Sunspots could be seen by the Soho telescope in 2001 (l), but not this year (r)
Posted on 04/21/2009 10:28:59 AM PDT by KayEyeDoubleDee
Sunspots could be seen by the Soho telescope in 2001 (l), but not this year (r)
There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time.
The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting.
The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period.
Last year, it was expected that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it hit a 50-year year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
But, my real interest are in galaxy's. It's weird, I'm almost drawn to these things.
Shot this one about 2 months ago, with the same camera/instrument, but no light filters were used in the optical train.
At 23 millions light years out, this is M-51, Whirlpool Galaxy.
This was a series of 26 images at 80 seconds each on the exposure. I shot this object again last weekend, and hopefully it will process out some better data.
The History Channel has ceased offering programming consistent with its name and has become the We’re All Gonna Die Channel. They’ve quietly phased out the good shows, like Tales of the Gun and Wild West Tech, and replaced them with crap like “Top 10 Ways The Earth Could Die” or whatever it was called, Nostradamus specials (yes, more than one!), “Bible Code” specials (yes, more than one!), and have pushed global warming as truth in almost every show they air.
It’s utterly ridiculous. It’s getting to the point where I can’t watch History Channel or even Science Channel any longer. Lately I’ve been watching HD Theater. Lots of shows on cars and motorcycles. I’ll take it.
On our cable system, the original “history” programs were moved to another history channel. Also military history was moved to the military channel. It must be a viewing demographics thing.
As I recall, when the history channel was first aired, almost every show was about Hitler. I called it the Hitler channel.
I am giving in to my true passion now and watch the golf channel obsessively. I hope Obamachev doesn’t have a grievance against golf to avenge.
When it first aired, you’re right, the History Channel was the Hitler Channel. But now it’s the Algore Kooks & Creeps Channel. The pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.
“Why are you apologizing to yourself?”
I wasn’t meaning to apologize to myself; I was apologizing to everyone who might have read my stupid previous post wherein I said that one could not see even the sun from 25,000 years ago. I was tired and confused trillions of miles with years.
Post 96 was meant for you!
That's ok. :) It wasn't that important.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2234448/posts?page=99#99
I'm looking forward to having massive solar storms. Any glitches they cause will point out where we need to harden infrastructure against EMP. And no, I don't think solar storms will have any big effect.
It’s just not the same.....
But the article is just a front piece for the global warming cult, which is trying once again to deny and/or explain away the reality we are experiencing, that the effect of the sun on the earth's surface temperature is variable, and more of a contibutor than anything we do here.
The hype over the phenomenon that can cause power grid failures is, I believe, overblown. But certainly periods of high activity would provide opportunities to study the issue more and take necessary precautions.
Low clouds are generally cooling like you say. A good way to explain why is to look at an IR satellite photo. The very white parts (false color) are low IR returned to space and the dark parts are higher amounts of IR returned to space. High clouds like cirrus are very white, so low IR returned (more reflected back) and the earth warms. Low clouds like the cumulus are dark colored so higher IR sent to space, the earth cools.
A big factor is whether the low clouds stick around at night. Then they trap more heat, but still they are cooling on balance.
Another factor is what is under the clouds. If there is high albedo ice under the low clouds, then the clouds will generally be more warming than cooling. But, as is mostly the case, there is dark ground or water under the clouds so the clouds are generally cooling.
Jeez, what the hell did we do to cause all this?
Liberals also think it has to do with George Bush, conservatives, and those ever dangerous veterans..
Al Gore says it's critical if we don't put ourselves at an economic disadvantage immediately, we're all dooooooomed.
Except that even with lousy [deeply flawed] surface temperature collection [with collection stations clustered near man-made hotspots], we STILL know that temperatues peaked way back in 1998, and have been declining since then.
Right now, we're in the middle of the coldest winter [and spring] in decades.
That's because liberalism and socialism are death cults.
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