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AURORA WATCH: A solar wind stream is blowing past Earth and it could cause a geomagnetic storm tonight. Sky watchers in Alaska and Canada should be alert for auroras.

GHOST OF A SUNSPOT: Last month giant sunspot 798 marched across the face of the sun, exploding as it went, hurling clouds of gas toward Earth and sparking bright auroras. All by itself, the colossal 'spot made Sept. 2005 the most active month on the sun in almost 15 years. (continued below)

Now it's back. After a two-week transit around the far side of the sun, sunspot 798 has reappeared at the sun's eastern limb. But it is a ghost of its former self. In fact, it's not even a sunspot anymore. All that's left of the active region are a few bright wisps called "solar faculae." R.I.P. sunspot 798.

EXTRA: October 3rd Solar Eclipse

 

The integral light images of the annular solar eclipse were taken with a Nikon D70 and an Orion 80ED and the hydrogen alpha images were taken with a modified EOS300d and a Coronado PST. Image shows a comparison between integral light and hydrogen alpha light with images taken at identical times.