Meteor showers (two) :
The Geminids - Best early in the evenings of 13th and 14th December (providing it isn't cloudy...again!). This is a chance to watch a lot of 'shooting stars', or meteors (they are not called meteorites until they touch the Earth's surface).
You can use the Plough (Big Dipper) to help you find Gemini:
...and the Geminid meteor shower centre (called the radiant - they don't all come at once, but if you take pictures of all the ones that come, and overlay them they would appear to be coming from one area of sky:
Most meteorite showers are caused by the Earth passing through pockets of dust left behind by comets as it travels round the sun, but the Geminids are unusual in that they are thought to be debris left from an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon (pronounced fay -e-thon).
Apparently the meteors are multi-coloured (I have yet to see this!) and are supposedly white, yellow, blue, red and even green... let me know in the comments if you see the colours?
(The Ursids 17th - 25th, with a maximum on 22nd December. Unfortunately, the brightness of the moon will make them hard to see)
Lunar eclipse:
21st December (See Wikipedia for more details and some good pics!)- you'll have to be up early to catch it though...the first gentle shadowing begins at 5.29am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time /London time), as the Earth begins to block out some of the sun's rays.
But that's not the dramatic bit we think of a lunar eclipse. The Earth's shadow covers the whole of the Moon at about 7.40am:
Though it will look dark, take a closer look. Will you see the reddish tinge? This is caused by the longer light waves, from the sun, being refracted by the Earth's atmosphere:
Unfortunately, the moon will be sinking below the horizon quite quickly, so the haze of the atmosphere might make it more difficult to see the red-brown colours. It may be that binoculars would be a good idea, if you have any. And since the moon will set half way through the eclipse about 8.15am (in Wadhurst area), we won't see it become light again. (If you miss this one, then the next one will be next June (2011), though this one promises to be just as low in the sky)
'round these parts, nothing is colder than a crisp night of star gazing! Unfortunately it is a mix with my smoking habit. I turn off the porch light and smoke as I look up and I did notice that Taurus between Pleaides and Orion's belt is particularly clear at a certain time of night. I am looking forward to Geminids and will be looking towards the east. I think I know that I am looking at Castor and Pollux but thinking that they are not as far apart as the stars I am looking at.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for your info. I shared it with my few FB friends!
I must admit, Bluezy, I used to do the same...but now I go out to enjoy the stars for their own sake! :-)
ReplyDeleteI think the stars are brightest at the zenith (when they're overhead) as there's less atmosphere interfering with what you can see (as well as atmospheric dust and gas, there are air pockets of different temperatures, which refract the light from the stars/ sky objects)...it's going to be one of the problems of good viewing of the lunar eclipse, since it's so low in the sky :-(
(In case you have used the 'email follow-up comments, I've just added the images I didn't have time to add on Friday! :-) )
Hope we get to see something...
http://spaceweatherradio.com/
ReplyDeletemeteor echoes
It is overcast here. Got this link to hear them on Twitter.