WOO HOO, got me A Swarming Taurid Meteor, a big one that lit up the sky!!!!! made the front page of NASA's Spaceweather.com for a couple of days, that makes 3 of my images that have made it to their front page.... hey..... but who's counting?......... oh wait, I am.
You can see it now in their gallery here or at Sky and Telescope's gallery here. I had mentioned about the Taurid meteor shower in an earlier post, it's all but done now but it was the best shower I've seen in awhile.
Happening right now is the Leonids Meteor Shower. Debris left behind from comet Tempel/ Tuttle will be smashing into our protective atmosphere at 45 miles a second creating bright meteors. Look to the NE around midnight as the constellation Leo rises, the radiant of the shower. I'll be out to get some pics, it was suppose to peak around 4 am Monday or Tuesday this week, I was out at 4 am this morning and let me tell you it wasn't the peak, Ill be out Tuesday morning, weather permitting to get some pics and post later this week.
The peak all depends when the Earth passes through the most populated part of the debris field, which is hard to pin down exactly. The bright 75% of Full Moon is out as well, so it will wash out all but the brightest meteors but you should still see a few good ones, oh and dress warm, it's cold out there, at least in Saskatoon.
Happening right now is the Leonids Meteor Shower. Debris left behind from comet Tempel/ Tuttle will be smashing into our protective atmosphere at 45 miles a second creating bright meteors. Look to the NE around midnight as the constellation Leo rises, the radiant of the shower. I'll be out to get some pics, it was suppose to peak around 4 am Monday or Tuesday this week, I was out at 4 am this morning and let me tell you it wasn't the peak, Ill be out Tuesday morning, weather permitting to get some pics and post later this week.
The peak all depends when the Earth passes through the most populated part of the debris field, which is hard to pin down exactly. The bright 75% of Full Moon is out as well, so it will wash out all but the brightest meteors but you should still see a few good ones, oh and dress warm, it's cold out there, at least in Saskatoon.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and with that in mind I thought I would link to my post on what to look for when buying a telescope, just in case anyone out there is wanting to buy one for themselves or a loved one for that special day. It's actually quite a good article if I do say so myself, having gone through more then 10 scopes in the last few years, I kind of consider myself an almost expert, by the way I am in the process of selling one right now, a pretty big one, so if your interested let me know, they go like crazy around Christmas time, just so you know.Very important, a beautiful Celestial gathering is taking place November 30 and December 1.
Look to the Southwest an hour after Sunset for a beautiful crescent Moon complete with Earthshine below Jupiter and Venus on November 30, and then on December 1 look at the same place, same time for the grouping, this time the Moon will be closer and just over the planets creating a triangle with Venus and Jupiter, Venus will be just below and to the left of Jupiter, will be an excellent photo op or just plain awesome viewing.
I'll leave you now with an animation of my swarming Taurid meteor.
