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Tugmistress
24-Oct-05, 19:36
HERE COMES MARS: Mark your calendar: On Oct. 30th, Mars makes its closest approach to Earth for the next 13 years. The view of Mars through backyard telescopes is already spectacular and getting better. Amateur astronomers are monitoring a big dust storm that is "rewriting the map of Mars" from night to night. You can see Mars with the unaided eye, too. It looks like a brilliant orange star rising in the east after sunset. Visit http://spaceweather.com for pictures and sky maps.

QUIET SUN: Solar activity is extremely low. X-rays from the sun have dimmed to their lowest levels since 1997. The ongoing quiet follows a furious outburst of flares and coronal mass ejections just last month, highlighting the unpredictability of the sun on month-to-month time scales. The 11-year solar cycle seems to be on track, however. The current spate of quiet is consistent with the approach of solar minimum expected in 2006.

Kenn
24-Oct-05, 22:21
Thank you for the link and the info. One question, now can you fix the weather so we can get a good view? [lol]

Rheghead
24-Oct-05, 22:27
Now that the Sun is on the downturn in activity is it no surprise that we haven't had a hottest year since 1998?

Tugmistress
24-Oct-05, 23:56
A pretty good weather forum I belong to is net-weather.co.uk and there is often good discussions on there about the various lack of/sun activity and average CET temps (CET = Central England Temperatures)