#rare

‘Ambassadors of our oceans’: Rare off-season humpback sighting not just exciting, but provides opportunity to learn more

“If we can understand them, understand their behavior and what they’re doing, then it can tell us a lot about some of the changes that are taking place in the ocean. The whales are amazing themselves, but they’re even more valuable when we think about them as these, basically, indicators of ocean health.” — Marc Lammers, research ecologist with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary

‘It’s always a good time to look at the moon,’ especially tonight’s super blue moon

About a quarter of all full moons are considered to be supermoons. Only 3% of full moons are blue moons, which occur about two and three years apart. It’s considerably less frequent that the two coincide.

Watch: Red sprites dance over Maunakea on Big Island

On Feb. 5, red sprites briefly — and we mean briefly — danced before the eyes of people watching the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera at the Subaru Telescope atop Maunakea on the Big Island.

Look up! Rare green comet will make its closest flyby of Earth tonight

Some reports say the comet, named C/2022 E3 (ZTF), could be bright enough to see with the naked eye, and definitely with a telescope or even binoculars.

Rare green comet commeth after 50,000 years; and it may never return again

The green comet was discovered by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, Calif., and made its closest approach to the sun on Jan. 12.