Astronomy: Adventures in Stargazing

[fantasia]

Unfortunately I don't know the answer to your question Varna so I will defer to someone who does.

I was up from 1:45am to 2:15am Central time. My husband discovered he could set up the telescope in the kitchen and we could watch through the window. Hooray! It saved us from having to bundle up to go outside. Anyways, I watched it from when the Earth's shadow covered about half of it until it was fully eclipsed and brownish red. Very cool. That's the first time I ever remember seeing an eclipse.

[stargazer]

Would any of those be visible from Northern Europe - or would they all be in our daytime and not applicable at all?

Here are prospects for the next 3 events of this tetrad:

October 8: No eclipse from Europe or Africa. The Pacific sees the whole event, with it occurring around sunrise for the Americas and sunset for Australia and much of Asia.

April 4, 2015: roughly the same visibility as the October event. This barely qualifies as total; totality lasts less than 5 minutes (compared to 77 minutes for this morning's eclipse).

September 28, 2015: The Atlantic basin is favored this time, with Norway barely able to see the entire eclipse in the early morning hours. Sunrise (moonset) interferes with the view from much of Europe, and it is in progress at sunset (moonrise) for western North America (South America and eastern North America will see the whole event early in the evening).

After this series of 4, the next total lunar eclipse comes January 31, 2018.

For a list of dates, times, areas of visibility, and much more, check out NASA's Lunar Eclipse list for this decade.

Glad you enjoyed the view, fantasia!

Yesterday was blustery and variably cloudy here, but the TV weather people all said it would be clear for the eclipse. But each time I went out before totality, I was met with plenty of clouds and even some snow flurries!

But the area around the Moon cleared by totality and I had a nice view of the red and orange Moon near Spica with Mars about 10 degrees to the upper right of the Moon. The sky remained cooperative until the last partial phase ended around 0430, when I decided it was time to get some sleep.

[Puddleglum]

the Mrs. and I got up a tad after 2AM and took some pictures . I was able to get a tripod up, and did the 2 second delay to remove as much shaking as I could. Fortunatly the wind was not much of a factor.
The only down side was that the more expensive camera, with the better zoom could not get the red tint hardly at all, while my inexpensive Wal-Mart special could pick up the colors brilliantly, but got fuzzier with the zoom.

[aileth]

Missed it! Missed the eclipse. And not for lack of trying. It was at a reasonable time for us (beginning at 11:30 pm) but when I went out to feed the lamb at 11, there was this large, ominous cloud effacing the moon. And there it stayed. So frustrating, as the last few nights had been clear and bright.

Did anyone else watch the recent SpaceX rocket launch? I found it quite thrilling, as I haven't watched many such occasions; the part my brother was interested in was the Stage 1 recovery attempt. They didn't end up showing any footage of that Still hoping that it shows up on the net.

[stargazer]

Sorry you missed the eclipse, aileth! I believe next October's event will be a good one for your location, especially if you're an early riser.

I saw some online coverage of the SpaceX launch but not the stage recovery attempt. Always fun to watch a launch.

This morning I happened to wake up just in time to catch the thinning crescent moon just to the upper right of Venus, both shining low in the pre-dawn sky. Both were dimmed by haze but earthshine was still evident. The birds were heralding the coming day. All in all, quite pretty!

[stargazer]

North America is well-situated for a potential meteor shower this weekend, one most astronomers have never heard of.

That's because it may be a new shower, formed as the earth passes near a dim comet and encounters its debris stream.

It could bring anywhere from 100 to 400 (or even up to 1000) meteors per hour in a dark location - or maybe far fewer than that.

It means getting up in the wee hours, though, as the peak is expected around 0630 to0730 UTC on this Saturday, May 24. This is around 3 am on the East Coast and midnight in the West.

Read all about it here.

[fantasia]

I had a friend post about that meteor shower on his FB page a couple days ago. Sounds cool! Too bad they're predicting storms throughout the entire weekend.... But if it clears off, I'll definitely go take a peek.

[Puddleglum]

Looking forward to it stargazer. I can only hope that there will be clear skies.
Our backyard has a pretty good northern view, and if my camera cooperates it would be nice to actually get some pics.

[johobbit]

I woke up at 3 a.m. on the early morning of the meteor shower and wandered outside in the dark quiet of the night. The sky was gorgeous, so that alone was worth seeing. I sat there for a half hour and saw ... 1 meteor. It was very cool, of course, but we were all wishing for more, weren't we?!

Thanks for the info on the lunar eclipses, stargazer. And, fantasia, 'tis excellent that you were able to see some of the recent eclipse through the telescope. Glad you viewed it too, Puddleglum and 'gazer. aileth, I can relate: the skies did not cooperate for us here either.

[Puddleglum]

johobbit. Much the same experiance here. Though my lake of viewing was more due to compleat cloud cover. I scanned the computer, and found nothing of anyone really reporting the spectical that was expected.
I guess this one can be marked as a dud.

[Puddleglum]

I just heard mention on the news that there is supposed to be some rather good northern lights tonight. Anyone have anything spectacular to report?
Will most likely hop out quick myself before turning in.

[stargazer]

Alas, I saw nothing that night, Puddleglum, though my urban vantage point leaves something to be desired in aurora viewing.

Get ready for not one but 3 consecutive "supermoons" beginning this month. (They come when full moon coincides with perigee, the moon's closest point to earth). (This also happened last year but only one really got any press).

Astronomers point out that the 14% size increase and 30% light increase are much less impressive than they sound, and not that easily seen. The moon looks huge when it's rising thanks to the still rather mysterious "moon illusion." Read more here.

[johobbit]

The clouds moved in last evening, preventing us from seeing the first of the "supermoons". But still, after a few days of sunshine, rain was welcome. Still, it would be lovely if either the August or September nights are clear.

Long gone are my days of walking in the dark of the early morning hours. Looking forward to that again come autumn. And the sun sets late these days, so it's not often I am up seeing the vast vista of the night sky. How I miss it!

[stargazer]

There's a 'double star' in the southwest at dusk (for Northern Hemisphere viewers). It's reddish Mars passing just north of bluish Spica. Mars is slightly brighter but the pair is evident even with city lights. Look for Mars to pass near Saturn next month.

A bright fireball passed over the southeast US overnight, and was viewed by many people and captured on at least one video. Nearly 100 reports on the American Meteor Society give magnitudes anywhere from -7 to -27. Impressive!

[aileth]

Just got a Google Sky Map app, but I haven't had a chance yet to try it out at night. So far it looks interesting, albeit a tad jerky. It seemed to have the sun out of place: everything else looked fine Maybe it'll help me do better with constellations and stars--I can only consistently identify Orion and the Dippers

[Puddleglum]

Out camping this weekend, ( more on that on the right thread ), and I had the sudden urge to check if the outhouse door was working.
As I was on my homeward journey to the tent I glanced upwards to see a beautiful view of the stars, with only the nearby trees blocking it. The Milky Way was almost pefectly aligned with the treeline made by the path I was on.
I was then treated to one of the brightest fireballs I have ever gazed upon. It was followed not five seconds later by the familiar streak of a meteor.
There was also a quick bright glow in the sky, though I do not know if this was at all related to a meteor shower.
Definetly one of the highlights of the trip.