Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Aquarids, Draconids and Perseids



I know what you're thinking, your thinking my title is referring to a new "The Adventures of Sinbad" movie, you'd be wrong, although I wish they would make a new Adventures of Sinbad movie, the title is referring to the names of past and future meteor showers.

The image above is a Draconid meteor taken during the Dranconid meteor shower of June 29. I drew out the constellations for you to show you how everything fits in the night sky. I did the same for the image below of the Aquarid meteor shower back in May. The showers were literally back to back, 180 degrees apart, gives you a good idea of the major constellations in the spring sky in the Northern Hemisphere.


A point of interest, on the Draconid image I located for you the location where The Hubble Telescope was pointed for it's Hubble Deep Field image, (just above the arm of the Big Dipper).

NASA trained Hubble on an area in the sky no bigger then the size of a dime at 75 feet, pointed the scope away from the dust and stars of our galaxy, and away from the Virgo, Coma galaxy clusters, in an area they thought would be pretty empty of galaxies. What they discovered was astounding, after stacking 342 separate images over 10 days between December 18-28, 1995, they found at least 1,500 galaxies in various stages of evolution of up to more then 10 billion years ago, image below.



NASA thought that was pretty cool, so much so they thought they'd do it again, this time they aimed Hubble at a southern constellation Fornax, this time 800 images were taken over a 4 month time frame totaling 1 million seconds, this image is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and produced 10,000 galaxies, image below.


Back to the meteor showers. August 11 through to the early morning hours of August 12 the Perseid meteor shower peaks, look for 1-2 every minute, should be a good one. The radiant, or the place in the sky where the meteors seem to start from, is in the constellation Perseus. look low in the NE at Sunset for the start of the show.

NASA TV will be broadcasting live the Total Solar Eclipse Friday August 1 starting at 6:30 am EDT, that's right, hey it's 4:30 am where I live, I'll be up. The eclipse starts high up in North Eastern Canada, passes over Greenland, Russia, China and Mongolia. I vow to one day see a Total Solar Eclipse before I die, mark my words and if I still have a blog I will post tons of images, in the meantime it's NASA TV for me.

I'll leave you now with a clip of the Milky Way Galaxy I put together, 70 images, each at 30 seconds exposure, real time 45 minutes.

31 comments:

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

What a FANTASTIC post. It makes one wonder how far the universe stretches on. There has to be a human type of life on a planet somewhere waay out there. Even in parochial school I was taught this was a possibility. Hope we discover something while I'm on this planet.

By the way, Bob, why was the Earth screeching the other day?

Hugs, JJ

Marvin said...

It does give you an idea of just how big the universe is, doesn't it?

I like your Milky Way video! It seems so bright-daylight but I know it was very dark. We can see the Milky Way where we are, also. Even if the city lights are bright, half the sky is black because there are no lights on the ocean. The seeing is better over that way.

Anonymous said...

Excellent post Bob! I also posted some new pics - moon, constellations and some lightning... I even got the Andromeda Galaxy as a speck!

MYM said...

Mind boggling. 10 billion years ago, 10,000 galaxies! Love it.

I know I've said this before, but sky watching would be so much easier if those red lines and labels were visible from Ontario ... I guess it's only out west, eh? lol

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks JJ, the screeching is caused by the Solar winds charged particles crashing into our magnetosphere, cool eh,lol.link below

http://www.space.com/php/video/player.php?video_id=080627-earth-sounds

Bob Johnson said...

Sure does marvin, that is cool you can see the Milky Way from where you are, I have to leave town, but not that far, I intend to go further out to get some better shots, can see very little in town.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Jared, saw your images very good, I saw the Andromeda galaxy, way to pick it out.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, drowsey, Those red lines come in pretty handy, after awhile you see them automatically, lol.\m/\m/

Anonymous said...

Good post, Bob! I will be back to study, and maybe print out those photos. I have always been one of those people that just cannot make out most of the constellations. I will be in the mountains away from all the lights for a few days starting tomorrow. Whenever I am out there, I spend a lot of time at night just watching the sky. It would be great to have someone like you along to point out what I am admiring! One thing I always notice is how many satellites I see crossing the sky. There must be so many up there!

Swubird said...

Bob:

Cool post. You sure know your constellations. I've never known anyone who could sit down and draw them on a self produced image the way you have done. Bravo! Nice meteor capture too.

I'll be looking for the eclipse.

Did you hear on the news that we had a 5.7 earthquake here yesterday. Personally, we suffered about $3,000 in personal property damage. Many costly items of sentimental value were broken.

Happy stargazing.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Will, have a great time under the stars, and there are a ton of satellites up there, I see them every time I'm out, you may see some early Perseids as well, just look to the NE just under and around Cassiopeia, an easy constellation to spot, looks like a W, it is just above and to the right of Perseus.\m/\m/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks swubird, I heard, wow,too bad about the broken sentimental items, hope you guys are all okay, never knew anyone before that was affected by them, don't get any up here. I was just watching a Judge Judy film clip, as they were taping a show it shook the building, kind of scary watching it, I can only imagine how it feels live. \m/\m/

Eye Candy said...

~Greetings Bob Johnston~

You are a delightful sky artist!

Think of all the yes looking back at you from those stars and galaxies!

Unknown said...

Wonderful, wonderful post!

Best wishes.

Sincerely,

-Liane Schmidt.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks eye candy, one can only imagine, hey thanks for dropping by.\m/\m/.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks and thanks for dropping by Liane.\m/\m/

Sherer said...

excellent post - as always Bob. I love seeing the Hubble Deep space views amazing! I can just stare at those photos for hours.


And ah yes M42 and 43 how could i have been so blind! I cant wait until those guys roll around. It should be a spectacular view. For objects such as these do you recommend somthing like a 25mm or more like the 3mm?

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Jesse, the wider field of view for M42 and M43 the better, definitely the 25mm is the right choice.

If you want to get a jump on M42/43Orion starts rising around 2am in October.\m/\m/

Anonymous said...

Wow, you did it again, left me speechless. This is just amazing and I am wondering how much do we really know about the universe we live in. I think we have only scratched the surface.

I loved the pictures, just beautiful.

Love and Blessings,
AngelBaby

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks angelbaby, there is a lot of stuff out there we have only began to notice and understand.\m/\m/

Texas Travelers said...

Nice post.
Interesting title.
Great information.

It's almost too hot to get out at night here now. In the high 90's until after Midnight. 106 tomorrow.

I have a really large .tiff copy of the "deep field" that I look at sometimes. I always see something new.

To answer your question: Yes, all of the butterflies were photographed in Texas. However, quite a few were photographed down in the Rio Grande Valley.

Troy

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Troy, kindda warm up here too, better then -40c in the winter, nothing and I mean not even me works at those temps,lol.

Those butterfly images are remarkable, you have a lot of different types down there,nice job.\m/\m/

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