Monday, November 24, 2008

Venus, Jupiter, Moon Conjunction and The Saskatchewan Meteor


One week from tonight the Celestial conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the Crescent Moon occurs. The above image shows Jupiter and Venus Getting closer together. The inside grouping of Venus and Jupiter was taken November 22, the outside grouping of Venus and Jupiter was taken November 20. You can see the two planets getting closer together and Venus, the bottom of the two starting to whip under Jupiter, the top planet.


The above image shows the Space station joining the grouping, taken November 23rd. Somewhere just behind the Space Station is the missing tool kit. While Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper was working outside the station she lost hold of it. To get the exact times of the flyby in your area go here and enter your postal or zip codes, it's actually quite cute, the site gives you various flyby times of satellites... and the toolkit. You will need binoculars to see it as it isn't all that big.

Now, I happened to be out taking an image of the Jupiter Venus gathering at 6:10 pm November 20. I had decided to call it quits early at that time because the wind was freezing my shutter release cable, thought, this is crazy, too cold, I'm going home, get in my car and head back into town. The next morning I hear almost everybody in the office saw this blinding meteor. I asked what time, the reply was 6:30, crap, if I only would have stayed another 20 minutes I probably would have got a shot of it, again all about being at the right place at the right time, which apparently was in your kitchen or living room looking outside.


The yellow area in the above map is the area in which there had been reported sightings. The size of the meteoroid has been estimated anywhere from the size of a baseball to a small car. To date nothing in the way of a meteorite has been found, but they figure if the meteor did land it would be along the Saskatchewan, Manitoba border.

The YouTube video below is what an Edmonton Police car cam captured, wow, talk about being at the right place at the right time. At the Mall I work at we have quite a few outside security cameras, I went through all the footage from that time frame, and found a bright flash on one of them, the meteor was just to the left of the camera, still cool, due to security reasons I can't show you the flash footage, no biggie anyways, just the flash.


28 comments:

Swubird said...

Bob:

Wow! That is the coolest video I ever saw. It reminds me of the scene in War of the Worlds - the 1953 version. Remember how they saw the meteor streak across the night time sky right behind the town's buildings? It looked just like that policeman's car cam video. Like you said, if only you had stayed out there just thirty more minutes. Then again, you may have frozen stiff! Let me know if people start reporting any strange contraptions flying around the neighborhood. Martians!

On the toolkit. Are you saying that we can actually see the tool kit with a pair of binoculars?

Great post.

Happy trails.

Anonymous said...

hi ...tnx for this info

Nandu Green said...

Great article and video - I enjoy following your blog and insightful posts. Stay warm and watch the stars - they are so clear in your part of the world - spent my childhood east of Edmonton and the night skies were magnificent. Thanks for the informtion.

Would you like to write a guest post sometime. Please visit the stargazer section of my other blog.

http://nandugreen.typepad.com/my_weblog/stargazer/

Happy Holidays,
Marlene

Genie said...

I am STUNNED by that video footage, what an amazing catch. Too bad there's no sound, don't you know there were a couple of cops in the car making all kinds of hysterical racket! WOOT!!!!!!!!!

Your shot with the ISS was too cool, by the way. That alone made me very happy, but then I scroll down farther and read some more and BAM!

My digital won't shoot stars/planets--not with my current accessories anyway. I'm so jealous of your sky shots. Even if I had the equipment I wouldn't know where to begin, I'm a space dummy. I'm so glad you know what you're doing!

Ruth said...

Genie's right, how did they keep that videocam still!! Just after I read about it here, we saw the same video on the NBC nightly news. Just incredible. For a minute Don and I thought what we saw from our hot tub might have been the same occurance, but I guess not. Strange in the same week, though, no? What we saw had the same progression of light movement, but not quite as spectacularly bright.

I hope you have good, warm gloves. Problem is you probably have to take them off to click the shutter. And even your shutter rebelled!

Bob Johnson said...

Lol, I remember swubird, good catch. If you have binocs you can see the streak across the sky only for the toolkit.

Bob Johnson said...

No problem shedlife.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Nandu Green, I am really into a greener Earth, I am in charge of our malls going green, have hired consultants to give us suggestions on how to better our mall in that respect. Will consider doing a guest post, thanks for asking!

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Genie, isn't that video amazing, it is a great catch for sure,lol too bad there wasn't sound.

Too bad your camera doesn't have the ability to increase your exposure time, thats all you would need, plus some sky charts at

Skyviewcafe.com

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Ruth, cool you saw a meteor but like you said was a different one, but we have been going through the comet Tempel/Tuttle debris field, was probably part of that.

I do have racing gloves which are thin enough to use the camera as well as keep me a little warm, once it gets below -20c though nothing seems to help,lol.

virtualjourney said...

Haven't seen the video yet as I'm having a job getting the flash player to work on spare laptop, but sorry you missed the video.

Those survival blankets I mentioned are more like thin foil film, Bob. They are a good idea, pack down to nothing in size and cut down windchill. Really only retain heat if you're not already stone cold, but could provide some shelter from the elements in an emergency and we'll keep a couple in the glove compartment in future.

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

Bob, I saw that large Canadian meteorite sailing across the sky on TV...was wondering if you captured it. Can understand why the cold got to you. Brrr just THINKING about it. But WOOT, what a show!!!

Super conjunction post and photos!!! It's amazing what goes on in the sky while one sleeps.

Hugs, JJ

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Julie, too bad about the flash player not working, did you notice the pop up is stopped? Thanks for the info on the blanket, I am going to get one.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks JJ, I always wonder how many big meteors I miss while sleeping, but a guy has gotta sleep sometime,lol.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Amazing video...
Not sure if it's just me but I find it a bit scary... Anyway, I would love to catch one... Do you anything that's happening next? Prolly can try to take a few shots..

Btw, love the video so much that I will share the vidz on my blog.. =)

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Cashmere, right now they have meteor hunters out looking for the remains, meteorites at Manitou lake, by the Alberta/Sask border

Sherer said...

Bob,


Thats too bad! It was all over the news even down here! And to think that you often catch fireballs, space stations, planes in the shadow of the moon, ect. Very nice post however, can't wait for that conjunction.

Jesse

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Jesse, it is getting crazy up here with all the meteor hunters, a meteor collector offered 12,000 us for a kilo of it.

RW said...

Wow! That was awesome I knew you would be loving that!

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Roger, it was pretty cool.

Unknown said...

That's unreal.

Livingsword said...

Hi Bob….

I have never seen Jupiter with a whip!

She lost the tool kit….to easy I will let it pass…

When I heard this prairie meteor on the news I thought of you!

Cool Edmonton police video! Better than watching the Oilers that’s for sure! I hope the police officer was not scared into dropping his coffee and donut…

Bob Johnson said...

Cool hey Evan!

Bob Johnson said...

Lol livingsword, the most exciting thing that's happened in these parts for a long time.

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