Basic astronomy and night sky information
It’s the best celestial show of the northern summer months, one that can be enjoyed without a telescope, camera, or much expertise in celestial matters at all. It’s the Perseid meteor shower, an annual event in which sand-sized bits of an ancient comet streak through the Earth’s upper atmosphere and elicit “oohs and ahhs” from experienced and untutored stargazers alike. [Read more…] about The Tears of St. Lawrence
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The Perseid meteor shower, the most reliably active meteor shower of the year, peaks on the night of August 11-12, 2016. A summer favorite of northern stargazers, yet still visible in part in the southern hemisphere, this meteor shower sprays some 50-60 per hour, on average, across the sky. This year the waxing gibbous Moon obscures the view of meteors before midnight, but it sets shortly thereafter and leaves a dark sky during the predicted peak of the shower. And some astronomers are predicting the gravitational influence of Jupiter will make for many more Perseid meteors in 2016 than usual, perhaps as many as 100-200 per hour [Read more…] about A Boost for the Perseid Meteor Shower in 2016?
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The usually reliable Eta Aquarid meteor shower runs from April 21 – May 20, 2016, with many meteors still visible for several days on either side of the peak on May 5-6, 2016. This is perhaps the best meteor shower of the year for southern hemisphere stargazers [Read more…] about Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower – 2016
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Alan Dyer at AmazingSky.net braved the cold of a New Mexico night to capture several hours of Geminid meteors on December 13, 2015 over the Very Large Array.
On December 13 I captured a rain of meteors over the famous VLA Radio Telescope in New… https://t.co/LDWuJMsoQV pic.twitter.com/k9sTk69A5V
— Alan Dyer (@amazingskyguy) December 15, 2015
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As the days tick down to the December solstice, stargazers can engage in a little meteor watching as the Geminids meteor shower peaks during the nights of December 13-14, 2015. One of the best meteor showers of the year, the Geminids shows up to 100-150 meteors per hour in dark sky. This will be an excellent year because the waxing crescent Moon will set before the shower peaks [Read more…] about Geminid Meteor Shower 2015
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