Is it the End of the World?

Jesper Grønne in Denmark snapped this beauty happening last night, and manage to grab some wonderful footage of the initial shockwave, as shown on YouTube here! Jesper also has a website full of his stunning pictures over here at: http://www.groenne.eu/ Please, check it out - he has a magnificent eye for colour and form caught in nature including dazzling snowflakes in sharp, magnified focus, and the extraordinary bullion blocks of natural brown sugar in deep definition. Mr Grønne, I'm impressed! More please!

Shawn Malone did a wonderful job with a specially set up Canon camera in Michigan.

Make a note for the 12th though, as the Perseid Meteor Shower is making it's return around the planet, and you may be able to see some shooting stars occasionally throughout most of this month. We'll be able to see the best ones from around 11pm on the 12th, becoming more dense the later it gets towards dawn on the 13th, developing into a veritable fireworks display. The new moon means you stand a good chance of seeing even more of these fast shooting stars than usual! Fingers crossed none come through or hit anyone - it is Friday 13th after all!

Oooh, pretty! Look at that star ripple! At least we have the ability to say that we've lived through the biggest solar storm of this generation. The reason they were worried about blackouts and powercuts is because these particles are unusually high in energy, with the potential that it might knock out power stations with massive power surges.

Here the sky a lovely teal for quite some time on the east (the opposite of sun set, I did get it right!), but nothing spectacularly visible from my house, more's the pity. We didn't lose the internet though. My friend in America, panicked when he heard about two massive explosions occurring on the sun and thought the world was going to end, bless him. Soon calmed down when he realised it was just going to make pretty lights in the sky and it wasn't the blazing swords of avenging angels...