Cool Stuff
August 26, 2007 - Two Celestial Events This Coming Week:
- Total Lunar Eclipse Early Tuesday Morning, August 28.
Skywatchers in western North and South America, the Pacific,
eastern Asia and Australia are favored to see the moon turn red-orange
in a full lunar eclipse like the image above taken in 2000. Eclipse will begin at 1:51 a.m.
Pacific reaching total eclipse, when moon is covered by Earth's shadow, at 2:52 a.m.
Mountain time is 2:51 a.m. to 3:52 a.m.; Central time is 3:51 a.m. to 4:52 a.m.;
Eastern time is 4:51 a.m. to 5:52 a.m. Total lunar eclipse image © 2000 by F. Espenak.
- Rare Aurigid Meteor Shower Early Saturday, September 1.
2000-year-old Dust Trail from 36 B.C. - 45 A.D. Comet Kiess.
Green Perseid August 11, 2007, Cave Creek, Arizona. Image © 2007 by David Wheat.
At an uncertain date during the time of Christ, a mysterious "long-period comet" that has visited the inner solar system only twice in the past two thousand years appeared from the direction of the Auriga constellation (oh-RYE-guh) in the northeastern sky. Those two passes left dust debris the Earth previously passed through in 1935, 1986 and 1994, without much public observation. Another mystery in 1994 was why the Aurigid meteors were blue-green? On September 1, 2007, will the Aurigids be blue green again? This ancient meteor shower will not be seen again in our lifetimes.
Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute says, "We expect the outburst to peak at 11:36 UT (4:36 a.m. PDT) +/- 20 minutes on Sept. 1. The whole event should last about 2 hours and be visible from California, Oregon, Hawaii and the eastern Pacific Ocean."
Jenniskens will be flying with NASA Ames Research Center scientists in two aircraft over the Pacific Ocean to study the Aurigid meteor shower. The scientists are asking for the public's help in taking digital images and videos of the shower. Go to http://aurigid.seti.org for more information.
Sky Show
Moderator: Officers
Re: Sky Show
Does anyone else here remember the horrible 80's movie "Night of the Comet"?
Better watch out for those killer comets...
Better watch out for those killer comets...
Crymea says, "No tail, no sale."
Tyranimus says, "Oh, shut up you lousy monk."
Tyranimus says, "Oh, shut up you lousy monk."
Re: Sky Show
I hate myself for my gimpness: I totally missed this night 8(((
Adalric Brandl - Gimp of Innoruuk
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Re: Sky Show
The eclipse was awesome!!!
You still have a chance to catch the rare meteor shower on Sept 1 early in the Am
You still have a chance to catch the rare meteor shower on Sept 1 early in the Am
"It is good to have an end to journey towards:
but it is the journey that matters in the end." ~Ursula K Le Guin