UPDATE: Scientists have revised their probability of asteroid 2007 WD5 hitting Mars to a 1 in 40 chance down from a 1 in 28 chance estimated January 2nd. Asteroid 2007 WD5 is expected to miss Mars by 18,641 miles.
People I'm soo happy! Got my first image of a Meteor, a Quadrantids meteor no less. Left my house at 12:30 am Friday morning and headed out to a predetermined spot I had scoped out earlier, just on the outskirts of town. Had done my homework, read the instruction manual on the camera, had an escape plan in case a mugger saw me on the side of the road at 1 in the morning and decided to make me their next victim and I had me some star charts and a drink, don't want to get dehydrated. So I get to my site, get out of the car and as I unfold the tripod one of the legs falls completely out, I'm looking at it on the ground in disbelieve, this can't be good I'm thinking, so trying to make it all better I stick it back in and for the rest of the night I forget its not permanently attached and every time I lift the tripod to move it, the leg falls out again and again.... and again. At least the weather co-operated, only about -12c.
Had the camera pointed at the radiant, but the two hours I was there only saw about 5 meteors, all short, by the time the radiant had risen above the horizon the peak was over. The Quadrantid link above has some cool facts about meteor showers, for instance did you know that the average meteor is the size of a pea and weighs less then 1 gram? Or did you know that meteors become visible at an average height of 55 miles, and nearly all burn up before 50 miles altitude?, probably cause they're travelling between 50,000 and 165,000 mph.
After I had set up the camera and the broke tripod, I decided to look around at the magnificent sky, right behind me Orion the mighty hunter was stunning, It was awesome, one of the reasons I got into astronomy in the first place, looks so beautiful at a dark site, his faithful hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor helping Orion fight Taurus the bull and chasing Lepus the hare.
Had the camera pointed at the radiant, but the two hours I was there only saw about 5 meteors, all short, by the time the radiant had risen above the horizon the peak was over. The Quadrantid link above has some cool facts about meteor showers, for instance did you know that the average meteor is the size of a pea and weighs less then 1 gram? Or did you know that meteors become visible at an average height of 55 miles, and nearly all burn up before 50 miles altitude?, probably cause they're travelling between 50,000 and 165,000 mph.
After I had set up the camera and the broke tripod, I decided to look around at the magnificent sky, right behind me Orion the mighty hunter was stunning, It was awesome, one of the reasons I got into astronomy in the first place, looks so beautiful at a dark site, his faithful hunting dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor helping Orion fight Taurus the bull and chasing Lepus the hare.
There is no way I can put into words the feelings I had that morning, the beauty of the early morning sky, the quite, it's moments like these I thank God for putting everything in just the right place. I'm going to leave you with.... that's right another GIF, this one I spent a lot of time taking and setting up, got one light just right so it looks like the Sun is rising off in the corner, looks surrealistic, hope you like!
