[Turtle]

___If you can't get out to watch the meteors, you can listen to them on US Naval Radars. Links on fronts page of :
http://www.spaceweather.com/
___I watched outside 'till my neck took a spasm; didn't see any. I have the radar link on in the background. Pretty cool. If you didn't know, the Perseid meteors come from the dusty remains of comet Swift-Tuttles repeated passes through our neighborhood. Someone up here thinks one hit their car yesterday.

[Turtle]

___Tonight just after sunset, look WSW to see Jupiter, Venus, Spica, & the waxing crescent Moon together near the horizon.

[Turtle]

____The Sun is putting on quite a show for a solar minimum! Fifth largest ever recorded flare this week they're saying! The giant sunspot 789 is now pointed directly at Earth for the next several days.
___Oh, & don't forget the Harvest Moon is Saturday; if you stay up past midnight to see Luna you may also catch some aurora.

Star Struckingly, Turtle

[Buffy]

Originally Posted by Turtle

___Oh, & don't forget the Harvest Moon is Saturday; if you stay up past midnight to see Luna you may also catch some aurora.

"Shine on..." we always enjoy those, but we folk in the lower latitudes miss those aurora...

Luna Park (a long lost great place for fun like NO, and don't forget to click here.),
Buffy

[Turtle]

___Can't sleep so went out on the deck & sky watched for a while. Almost 4 am in my neck of the woods. Eastern & Southern view of the sky from about 15 deg to 90 altitude. Patchy clouds, mostly fast moving low cumulus. Gibbous crescent Moon rising in the East about 25 deg or so; directly South Jupiter in the vicinity of Pleadies at about 40 deg maybe. Cassiopea(sp) just past the zenith behind me if I crane my neck; vertigo. 3 small meteors over about 20 minutes gazing SSE perhaps coming out of the NW; just caught them in the periphery. Off to try & sleep. Keep looking skyward.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Turtle

___Can't sleep so went out on the deck & sky watched for a while. Almost 4 am in my neck of the woods. Eastern & Southern view of the sky from about 15 deg to 90 altitude. Patchy clouds, mostly fast moving low cumulus. Gibbous crescent Moon rising in the East about 25 deg or so; directly South Jupiter in the vicinity of Pleadies at about 40 deg maybe. Cassiopea(sp) just past the zenith behind me if I crane my neck; vertigo. 3 small meteors over about 20 minutes gazing SSE perhaps coming out of the NW; just caught them in the periphery. Off to try & sleep. Keep looking skyward.

Going to bed right now...again. Couldn't get it out of my mind that I mis-identified the Moon phase. Gibbous Crescent indeed! That's even worse than the error I thought I made. Well, it is a waning crescent Moon & now I'm going to bed. No really.

[syrhus]

I'm new to the Forum. Is anybody observing the Mars Show?

[Turtle]

___I had a look through binoculars earlier in the week when Mars was in conjunction with the Moon. My roomy has a 5" reflector, but it was too windy out & I couldn't get the angle from inside. Still, it's clearly appearing larger than normal.
___Maybe before the rains set in again I can get outside with the scope for a better view. Keep looking up!

[IrishEyes]

Geez, should have put my 'shooting stars' here, huh?
I saw two tonight.
Turtle, I think it's interesting that you mention Cassie. That is the one constant for me. Every night, I sit on my front porch for a few minutes and locate my little "W" (or "M" or "E", as the case may be) in the sky. I love watching her travel during the year. For instance, in the summer, at 10pm, she is above the tallest tree in our yard, which is on the far right of our yard. However, in late November, she is directly above the center of our yard. She's the one that the family follows around the sky, probably because of a sappy chick flick nemo and I watched a few years ago (that all of the kids have now seen).
Anyhow, love this log, and will continue to check it out.

Gazing upwards,
Irish

[syrhus]

Mars and Math

I'm what you'd call a late bloomer when it comes to Astronomy and wish now in hindsight that I could have started long ago. I'm more into observing the shallow sky stuff, naked eye and binos. The deep space for me is much to complicated, although I do find it interesting.

During the course of my stay with the nightime sky I've wondered what the early earthlings (cavemen) must have thought when someone with a loud "Ugh!", and pointed upward, which meant "Incoming!" erratic rocks with tails ready to hit earth, must have felt like.

I also realized after looking-up as in up, and looking-up as in researching, how many of our latter humans where either mathematicians on one end or clerics especially at the Roman Catholic level on the other end, or both....

Boy! To have been around when there wasn't any light pollution. It also sounds as though it was a time when celibacy must have been the in thing.

But the point is, has anyone noticed the "Isosceles Triangle" that Mars has been making. Mars is in the Constellation Aries and the stars are Hamal (Alpha) and Sharatan (Beta). The Triangle was perfect the other night and with November being cloudy off the Great Lakes so often in November I'm not sure what the placement is at present.

But it's during times like this that I relate to Newton and Kepler and even a guy by the name of Hell (who was Catholic Priest) and the Math thing.

Hope you get a chance to observe if your skies are clear.