The above picture of a meteor was taken by Anna during the Perseids meteor shower. Excellent job, as you wander through her site you'll find great other treasures like Moon shots, and frogs, that's right frogs.
Just when you are coming down from a meteor shower high, another one comes along. Two thousand years ago in Roman times comet Kiess left a trail of dust behind, which on September 1st. between 3:45 and 5:15 am PDT. we will be able to view as meteors. Only 3 people alive today are known to have seen them. This is an extremely rare event and after this shower there wont be another Aurigid Meteor Shower for another 50 years.
The meteors radiate from the constellation Auriga which at that time in the morning will be directly above you and a little to the east. Because comet Keiss only generated a narrow trail of debris this meteor shower will only be viewable from western North America, the good news is there will be up to 200 bright meteors per hour and since they only last an hour and a half, it will be a wild ride.
Just when you are coming down from a meteor shower high, another one comes along. Two thousand years ago in Roman times comet Kiess left a trail of dust behind, which on September 1st. between 3:45 and 5:15 am PDT. we will be able to view as meteors. Only 3 people alive today are known to have seen them. This is an extremely rare event and after this shower there wont be another Aurigid Meteor Shower for another 50 years.
The meteors radiate from the constellation Auriga which at that time in the morning will be directly above you and a little to the east. Because comet Keiss only generated a narrow trail of debris this meteor shower will only be viewable from western North America, the good news is there will be up to 200 bright meteors per hour and since they only last an hour and a half, it will be a wild ride.
Two weeks from today, 4:20 am August 28th. is the total Lunar Eclipse, snooze you loose cause the next one won't be until February 21st. 2008. That's 14 days until August 28th., that's a significant number to me, that's when the weather network takes over my life. The weather network has a 14 day forecast, which is really quite funny since the idiot weather guys can't forecast what the weather's going to be like tomorrow let alone 2 weeks ahead, right, well that's logical Bob speaking. Crazy Bob (normal state) is thinking "yes! it's going to be sunny and clear", poor crazy Bob, because the little weather icons for a certain day in the future change from cloudy to sunny or sunny to cloudy sometimes 2 -3 times a day. Well this time I'm not going to let crazy Bob take over my life, so from this day forward I'm only going to look at the forecast 10 days in advance and then only every other day, satisfies both crazy and logical Bob, problem solved. I just took a quick look, life sucks it's going to be raining on the 28th.
12 comments:
I'll say a few prayers for good weather on the 28th for you. It might help.
Love the picture the Anna took.
I understand about the crazy vs. logical. I live with someone similar to you. He's obsessed with making his own telescope right now. Researching and buying mirrors, drawing plans. So I know...:)
Stunning picture, Bob.
Thanks Lisa, Making his own telescope, too cool!
jean-luc, yes it is a great pic, I'm so jealous of Anna.
Oh Bob you make me laugh. Thank for the good words (and link) about the photo and the 'frogs'.
Another meteor shower, at first I taught oh no not another night, but then I said oh no its on the other side. However, I am looking forward toward more night sky explorations. And I know what you mean about the weather forecast guys, sometimes results are like day and night.
Thanks to others for nice words.
Question: Bob I noticed on the photo you have this large telescope - with this you must see moon very close, and can you attach camera to it or feed some kind of signal to display on your computer. Just wondering...
Anna :)
Yes Anna, I can problem is, the moon is seldom available in the line of view of the telescope because it is usually low in the sky and because of the stupid weather guys and their rain. My deep space camera is too powerful for the moon, but I do have an olympus camera I will be holding up to the eyepiece if its not raining on the 28th. you can see some of the pictures I have taken this way, click my astrophoto badge on my blog.
Bob, did check them out, I have to turn the pages on you now, I'm so jealous now. These are fascinating photos, and the moon - you can see so much detail. Too bad you have some weather issues. We have them to, however, you are correct, all this time it was pure luck for me because we could of easily have overcast too. Well, again,the photos are cool. My husband is not believing that they are yours. Especially the one of sun and flares - something like that. Your telescope must be powerful. Anna :)
Thanks! The solar silhouette one is actually published
on Sky and Telescopes magazine website, www.skyandtelescope.com
under their photo gallery then solar system, its been on there for a few months now. it was on the first page for about 2 months, its now on page 4. I am pretty happy about being chosen. It was taken with a Hydrogen Alpha telescope, Which only lets the hydrogen light through, blocking out the white light allowing us to view the chromosphere, where all the magic happens, I hope to get back into actually taking more pics I am still getting use to my new scope Meade LX200R, Hopefully will have some new pics in the next month or so, I really hope one of us can get the lunar eclipse Aug 28th, I am happy you have taken to astrophotography so well.
Aloha Bob, thanks for your comment; that meteor thing I saw was crazy. I really like your blog, interesting and funny! Good stuff. Great to 'meet' you.
Thanks Angela.
Congratulations, and I will be waiting for more pictures. Now I am really jealous of your equipment, sound like powerful one too. I think I got some inspiration from you to do more astrophotography....I was calling it moon photography, but I guess I will try to do more...Anna :)
Go for it Anna!, I'm sure you'll do just fine.
Try www.weatherbug.com. It is a really cool site and they are launching a network in Canada, I herd on CBC last Wednesday.
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