What will you be doing between midnight and 4:00am on on August 13th?
Nah, stop giggling you lot at the back I'm serious
Whatever you have planned may I suggest you also make time to watch what could be a great display of "shooting stars". This is of course dependent on the weather but at least the moon will on the way to a new moon so the sky should be fairly dark.
They say the best day is the 13th, but I plan to be out hopefully a few days either side each evening. I often caught my best viewing a day or two before or after the optimum day. This year I may try to get some photographs too. Linkage The Times Online Earth & Sky International Meteor Organization British Astronomical Association
I have been watching, and love, Patrick Moore's The Sky At Night programme for as long as I can remember breathing. Poor old Patrick is getting on a bit now (aren't we all) but his enthusiasm is still there to inspire. While I was watching this months programme I was introduced to The Galaxy Zoo Apparently there have been so many observations and astro-photographs of Galaxies that help is now needed to classify them!
How awesomely cool is that? SO many galaxies.
I of course signed up straight away and have classified over 40 galaxies so far. Pity I can't name any
All you have to do is register pass a little test and your on-board. It's totally addictive and there are beautiful galaxies to look at too.
quote:
I wish I was a spaceman,
the fastest guy alive
I'd fly you ?round the universe.
In fireball xl5.
Way out in space together.
Conquerors of the sky.
My heart would be a fireball.
A fireball.
Every time I gaze into your starry eyes.
We?d take a path to Jupiter and maybe very soon.
We?d cruise along the Milky Way and land upon the Moon.
To a wonderland of stardust.
We?ll zoom our way to mars.
My heart would be a fireball.
A fireball.
And you would be my Venus of the stars.?
Dude! Many thanks for the reminder. I should be able to get out on or near the 13th. I just have to find a low horizon with very little background noise.
Now, if I can just remember No Pants and Talk Like a Pirate.
Sounds like a lovely birthday present for my wife (whose birthday is the 13th).
As long as it's clear, that is. Early August can suck in terms of clouds here. So far the forecast says cloudy than clearing, but who knows if that will hold.
Aye aye skipper.
Brilliant Just got to be my August catchphrase.
I've got my tripod and I've been practising my night time manoeuvres, steady now. I'm trying to get the use of some kind of outdoor reclining chair to save on the neck strain.
Yeah Suho, I think that would make a perfect pressie. Take a torch and a little bag of goodies, food and drink. Not sure what the weather is like there but a wrap perhaps as it can get cold "just sitting there". I'm thinking of a little bottle of Jameson myself
Mmmh... yeah, thanks for sharing, both of you : the present idea and the event, hope I can see it from here
where the weather is waving between extremes. Storms a day, bright sunlight the next.
Reminds meI had been doing some enhancement and touch up on photos of galaxies taken from the local observatory,
guy didn't believe tools like Photoshop allowed meaningful enhancements in that regard "yeah, but it's just some
flat unblurring of my pictures, how can I use this scientifically?"
Btw, Suho, in the present vein, it seems it is possible to name a star after your lady, for not-so-much money. I will try to find the link.
I'll definitely be out away from the city that morning watching the show. A few hours before that though I'll be at the Rush concert watching that show. I think that should be a good night Now if I can just get out of going to work Monday morning, I'll be set
--
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
From: The Land of one Headlight on. Insane since: May 2001
posted 08-11-2007 02:53
quote: argo navis said:
it seems it is possible to name a star
Yes... but it's a total scam as I recall. By that I mean the group, organization, company... or whatever they call themselves have "no standing" with any legitimate organization that does in fact study the cosmos.
If astronomers know star "X" as oz6573 and you pay that other organization to name it argo navis you'll get a nice piece of paper saying they've named oz6573 after you ...... you now have a nice piece of paper with your name on it.....they have your money.... and as far as astronomers are concerned the star is still oz 6573.
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"I was so high, I could have gone duck huntin' with a rake." Roger Miller
Yeah, that was my impression about the star naming thing as well.
So far the forecast for tomorrow (the 12th) is occasional thunderstorms and the forecast for the 13th is cloudy and rain then clearing, so it's not looking too good for the midnight to 04:00 window. Here's to hoping. Every year since I moved out here to the boondocks it's been cloudy during the meteor shower. It would be nice to actually see it for once.
Maybe I'll go for a "non-optimum" day. It's going to be cloudy and raining tonight, but Monday night is supposed to be clear.
I was out Friday night /Saturday morning till about three am but there was 50% cloud and some suburban light pollution so I did not see any. Tonight is completely cloudy with some rain but tomorrow there is an outside chance of some clear skies in the early hours so I'll try again then.
The weather forecast after that is cloud and rain for most of the week. Ah poo!
Well, I went outside last night after midnight for a while, but I didn't see anything I live far enough outside of Seoul that I can actually see stars in the sky, and there were only a few thing strips of clouds so my view was not that obscured. I think part of the problem is that I don't think I've ever seen the Perseids before, so I don't really know what to look for.
The forecast for tonight is cloudy and rain, but it may be clear tomorrow night. The thing is, I can't really afford to sit outside from midnight to four in the morning. I don't know if this is going to work.
Yeah it's touch and go here too Suho with the weather that is.
The Perseids are just streaks of light that individually last for about a half a second. You need to look roughly in the north east at an elevation of about 30 deg from the horizon.. Now that I've said that I know that is true for my location, but my brain hurts when I try to reconfigure for your location. I haven't got my stargazing software loaded up to be more precise.
Thirty degrees, eh? That might be a problem for me, because I live in a mountain valley. Although northeast would be one direction I could look at that elevation.
Unfortunately, I'm probably not going to get the chance--we're looking at rain through Wednesday here.
I've had to abandon my sky watching too due to cloud cover. Ah well, there y'are I can have a relatively early night now and dream of attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion and C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser gate..
Time to.. sleep Remember?
From: The Land of one Headlight on. Insane since: May 2001
posted 08-13-2007 16:25
West coast of Vancouver Island skies cleared around 11:45pm. My wife saw a dozen or so before calling it quits and she says the brightest two were actually behind the cloud cover. I was ZZZZZzzzzz. =)
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"I was so high, I could have gone duck huntin' with a rake." Roger Miller
You're welcome Petskull.
I'm sure you'll agree that it's a small price to pay to witness the last glorious incandescent trail of a fragment of the solar system. Millions of years old, burnt up in milliseconds, and your eyes captured the light, and retained the memory. My eyes are slightly envious.
We went to Joshua Tree National Park to gaze at the falling rocks on fire on the 11th. We saw a few really good ones and the weather was ideal.
The next day Kianna's auntie asked her if she saw a lot of shooting stars and Kianna corrected her and said they weren't stars at all but rocks on fire. She made me very proud
posted 08-08-2007 03:00
"yeah, but it's just some
