/snow.
Atmospheric instability. From left to right: lifted index between 0 to -3, -3 to -5, and below -5.
Humid weather warning. From left to right: relative humidity between 80%-90%, 90%-95%, and over 95%.
Windy weather warning. From left to right: sustained wind speed between 8.0-10.8m/s (fresh), 10.8-17.2m/s (strong), and over 17.2m/s (gale or above).
Earth Satellite Vehicle Passes
Notes about viewing ESVs:
When using lookangles, choose passes with high magnitudes; less than 6.0. ("Looks" are local time.)
Best viewing is when ESV is in Earth's penumbra; on the map, it's the solid line during night.
Dotted line on map denotes ESV is dark, in Earth's umbra (shadow).
Objects in orbit have to maintain a speed of at least 17,500mph, therefore ESVs traverse the sky noticeably different than aircraft.
ESVs appearing to blink are either tumbling rocket bodies, or spinning payloads with deployed solar arrays.
High-Eccentricity objects have a more ellongated orbit. Ground trace looks like a backwards C.
Regression-Ground traces will move West with each orbit due to Earth's rotation.
Script courtesy of: Lee from MadALwx. Page template and Facts script courtesy of: TNET Weather.
Page Template and Moon script courtesy of: Saratoga Weather. Graph base code courtesy of: jpGraph.