Perhaps you’ve seen the photos of the eerie red skies over San Francisco and other cities in the U.S. West this week as massive ongoing wildfires rage. But why red exactly? Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/why-skies-look-red-when-there-are-wildfires…
Tag: smoke
Why Smartphone Cameras Struggle To Capture San Francisco’s Orange Sky
The apocalyptic orange sky in San Francisco Wednesday was the talk of the town — and well beyond. However, many people found their efforts to capture the surreal images stymied, as their iPhones “corrected” the smoke-filled sky to a more natural hue. Axios reports: Smartphone cameras do a great job in many situations thanks to software that automatically tries to improve…
Stark new imagery reveals the scary extent of West Coast wildfires
Smoke blankets the West Coast in the new images. Source: https://www.livescience.com/west-coast-wildfires-seen-from-space.html
‘Apocalyptic’ skies across U.S. West this week
Video of the weirdly orange skies across the U.S. West this week, created by massive wildfires that incinerated several communities in Oregon in the past 2 days and blotted out the sun in San Francisco yesterday. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/apocalyptic-red-skies-u-s-west-early-sept-2020…
California Wildfires Destroy Hidden Hill Observatory
New submitter fx4m writes: Historic Lick Observatory in California survived the current massive wildfires, but the nearby, much smaller Hidden Hill Observatory, run my the Tri-Valley Stargazers Astronomy Club, was not so lucky. The building, large amateur-built telescope, accessories, and electronics were all completely destroyed. Much of the assets of the science public outreach and education based non-profit organization went up…
Asteroid 2011 ES4 will pass much closer than the moon on September 1
The orbit of asteroid 2011 ES4 is still not entirely known. Our knowledge of it might improve sometime today – or early tomorrow – if it is “recovered” by astronomers. It’s expected to pass within the moon’s orbit, possibly as close as 0.19 lunar distances. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-2011-es4-closer-than-moon-september-1-2020…
Smoke-covered California, from space
The 2 largest fires this week both began with lightning strikes. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/smoke-covered-california-from-space…
Looking edgewise into the Milky Way
Here are a few shots of the edgewise view into our Milky Way galaxy – with bright Jupiter and fainter Saturn also in the scene – plus a few Perseid meteors. These are from earlier this month, when the moon was less bright in the evening sky. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/photos-summer-milky-way-aug-2020…
Wildfire sunsets and sunrises
The western half of North America is getting some spectacular sunrises and sunsets now, as wildfires rage. Photos here from the EarthSky Community. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/photos-wildfire-sunsets-us-west-aug-sep-2020…
Why is wildfire smoke so bad for your lungs?
Wildfires blanketing several Western cities are creating hazardous health conditions. Don’t count on cloth masks to protect your lungs. Source: https://www.livescience.com/why-wildfire-smoke-harmful-to-lungs.html