Comet Holmes Has a Sense of Humor

 Tell me the picture at this link from www.spaceweather.com is not funny!

TRICK OR TREAT: Astronomers around the world agree. Exploding Comet 17P/Holmes is one of the strangest things they’ve ever seen. Little did they know…

Last night, astrophotographer Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY, took a close-up picture of the comet’s core. “A strong deconvolution filter followed by multiple passes of unsharp mask and gaussian blur reveals startling new structure in comet 17P/Holmes.” Here it is:

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/holmes/30oct07/alan-friedman1.jpg

Comet 17P/Holmes Explosion Felt on Earth?

I am asking the question if the explosion coming from Comet 17P/Holmes

http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_holmes_page5.htm

registered on the solar data graphs and rippled the earth’s magnetic field as shown below for the 29th of October at the time of this posting.

See red spike above?

And this: 

See how the electron count started to dip?

http://www.n3kl.org/sun/noaa.html

Other graphs at the above web page show variations at this time as well.  I only saved the above two graphs as they appear now.  The solar wind speed was up over 600 km/s and is now dropping and I surely felt tired for a while.

There was this alert but there hasn’t been any solar activity to mention:

http://www.sec.noaa.gov/ftpmenu/latest.html

roduct: Geophysical Alert Message wwv.txt

:Issued: 2007 Oct 30 0003 UTC

# Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center
#
#          Geophysical Alert Message
Solar-terrestrial indices for 29 October follow.
Solar flux 67 and mid-latitude A-index 11.
The mid-latitude K-index at 0000 UTC on 30 October was 4 (50 nT).

Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor.
Geomagnetic storms reaching the G1 level occurred.

No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours.

The Harshness of October

My oldest sister died today.  It appears at this point she finally destroyed herself with alcohol.  The cancer she had which the doctors said should have killed her by now did not.  There is a crime scene at her house because an unknown person was found passed out inside.  Hospice went to check on her but could not get in so the police were called.

Today is her only son’s birthday, my only nephew.  She never got to meet her baby twin granddaughters because she was too ill in all ways to meet them.  Today is also the day of my deceased mother’s and still living step-father’s wedding anniversary.  They would have been married 30 years today, I think.  I’ll have to check.

It was in October two years ago that I found out my mother had terminal melanoma.  I am trying to remember where I wrote down the day I was told.  My buddy’s father went in the hospital on the same day and died the following month.  It was also in October four years ago that my sister who just died went off the deep end.  She didn’t come back.

I’ve never cared for the month of October.

Here is what I wrote in early September about the month of October:

http://pollyann.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/october-fall/

Autumn Rain and Butterfly Delight

We had 1.3 inches of rain last night.  I was lying in bed and what sounded like a jet coming in very low over the house was actually the rain hitting the roof as the storm system swept in and let loose its moisture.  It poured!

Today is warm and breezy and the last of my zinnias in the garden have attracted a lot of Monarch butterflies.  A few other species arrived as well.  They have been there for hours, fueling and refueling; building up reserves for their flight south.  I watched them for a long time, in intervals, as I sat or stood in the sun.  Good luck, butterflies!

As I observed the butterflies, the sun eventually began to drop behind the trees so the butterflies continued to feed only on the viable flowers which were still in the sun.  As the last of the flowers were shaded, the butterflies left.  A thought has occurred to me and one which I have not come across before.  Perhaps the butterflies have the ability to stimulate the flowers to continue producing extra nectar while the sun still shines on them — a kind of interactive process.

Weirdness Factor

Things are really freakin’ weird today.  Maybe it is just me.    This is a note to myself for future reference.

Butterfly Snuck Out the Back Door!

Ha! I was fooled by that butterfly I wrote about earlier!  It did emerge from the chrysalis at some point and we missed it.  The back side of the chrysalis is wide open and I did not notice it until yesterday when I went to examine it more closely and remove it so I could study it better.  I left it for my buddy to see when he returns. 

The many seed pods on the butterfly weed are beginning to crack open and the seeds attached to their fluffy white parachutes to disperse with the wind.  I will save some and let the others blow.  This is the kind of milkweed (swamp milkweed) the Monarch butterfly needs to lay her eggs on, not the other kind of milkweed around here which is so common.

An Out of Place High Pressure System

This is one of those weather systems which seems artificially enhanced and steered and is described as unusual by a meteorologist.  Towards the end of the article it states the nature of this massive high pressure system which seems to be moving out now:

(Note:  Link no longer current.)

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18889889&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=590581&rfi=6

I found the above link at the following website and want to give her credit:

http://home.att.net/~thehessians/disasterwatch.html

World’s Longest Suspension Bridge Planned

Oh, the things tycoons think up to do and in such a place as Indonesia!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/indonesia-to-build-suspension-bridge-in-earthquake-hot-spot/2007/10/04/1191091276340.html

Thanks for the link, Global Disaster Watch!

http://home.att.net/~thehessians/disasterwatch.html

One Less Butterfly

The monarch butterfly chrysalis did not produce a butterfly and I am disappointed.  It’s still up there hanging from a butterfly weed leaf.  We waited and waited and nothing happened.   Something went wrong; perhaps a parasite or disease compromised the caterpillar.

Memorial services at noon tomorrow.

On a happier note we had masses and masses of migrating Monarchs pass through this yard in recent weeks which were attracted to the butterfly bushes and zinnias.  I read somewhere that succeeding generations will visit the same spots on their way south if the flowers are still there.  Only the occasional stragglers are still coming through.  The next three days are supposed to be very warm for October and perhaps I will see more stragglers.

It’s amazing how such a delicate creature can make it so far south in the Autumn to Mexico.