Last Aurora of 2008 and The Moon, Jupiter, Mercury Conjunction

First of all I like to wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best in 2009.

Just as I was going to call it an early night and head off to bed I got a call from Dr. Tony Phillips at Spaceweather Phone telling me that a Solar wind was due to hit Earth the morning of the 31st. and to expect Auroras!! It would be the last Auroras of 2008. It had been overcast that night but I looked outside just in case it had cleared, and it did. Was able to get my Photon Phix in between all the clouds we have been having lately, mind you still -30c but at least clear.


If I were to rate seeing a meteor fall from the sky a "10" I would have to give Auroras a "9", very beautiful, dancing through the night sky. Deadly charged energetic particles so energetic that not even the Sun's gravity can keep hold of them, escape the Sun to form the Solar winds. Once they arrive at Earth our protective Magnetosphere direct them away from us, some charged particles sneak into our upper atmosphere where they collide with our oxygen and nitrogen molecules, turning their deadly energy into the harmless lights we see as Auroras, paintings in the sky. The Auroras got their name from Galileo Galilei, he named them after the Roman Goddess of Morning.


I would have liked to have seen the Moon, Jupiter and Mercury conjunction but due to clouds wasn't able, actually the clouds broke just after the Moon set, sucks, but hey Genie got the awesome shot below, thanks Genie!


Jupiter being the top planet in this picture, Mercury below, so Genie gets another pair of Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus 3D glasses for submitting her image to Black holes, congratulations again Genie.

I was emailed by Find Schools Online letting me know I had made their top 100 list of Space and Astronomy Blogs, which is kind of cool, there are some really good blogs/sites that you might want to visit, nice thing is they are all together, you don't have to search around the net for them, all in one place.

I'll leave you now with a short clip I put together of the Aurora, 55 frames over a real time of 10 minutes. Also don't forget the Quadrantids Meteor Shower this Friday/ Saturday, peaking between 2 am and 6 am Saturday morning. Look to the NE under the handle of the Big Dipper around 11:00 pm Friday.

Geminids, Ursids and Quadrantids Meteor Showers

I've heard of them, read about them but up and until now I've never seen one let alone imaged one. No I'm not talking about UFOs, I'm talking about colorful horizon hugging meteors, image above.

I was trying to image an Ursid meteor when I saw a green flash to my right, in the vicinity of Gemini and thanks to my wide angle fisheye I was able to capture it, my new fav meteor image

Went back out the next morning and got my Ursid meteor. Three thousand images taken and almost one hundred hours later, I have imaged meteors from all the major showers.

Quadrantids, January 4 2008.


Lyrids, April 22 2008.

Aquarids, May 5 2008.

Bobaids, May 31 2008.

That's right, the best shower of the year, most meteors per hour, mind you only lasted a few hours, was the one I discovered and named after moi. NASA is looking into discovering more meteor showers as well, and they are finding them, so mock me if you will but I'll be out next year looking for my shower to return.

Perseids, August 10 2008.

Orionids, October 22 2008.

Taurids, November 8 2008.

Leonids, November 17 2008.

What can I say, I LOVE meteor showers. There hasn't been a meteor go by where I don't yell out, even by myself, wow, or that was cool, love em. Next stop, the return of the Quadrantids, peaking between 2-6 am Saturday January 3rd. They are predicting great things this year for this shower. Between 60-120 meteors per hour. The radiant of the shower used to be the constellation Quadrans which no longer exists, became part of Bootes, just look to the NE under the handle of the Dig Dipper around 11:00 pm January 2.

Also a couple of conjunctions going on, December 29, look to the SW just after Sunset for the grouping of the thin crescent Moon, Jupiter and Mercury. Then on December 31, the last day of the year, look again in the SW for the Moon and Venus grouping over top the grouping of Jupiter and Mercury.

One final thing, Lucy sent me a cool atmospheric image of the Perigee Moon, the biggest of the year, thanks for the image Lucy, a pair of 3D glasses are on their way to you.



I'll leave you now with an animation of my new favorite meteor. All the best to you and yours in 2009!