Sky Update

The sprite - a transient luminous event

Spaceweather.com has two stories of interest to sky watchers. First is an update on the Perseid meteor shower with the good news that the number of fireballs is growing significantly as we approach the shower peak through Tuesday and Wednesday. The second story documents "sprites and jets" over Oklahoma City on August 3 and 6. Sprites and jets are members of a family of upper atmosphere lightning phenomena called transient luminous events (TLC).  TLC's have likely occurred as long as the Perseid meteors, but have only recently been photographed and studied. I find them fascinating, beautiful, and mysterious.

BTW, our sun is about to flip its magnetic poles. If that catches your attention you can read more about it here. It's nothing new - happens about every eleven years - unless you're a solar system in which case there's a lot going on.