Today around 1200 UT, magnetic fields looping
over the sun's southeastern limb became unstable and erupted.
The blast produced a towering prominence dozens of times taller
than Earth itself:

David Evans took the picture from his backyard
observatory in Coleshill, North Warwickshire, UK. "This
was a huge event," he says. "It just goes to show
how the sun can surprise observers even at this 'low' phase
of the solar cycle."

Stay tuned for movies of this event from the
Solar Dynamics Observatory.

more images: from
Alan Friedman of Buffalo, NY; from
Pete Lawrence of Selsey, West Sussex, UK; from
Steve Rismiller of Milford, Ohio; from
A. Cote, S.Berube and J.Stetson of South Portland, Maine;
from
Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, Kentucky;
STRANGE
SUNRISE: On Monday morning, July 26th, John
Stetson woke up early to watch the sunrise over Casco Bay
in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He expected a pretty view. What
he got was pretty strange:

"The island appeared to be floating above the water,"
Stetson reports. "And the sun was as flat as a pancake!"
Atmospheric optics expert explains what happened: "Overnight
the air above the ocean was abnormally cooled producing a
temperature inversion, cool air below warmer. At sunrise the
almost horizontal sun’s rays were bent (refracted) as they passed between the different temperature
layers to give us a mock
mirage. The island was also miraged. The sea was not really
choppy, that is the uneven edge of the mirage."
"At sunset the ocean sometimes produces a warmer air
above it to give another type of mirage – an Etruscan
vase," he adds. "Watch sunrise and sunset for
magical effects!"
more images: from
Lyle Anderson of Duluth, MN

METEOR
SHOWER: The University of Western Ontario
meteor radar is picking up strong
returns from the Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower,
which peaks on July 28th and 29th. Sky watchers (particularly
in the southern hemisphere) should be alert for meteors between
about 10 pm and dawn. "Visual rates could be as high
as 20 per hour," notes Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid
Environment Office, "although glare from the nearly full
Moon will make the fainter meteors difficult to see."
https://spaceweather.com/