Geminid meteor shower 12/13

“Hey Tech what's up?”

“Keeping busy around the house. Been slow at work, but at home I've been stacking firewood and making some improvements like extra insulation. How about you?”

“I'm off today, bumming around, prolly do some xmas shopping later, if I get motivated. :~)”

“Geminids meteor shower? Anything involving Gemini and shower in it sounds good!”

“I cracked up at that thought!”

“Thanks, techntrek.”

“Back to the top!

--- Geminids peak Monday pm, you all ---

IMO
IMO Calendar
Observing Tips


Is O'Keefe on the way out?



some other goodies....


Space Weather News for December 11, 2004
http://spaceweather.com

GEMINID METEORS: The 2004 Geminid meteor shower is underway. Midnight sky
watchers this weekend can expect to see bright meteors shooting out of the
constellation Geminid--at least a few per hour. Rates will increase
many-fold on Dec. 13th when the shower peaks.

Because this meteor shower has such a broad peak, a good display is
possible twice: on Monday morning, Dec. 13th, during the dark hours before
sunrise and again on Monday evening, Dec. 13th, especially during the
hours around midnight.

Visit spaceweather.com for more information and predictions for selected
US cities.

COMET MACHHOLZ: While you're out watching the meteor shower, take a look
at Comet Machholz--a 5th-magnitude fuzzball near the feet of Orion. You
can see it with the unaided eye from dark-sky sites and it looks great
through a small telescope.



========================================================================

* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - December 10, 2004 * * *

========================================================================

Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full text of stories
abridged here, and other enhancements are available on our Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, at the URLs provided below. (If the links don't work,
just manually type the URLs into your Web browser.) Clear skies!

========================================================================

HUBBLE GETS A SHOT IN THE ARM

The smoldering controversy over the future of the Hubble Space Telescope
(HST) has flared up again. On December 8th, after a six-month study, a
blue-ribbon panel of experts recommended that NASA should do exactly what
agency administrator Sean O'Keefe has said he won't do: return Space
Shuttle astronauts to the orbiting observatory to make repairs and
upgrades. The committee concluded that NASA's proposed alternative, an
unprecedented robotic servicing mission, is unlikely to get off the ground
by 2007 or 2008, when Hubble's remaining batteries and gyroscopes are
expected to give out.

Hubble's latest troubles began in mid-January 2004, when O'Keefe canceled
future servicing missions out of concerns for astronaut safety in the wake
of the COLUMBIA disaster. When astronomers, the public, and the US
Congress reacted with outrage, NASA began looking at the robotic option as
a less risky alternative, and the National Academy of Sciences was called
in to provide an independent assessment....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1405_1.asp

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A NEW CHAPTER IN THE LIFE STORY OF PLANETS?

Scientists using the Spitzer Space Telescope have described what may be a
missing link in the life story of solar systems like our own.

How do solar systems grow? Theorists think that a star's rocky planets
(and the cores of gas giants) are built up when solid particles interact
with each other and stick together. This takes place within a
circumstellar disk -- the swirling leftovers of the dusty gas cloud that
has given birth to the star....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1404_1.asp

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

COMET MACHHOLZ OBSERVED

Comet Machholz, C/2004 Q2, continues to brighten on schedule as it moves
toward the northern sky. On the evening of Sunday, December 5, 2004,
several SKY & TELESCOPE editors observed it independently from locations
around Boston, Massachusetts. It was an easy find in hand-held binoculars
despite the fact that it lay deep within the skyglow of Boston. In a
4-inch refractor it appeared like a major globular cluster, at least 15
arcminutes in diameter, but with an intensely bright, nearly stellar core.

Several people at dark sites have reported the comet as faintly visible to
the naked eye, making it a record-breaking fifth such comet in 2004....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/article_1402_1.asp

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JUPITER PLAYS PEEKABOO

While clouds covered most of the United States, a few lucky observers did
witness the occultation of Jupiter by the Moon on the morning of December
7th. Don Parker of Coral Gables, Florida, captured it with his 10-inch
Cassegrain telescope and a webcam. "The skies cleared up here shortly
before the event, so I was lucky," Parker says. "The event was so
fast-moving that any exposure lengths longer than two seconds blurred the
Moon...!"

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1403_1.asp

========================================================================

HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* The Geminid meteor should peak on the night of December 13-14.
* New Moon on Saturday, December 11th.
* Saturn (magnitude -0.1, in Gemini) rises in the east around 7 p.m.,
glowing to the lower right of Pollux and Castor.

For more details, see This Week's Sky at a Glance and Planet Roundup:

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance/

========================================================================

STAR-FINDING MADE EASY (Advertisement)

Discover new celestial friends and revisit old ones with these products
from Shop at Sky!

Sky Atlas 2000.0, 2nd Edition, Laminated Versions
http://SkyandTelescope.com/campaigns.asp?id=56

Sky Atlas 2000.0 Companion
http://SkyandTelescope.com/campaigns.asp?id=57

Not sure what to buy? Pick up a Sky gift certificate.

Sky Publishing Gift Certificates

http://SkyandTelescope.com/campaigns.asp?id=175

========================================================================

More astronomy
news is available on our Web site at http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

To change your address, unsubscribe from S&T's Weekly News Bulletin, or
subscribe to S&T's Skywatcher's Bulletin, which calls attention to
noteworthy celestial events, go to this address:

http://SkyandTelescope.com/shopatsky/emailsubscribe.asp

=======================================================================”

“HPM and I were at a company Christmas party last night, and I saw several good ones, even with all the city lights. Sweet!”

“Hey Tilt! Thanks for the reminder.”

“i'm gonna check them out tomorrow if weather cooperates. Overcast tonight”

“bump - big peak tonight”

“Geminids meteor shower? Anything involving Gemini and shower in it sounds good!”
aero
9:11:55 AM

She showers with a headlamp on. I can vouch for that!!!”

“Considering it’s supposed to snow tonight, it looks like I’ll miss it.”

“Today: A mix of clouds and sun with gusty winds. Colder. High 38F. Winds NW at 20 to 30 mph.

Tonight: Generally clear. Colder. Low near 20F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.”

“Hey Adventure-Dude! Long time no seaweed! <VBG>


Seriously biting my tongue here, TB!!

Ouch! Ouch!



Departing shortly for the reservoir with The Weasel in tow (the hood from the down jacket doubles as a Ferret Sleepy-Bag). Forecast is clear with an expected low of 28... wind from the WNW, 15-25... Yowza! Gimme dat windburn!
last edited: 12/13/04 2:08:06 PM”

“I'll be sure to check this out tonight. Should be amazing. I even saw several on my drive to Albuquerque late Thurs night.”

“it was cloudy last night and all day today but its chillin down and clearing up.... i am crankin up the the hot tub and going to watch for the star showers at midnite whilst soakin....yup
i love being an earthling....just spinnin around out in the middle of nowhere.....a real five ticket ride~~~~~~~

"keep a fire burning in your eye, pay attention to the open sky...." jackson browne”

“anyone see them yet? Clouds haven't broken here yet, but I'll try again before going to bed.”

“hahaha, you are talking about me in the shower with a headlamp. u funny tree!! that was you, not me!!! LOL

or was it? can't remember.

anyway...i checked and havent' seen anything...
but i have never even seen a shooting star...so I am taking a good guess that i am prolly completely night blind. :(”

“I was out there looking at 3 AM, but I did not know which way to look. I looked for 10-15 sceonds when I arrived home a little while ago. I understand I am supposed to lay on my back looking up at the darkest parts of the sky. Nope, this evening I was on my back looking up too many times during two hours of aikijutsu class. The next time I lay on my back I will be in bed.”

“nowslimmer, i didnt know where to look either...i just looked and hoped to get lucky.
like i said, i am a night blind cow...so i prolly won't see anything.

I didn't drive outside the city either though...which would probably be the better way to go if you really want to see something.”

“Dang, it's cloudy out...”

“i might go out for a while and check it...but its supposed to be 3 degrees here tonight”

“Still cloudy, poo”

“what are you doing reading this?? go outside and look up for a while...

ok, i went out around 10:30 and tried to figure out which direction to look...I got a little zoned out on Orion, contemplating the action he has going in the group of stars /nebula below his belt........when one zoomed across under him..

looking straight up was good, but every direction is good too..i could see them from every seat in the tub...the ones that fall straight to the horizon are the best!!...they are all over...about every 20 minutes or less i would see two or three ...nice long trails
so, now that i am a prune, i am going up to the deck for a while, they are still falling.”

“All the shooting stars or something woke me at 3:15 AM. No luck with the sky about 98% covered with large, white, fluffy clouds. Snow clouds, I guess, although the temperature is 63°F.”

“With clear skies in the south suburbs of Chicago, I went out around 9:30 p.m. last night and saw three faint meteorites in five minutes. Went back at 11:00 p.m. and say two good bright meteorites straight overhead in a couple minutes. If it wasn't freezing temperatures with a strong wind, I might have stayed out much longer.”

“stupid clouds!”

“It was -1 degree and crystal clear when I went out last night and layed on the golf course for about half an hour before the clouds rolled in, in that half hour I saw maybe 10 good ones.”

“It was actually clear down here! (all the other half-decent showers were clouded out this year)...


Great lyrics, there, Om

Back atcha --

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers
Turn around and say good morning to the night
For unless they see the sky
But they can't and that is why
They know not if it's dark outside or light
”