~ Space Weather Update~ A NEW STAR IN THE SKY~ Solar Wind Speed 588

QUIET SUN: Solar activity has returned to low levels. New sunspots AR1817 and AR1818 broke the quiet earlier this week with a brief spate of C- and M-class solar flares, but their magnetic fields have since decayed. NOAA forecasters put the odds of an M-class flare today at 30%. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

A NEW STAR IN THE SKY: Around the world, amateur astronomers are turning their telescopes toward minor constellation Delphinus where a new star has appeared. Koichi Itagaki of Yamagata, Japan, discovered the nova on August 14th. At the time, the stellar brightness was +6.3. Since then it has continued to brighten, possibly crossing the 6th magnitude threshold of naked-eye visibility. John Chumack photographed the surging nova on August 15th from the John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs, Ohio:

"The nova is hard to see naked eye unless you are in a very dark sky and know exactly where to look," says Chumack, "but this is a very bright nova visible in binoculars." He used a 16-inch Newtonian telescope to take the picture.

Backyard astronomers who wish to see this nova should point their GOTO telescopes to coordinates 20:23:30.7, +20:46:06 (J2000). More information and updates are available from Sky and Telescope.

Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica
Credit: NOAA/POES

Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 4 unsettled
24-hr max: Kp= 4 unsettled
explanation | more data

Interplanetary Mag. Field
B_total: 8.3 nT
B_z: 3.8 nT north
explanation | more data
Updated: Today at 1936 UT

Coronal Holes: 15 Aug 13

Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole should reach Earth on August 17-18. Credit: SDO/AIA.