MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Fox News – “On Thursday and Friday, skywatchers in parts of Australia and the Pacific region will be treated to a spectacular ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse, in which the moon blots out all of the sun except for its outer edge.

Here’s what you need to know about this stunning skywatching event, which is also known as an annular solar eclipse.

What is an annular eclipse?

The orbit of the Earth around the sun is an ellipse, not a circle. This means that sometimes Earth is closer to the sun than at others. The same goes for the moon’s orbit around Earth, which is also elliptical rather than circular. [See Spectacular Photos of a ‘Ring of Fire’ Solar Eclipse]

We are fortunate to live in a time when the sun and the moon are very close to the same apparent size in our sky. This is an illusion of perspective: The moon is small (2,159 miles wide) and close by (238,855 miles away) while the sun is large (865,278 miles wide) and far away (92,955,808 miles).

Notice that the sun is about 400 times larger than the moon in diameter. It is also about 389 times farther away. This explains why the two appear to be almost the same size in the sky. But ‘almost’ is not exact, which explains why there are different kinds of solar eclipses — partial and total…

On May 10, the moon will appear to be 30 arcminutes in diameter, since it is only a few days away from its farthest retreat from Earth, which occurs on May 13. A 30-arcminute moon doesn’t quite cover a 32-arcminute sun, so the sun peeks out as a ring all around the moon. ‘Annular’ is Latin for ‘ring,’ so the resulting event is called an annular eclipse. [How to Safely Observe the Sun (Infographic)]

Astronomers tend not to get as excited about an annular eclipse as they do about a total eclipse. Because the moon doesn’t cover the sun completely, you don’t see the prominences and outer solar atmosphere, which are the most exciting parts of a total eclipse.” Read more.

By Dr. Tony Phillips, Clarksville Online – “Washington, D.C. – Anticipation is building as Comet ISON plunges into the inner solar system for a close encounter with the sun in November 2013. Blasted at point-blank range by solar radiation, the sungrazer will likely become one of the finest comets in many years.

When NASA’s Swift spacecraft observed the comet in January 2013, it was still near the orbit of Jupiter, but already very active. More than 112,000 pounds of dust were spewing from the comet’s nucleus every minute.

It turns out, some of that dust might end up on Earth.

Veteran meteor researcher Paul Wiegert of the University of Western Ontario has been using a computer to model the trajectory of dust ejected by Comet ISON, and his findings suggest that an unusual meteor shower could be in the offing.

‘For several days around January 12th, 2014, Earth will pass through a stream of fine-grained debris from Comet ISON,’ says Wiegert. ‘The resulting shower could have some interesting properties.

According to Wiegert’s computer models, the debris stream is populated with extremely tiny grains of dust, no more than a few microns wide, pushed toward Earth by the gentle radiation pressure of the sun. They will be hitting at a speed of 56 km/s or 125,000 mph. Because the particles are so small, Earth’s upper atmosphere will rapidly slow them to a stop.

‘Instead of burning up in a flash of light, they will drift gently down to the Earth below,’ he says.

Don’t expect to notice. The invisible rain of comet dust, if it occurs, would be very slow. It can take months or even years for fine dust to settle out of the high atmosphere.

While the dust is ‘up there,’ it could produce noctilucent clouds (NLCs).

NLCs are icy clouds that glow electric-blue as they float more than 80 km above Earth’s poles.” Read more.

By LeAnne Gendreau, Ryan Hanrahan, Amanda Raus and Jeff Saperstone, NBC – “A Yale expert confirmed Tuesday that an object that crashed through a house in Wolcott Friday night was a meteorite.

Larry Beck, of Williams Court in Wolcott, called police at 10:20 a.m. on Saturday and said a rock crashed through the roof of his house on Friday night and damaged the roof and copper piping, and cracked the ceiling in his kitchen.

‘All the sheet rock had broken apart and it was on the floor,’ Beck said.

That was around the time that people from several towns along the shoreline called police and reported a loud boom that rattled windows.

Beck told police that he’d heard a loud crash and thought that a joist or rafter had broken.

When he checked the attic on Saturday morning, he found a hole in his roof, damage to the pipes and rock broke in half in the attic, police said.

‘As I’m crawling across, I say ‘honey, I can see some daylight coming through the roof,’ Beck said.

At first, police thought the rock was a broken piece of airport runway concrete that had dropped from a plane when landing gear was being lowered, because Beck said that there is a lot of overhead airline traffic at all and Bradley Airport and Oxford Airports are nearby, police said.

Officials contacted the New England Regional Office of the Federal Aviation Administration and arrangements were made to have someone from the FAA view the rock.

Beck also contacted a local meteorolgist about the rock that crashed through his roof. John Bagioni, who owns Fax-Alert Weather Service, LLC in Burlington, immediately thought the rock might be a meteorite. The description of the rock, coupled with reports of a loud boom across the state around the time the rock struck the home, lead Bagioni to his conclusion.” Read more.

By Dan Vergano, USA Today – “A comet headed for a starring role in the nighttime sky later this year has gotten a sneak peek from NASA’s Hubble space telescope.

Too dim to see with the naked eye for now, Comet ISON may bloom brighter than the full moon in November, according to the space agency. But this early view from the Hubble telescope offers a glimpse of the comet ahead of schedule.

About as far from the sun as the planet Jupiter, the comet is now headed toward the sun at 47,000 mph, its 3- to 4-mile-wide core heated by the sun to produce a tail. When it returns from its zip around the sun later this year, it will be much brighter in the nighttime sky, perhaps earning a ‘comet of the century’ title, the space agency suggests.” Source – USA Today.

By Alan Boyle, NBC News – “A suspected meteor flash wowed observers in Argentina early Sunday — and sparked memories of February’s more serious blast over Russia.

The fireball lit up the night in north and central Argentina at about 3:30 a.m. local time, according to accounts from Argentine news outlets. ‘The sky lit up completely for a couple of seconds and interrupted the calm in this area of Argentina,’ BarrioOeste.com reported. Witnesses in Catamarca, Tucuman and Santiago del Estero reported sightings.

Twitter users were buzzing over the fireball: A widely shared amateur video showed the green streak and flash in the background of a concert setting. Britain’s ITV network reported that the footage was captured in Salta as the folk music band Los Tekis performed at an outdoor venue.” Read more.

RT – “A brilliant ball of flame streaked across the sky above the Spanish capital Madrid, dazzling stargazers and astronomers alike. The celestial display was so bright it could be seen across the entire country.

The eye-popping moment was caught on camera by the Hita Observatory at the University of Huelva at around 11:45pm local time (2145 GMT). The object struck the atmosphere above the Villamuelas district in the province of Toledo, southwest of Madrid.

‘The impact was so abrupt that the object immediately caught fire, creating a ball of flame around 100 kilometers above the Earth,’ Jose Maria Madiedo of the University of Huelva told the Huffington Post. The meteor then shot towards Madrid at over 75,000 kilometers an hour before disintegrating completely at an altitude of 70 kilometers.

The Spanish Institution for the Study of Meteors and Meteorites, which tracked the fireball, classified the meteorite as a piece of a comet that was flying by Earth.

The explosion on impact was so bright that it could be viewed as far away as the southern Spanish cities of Seville, Granada and Murcia.

‘I was looking up at the sky when there was a flash that in a matter of seconds began to grow,’ astronomer Leonor Ana Hernandez said to the Huffington Post. ‘When the explosion happened, everything around us turned white for a few seconds,’ and several green and blue followed the initial explosion, she added.

The explosion as the fireball entered the atmosphere sparked comparisons with the 500-kiloton explosion caused by the meteorite that fell over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February.” Read more.

By Melanie Eversley, USA Today – “A possible meteor has been spotted streaking through the sky over the East Coast, The American Meteor Society and Twitter users are reporting.

‘It basically looked like a super bright shooting star,’ said Robert Lunsford, fireball coordinator for the society, based on the reports coming in to the organization’s website. ‘I saw some people mentioning fragments and naturally every color of the rainbow.’

The society, based in Geneseo, N.Y., was researching about 400 reports received as of about 10 p.m. ET Friday from nine East Coast States and Canada of sightings that took place somewhere shortly before 8 p.m. ET through shortly after 8 p.m. ET, Lunsford said. The number of reports marked a possible record over the number of reports the group received about a fireball that streaked over Baltimore on Halloween several years ago, Lunsford said.

Late Friday, NASA said the incident was consistent with a ‘single meteor event.’

‘Judging from the brightness, we’re dealing with something as bright as the full moon,’ Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environmental Office said Friday. ‘We basically have (had) a boulder enter the atmosphere over the northeast.’

Twitter exploded Friday evening with reports of meteor sightings from the South to New England.

Some Twitter users also reported that the meteor crashed somewhere near the Delaware-Maryland border, but the society had no information on that, Lunsford said.

AccuWeather.com (@breakingweather) tweeted that there have been several unconfirmed reports of a large meteor being spotted from Florida to Massachusetts between 7:55 p.m. and 8:03 p.m. ET.

Reports of a fireball that streaked over the Albany, N.Y., area shortly before 8 p.m. headed south or southeast was reported by Examiner.com.” Read more.

NASA: Large Asteroid Heading To Earth? Pray … – “NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray. That’s about all the United States – or anyone for that matter – could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday.” Read more.

Good advice. Just be sure that you’re praying to Someone who can actually listen …

By Irene Klotz, Reuters via Yahoo! News – ” CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray.

That’s about all the United States – or anyone for that matter – could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday.

An asteroid estimated to be have been about 55 feet in diameter exploded on February 15 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and damaged buildings. More than 1,500 people were injured.

Later that day, a larger, unrelated asteroid discovered last year passed about 17,200 miles from Earth, closer than the network of television and weather satellites that ring the planet.

The events ‘serve as evidence that we live in an active solar system with potentially hazardous objects passing through our neighborhood with surprising frequency,’ said Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat.

‘We were fortunate that the events of last month were simply an interesting coincidence rather than a catastrophe,’ said Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, who called the hearing to learn what is being done and how much money is needed to better protect the planet.

NASA has found and is tracking about 95 percent of the largest objects flying near Earth, those that are .62 miles or larger in diameter.

‘An asteroid of that size, a kilometer or bigger, could plausibly end civilization,’ White House science advisor John Holdren told legislators at the same hearing.

But only about 10 percent of an estimated 10,000 potential ‘city-killer’ asteroids, those with a diameter of about 165 feet have been found, Holdren added.

On average, objects of that size are estimated to hit Earth about once every 1,000 years.

‘From the information we have, we don’t know of an asteroid that will threaten the population of the United States,’ Bolden said. ‘But if it’s coming in three weeks, pray.'” Read more.

By WCNC – “CLEVELAND COUNTY, N.C. – There are several reports from Saturday night of a meteor gliding across the Carolina skies.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing a large bolide meteor that split into several pieces.  First Warn Storm Spotter Stuart McDaniel caught it all on his sky camera.

McDaniel lives in Northern Cleveland County.  In his video, the fast moving meteor moved rapidly across the sky growing bigger and bigger then fading away.

McDaniel isn’t the only one who saw the meteor; the American Meteorologist Society received 55 reports about this fireball seen over Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.” Source – WCNC.

• Flashback: Cuba: Residents Report Large Meteorite Explosion Over Central Cuba, Houses Shaken
• Flashback: ‘Green Fireball’ Lights Up The Night Sky Across Southern California, Sparks Dozens Of Meteor Reports
• Flashback: ‘I Saw Flames Coming From It As It Was Falling’: Orange And Red Fireballs Light Up The Night Sky Over Florida
• Flashback: ‘It Was Like A Scene From The Armageddon Movie’: Ten-Ton Meteorite Rocks Russia, Nearly 1000 Injured, Buildings Devastated
• Flashback: Caught On Video: Citizens Panic After Meteorite Plunges Into The Sea Near Turkey
• Flashback: UK: Exploding Meteor Creates Spectacular Fireball Over Wales, ‘I’ve Never Seen Something So Amazing In My Life’
• Flashback: Finland: Meteorite Lights Up Ostrobothnia Sky Before Slamming Into Ground

By DREW ZAHN, WND – “A burst of radioactive solar particles has erupted from the Sun, streaking toward Earth at 900 miles per second, NASA has announced.

The event, called a coronal mass ejection, or CME, while not occurring as frequently as solar flares, is still a common phenomenon. This time, however, rather than projecting out into space, it’s headed straight for Earth.

Given the direction and speed of the CME, Science World Report explains, mild to moderate effects may be felt as soon as Sunday.

When a CME strikes the Earth, the traveling body of solar energetic particles can – on rare occasion – causes a significant enough geomagnetic storm to disrupt the Earth’s magnetosphere. Results may include stronger aurorae around the Earth’s magnetic poles, disruption of radio transmissions and even damage to satellites and electrical transmission facilities, which could cause power outages.

NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and ESA/NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory reportedly observed the event, while experimental research models have measured its relative speed.

NASA’s models predict two of its space instruments, the Spitzer and MESSENGER spacecraft, will be affected by the solar blast, and the space agency has alerted mission scientists to take steps preventing particle radiation from damaging on-board instruments.

The Spitzer Space Telescope is an infrared space observatory launched in 2003 that has returned stunning photos of distant galaxies to Earth and became the first telescope in history to visually identify planets in other solar systems.

MESSENGER, an acronym of MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, was launched in 2004 and became the first spacecraft ever to orbit the planet Mercury.” Source – WND.

It’s only a matter of time before one of these massive asteroids goes from a simple flyby to a mountain of fire …

ANI – “An asteroid the size of a city block, will make its closest approach to Earth on Saturday, March 9th, less than 7 days after it was discovered, it has been revealed.

The asteroid dubbed NEO (near-Earth object) 2013 ET was discovered on March 3, 2013, by the Catalina Sky Survey.

The asteroid is estimated to be approximately 64-140 meters (210-460 feet) wide and will pass 2.5 times the Moon’s distance from our planet. At its maximum brightness on March 9th, NEO 2013 ET will be at a relatively dim magnitude of 17 — not bright enough to view through a backyard telescope, but should be reasonably bright through Slooh telescopes in the Canary Islands, off the coast of west Africa.

The asteroid will be traveling across the sky with a relative velocity of 11.88 kilometers per second or 26,552 mph, which is about 15 times faster than a rifle bullet. If asteroid 2013 ET were to hit Earth, the damage would be significant-potentially destroying a small city.

Slooh Space Camera will cover its closest approach on Saturday, live on Slooh.com, free to the public, starting at 12:15 p.m. PST / 3:15 p.m. EST / 20:15 UTC-International times at http://goo.gl/kQJuL -accompanied by real-time discussions with Slooh president Patrick Paolucci, Slooh engineer Paul Cox, and documentary filmmaker Duncan Copp.

Viewers can watch live on their PC/MAC or iOS/Android mobile device.

‘We only have a short viewing window of an hour or so from our Canary Islands observatory on March 9th, but we wanted to give the general public a front row seat to witness this new asteroid in real time as it passes by Earth,’ said Slooh president Patrick Paolucci.” Source – ANI.