MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

Update: This has now been upgraded to EXTREME Level G5 ...

According to NOAA tonight’s Extreme G5 could be the worst Geomagnetic Storm in 165 YEARS and cause GPS and power outages as six streams of plasma that erupted from the sun this week are set to crash into Earth’s atmosphere tonight …

See: What If The Carrington Event, The Largest Solar Storm Ever Recorded, Happened Today?

Luke 21:25, “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars …”

They’re green. Great color considering they’ll be swinging by right around the Spring Equinox …

By Traci Watson, USA Today – “An emerald-green comet will brush the Earth Monday, followed one day later by a kissing cousin that will swerve closer to the planet than any other comet in nearly 250 years.

The first and bigger of the two comets will be visible Monday to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere, as long as city lights are far away. Stargazers in the United States will probably need only binoculars to see the bigger comet in late March. Scientists, however, are bringing out the big guns. The Hubble Space Telescope, the powerful ground-based Gemini telescopes and others will be trained on the celestial visitors, which will provide an extraordinary close-up of objects usually glimpsed only at a distance.

‘This is one for the record books,’ says Michael Kelley of the University of Maryland, who’s never heard of two comets approaching close to Earth a day apart. ‘It’s a fantastic opportunity for professionals to learn more about comets, and if you have a chance to try to find them … it’s a fantastic chance to see part of history as it happens.’

The first member of the pair, known as comet 252P/LINEAR, is a bright green color from the carbon gas it’s puffing out, says the University of Maryland’s Matthew Knight. 252P will slide past Earth at a distance of roughly 3 million miles. That’s well beyond the moon but near enough to put 252P in the top 10 of closest-approaching comets.

252P wasn’t expected to get terribly bright, but it has been ‘surpassing all expectations,’ says amateur comet-hunter Michael Mattiazzo of Australia. It may even be visible to the unaided eye in southern hemisphere suburbs where light pollution is low.

Astronomers discovered the trailing member of the pair, P/2016 BA14, a few months ago. It was shrugged off as yet another asteroid, or space rock. Then astronomers peering through a telescope saw it had a tail – and was therefore a comet. That means BA14 and its larger companion ‘are among the closest comets to pass by Earth in recorded history,’ says Knight …” Read more.

It’s a celestial trinity. Been awhile since I posted something in the Cosmic Craziness category, but this cosmic event is making some people crazy …

By Jon Austin, The Daily Express – “CONSPIRACY theorists are stocking up on food supplies amid fears the world could end in just FOUR days when a total eclipse of the sun, super full moon and staggeringly close asteroid pass of earth are set to happen within 24 hours.

On March 8 asteroid TX 68, a 30-metre long lump of space rock, is due to whistle past Earth as close as 19,000 miles away.

But doom mongers are not convinced it will miss us amid fears we won’t be able to see it because it will be obscured by the sun.

The looming event has sent online doomsday predictors into a frenzy, particularly as NASA admits it is uncertain of the orbital path and has given estimates as close as 19,000 miles away to as far as 11 million miles.

The US space agency has also changed the DAY of the pass with the initial date being given as TOMORROW, March 5.

Now NASA says it will be on Tuesday, March 8.

The uncertainty over the pass coupled with the fact some online doom mongers were predicting an asteroid would smash into earth in March 2016 several months ago, has fuelled the latest fears.

Some self-styled internet prophets released videos several months ago warning an asteroid, or even a mythological rogue planet called Nibiru or Planet X, would strike Earth in March 2016, and could spell the end of the word.

Express.co.uk found several YouTube videos released six months or more ago, before there was any widespread talk of asteroid TX68’s cosmic close shave.

It must be noted though, that videos also appear to exist for a number of other months and appear to be update when one date comes and goes without incident.

But if all this was not enough to pedal a doomsday prophecy, the conspiracists have been given more on a plate.

March 8 will also see a total solar eclipse in some parts of the globe, and a massive super full moon – the first of 2016.” Read more.

Shabbat HaChodesh, the Sabbath before the month of Passover, will begin at sundown on March 20th, the same day as this solar eclipse. In Jewish lore, there is a spiritual significance to a solar eclipse. According to Issue 247 of “Ask the Rabbi” in August 1999:

At the time when the sun is eclipsed, it is an unfavorable period for the world. A parable: This can be compared to a human king who made a feast for his subjects, and placed a lantern before them. When he grew angry with them, he told his servant, “Take away the lantern from before them, and place them in darkness!” (Talmud Bavli, Succah 29a)

The king is G-d, the King of Kings; the people at the table are ourselves; the lantern is the sun. The moon obscuring the sun is the king’s servant who takes away the lantern. Although eclipses can be described in entirely natural terms and occur at set intervals, they nevertheless indicate that the period is one of Divine retribution for various sins.

So, a solar eclipse signifies a harsh period. But an eclipse does not mean that the sun has been extinguished (contrary to what everyone else in the world thought)! The servant did not extinguish the lantern; he merely prevented it from illuminating the king’s subjects. The sun shines as merrily as ever during an eclipse, even if we cannot perceive its light.

Many eras in history have been dark for us. But during these times, we should remember that G-d’s light has not been extinguished; it is merely in a state of hester panim, hiddenness. The sun is not extinguished during an eclipse, nor does it move away; it is merely concealed. And just as the sunlight always emerges from its eclipse, so too are all situations of hester panim only temporary, destined to be followed by the light of G-d’s redemption.

Joel 2:31-32, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.”

Eclipse map courtesy of Fred Espenak – NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

By Victoria Ward, The Telegraph – “Power supplies could drop suddenly next month when the UK is plunged into darkness with an eclipse of the sun.

You can view a live webcast here … 

By Shannon Hall, Space.com – “A mountain-size asteroid will zoom past Earth Monday, marking the closest pass by such a large space rock until 2027.

Asteroid 2004 BL86, which is about 1,800 feet wide, will come within 745,000 miles of our planet Monday — about three times the distance between Earth and the moon. While this flyby poses no threat to Earth, it does present a rare opportunity to get a good look at a near-Earth asteroid, NASA officials say.

Scientists are eager to study 2004 BL86 to pinpoint its orbit, observe its surface and even look for moons. The plan is to track the fast-moving asteroid using the 230-foot dish-shaped Goldstone antenna at NASA’s Deep Space Network in California, as well as the 1,000-foot  Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. These radio dishes will beam microwave signals at the asteroid, which will then bounce off the target and return to Earth.

‘For objects that get this close, that are this large, the radar observations are really analogous to a spacecraft flyby in terms of the caliber of the data that we can get,’ said Lance Benner of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who is the principal investigator for the Goldstone observations of the asteroid.

The resulting black-and-white images can reveal unprecedented details about asteroids, whereas most ground-based telescopes would see only a point of light. But the first item on the team’s checklist will be to …” Read more.

The sunspot responsible for the solar flares this week is the largest we’ve seen in 24 years. The largest sunspot on record, however, took place in 1947 — a significant year for what was to become the State of Israel …

Luke 21:25, “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring …”

CNet – “Since October 19, an active region of the sun has been getting busy. Dubbed AR 12192, the region is the largest sunspot in 24 years — and most certainly the largest of this solar cycle, which is currently at maximum.

In the space of a week, AR 12192 — nearly 129,000 kilometres (80,000 miles) across, big enough for 10 Earths to be laid across its diameter — has erupted in six massive flares. Five of these flares were X-class — the biggest and most powerful class of solar flare. The accompanying coronal mass ejections — clouds of electrified gas that explode from the blast site — can cause geomagnetic storms and auroras.

The effects of these on Earth include the disruption of radio and satellite communications and navigational equipment. AR 12192’s flares caused several high-frequency radio blackouts on Earth’s dayside, over wide areas for durations of about an hour each.

However, unusually, the flares were not accompanied by major CMEs — which meant no geomagnetic storms and no auroras.

This solar maximum is the smallest on record, with the lowest recorded sunspot activity since 1904. The largest sunspot on record occurred in 1947. At 40 times the diameter of Earth, The Great Sunspot of 1947 was almost three times the size of AR 12192.” Source – CNET.

Luke 21:25, “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring …”

By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press – “An extreme solar flare is blasting its way to Earth and could mess up some power grids, satellites and radio transmissions, scientists say.

It’s been several years since Earth has had a solar storm of this size coming from sunspots smack in the middle of the sun, said Tom Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Solar storms happen often, especially during peaks in the solar cycle, and don’t directly harm people. But what makes this one more worrisome is its location on the sun along with its strength, he said.

‘There’s been a giant magnetic explosion on the sun,’ Berger said. ‘Because it’s pointed right at us, we’ll at least catch some of the cloud’ of highly energized and magnetized plasma that can disrupt Earth’s magnetic sphere, which sometimes leads to temporary power grid problems.

Forecasters don’t yet know when Wednesday’s solar storm will arrive here and which part of the planet will be facing the sun and bear the brunt of the effects. It could arrive as early as Thursday morning or may take a few days.” Read more.

God is in control …

By Jason Samenow, Washington Post – “On July 23, 2012, the sun unleashed two massive clouds of plasma that barely missed a catastrophic encounter with the Earth’s atmosphere.  These plasma clouds, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), comprised a solar storm thought to be the most powerful in at least 150 years.

‘If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,’ physicist Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado tells NASA.

Fortunately, the blast site of the CMEs was not directed at Earth.  Had this event occurred a week earlier when the point of eruption was Earth-facing, a potentially disastrous outcome would have unfolded.

‘I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did,’ Baker tells NASA.  ‘If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire.’

A CME double whammy of this potency striking Earth would likely cripple satellite communications and could severely damage the power grid. NASA offers this sobering assessment:

Analysts believe that a direct hit … could cause widespread power blackouts, disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket.  Most people wouldn’t even be able to flush their toilet because urban water supplies largely rely on electric pumps.

. . .

According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, the total economic impact could exceed $2 trillion or 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina. Multi-ton transformers damaged by such a storm might take years to repair.

CWG’s Steve Tracton put it this way in his frightening overview of the risks of a severe solar storm: ‘The consequences could be devastating for commerce, transportation, agriculture and food stocks, fuel and water supplies, human health and medical facilities, national security, and daily life in general.'” Read more.