[Vision2020] Strong Meteor Shower Peaks Monday Night (fwd)

Jasper Nance nanc3296 at uidaho.edu
Tue Dec 14 08:48:53 PST 2004


Well I made a post this morning but apparently there are reasons why the human mind needs sleep in the first place! I ended up just sending it to myself instead of the list. Righto, try again!

***

Aww hell, I couldn't sleep so out of sheer boredom, and perhaps to the interest of someone on this list, I'll post a small version of that panorama that I just finished stitching...

Of course right after getting this film developed I realized that the big christmas tree wasn't lit up DOH. If it ever stops winding and raining then I'll have to go shoot it again.

http://nebar.gotdns.com/image.php?value=friendship%20square%20pan-small.jpg&id=2090&size=med

     Ms Jasper Nance
------------------------------------------------------
 Jasper Nance
 http://nebar.gotdns.com
 ------------------------------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From: nebar <nanc3296 at uidaho.edu>
Date: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 2:15 am
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Strong Meteor Shower Peaks Monday Night (fwd)

> 
> Yea I even went and bought a new lens for this event (and future
> auroras)... Not one star to be seen!! But all was not lost, I got 
> boredand took a 360 panorama of friendship square at 1:00 AM 
> instead...  
> 
> That's right, just keep on raining, 
>            Ms Jasper Nance
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Jasper Nance 
> http://nebar.gotdns.com
> ------------------------------------------------------
> 
> On Mon, 2004-12-13 at 20:21 -0800, Debbie Gray wrote:
> > Strong Meteor Shower Peaks Monday Night
> > 
> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/space/strongmeteorshowerpeaksmondaynight> 
> > Joe Rao
> > SPACE.com Night Sky Columnist
> > SPACE.com
> > 
> > If you were disappointed with the meager showing put on by this 
> year's Leonid meteor
> > shower, don't fret. What could be the best meteor display of the 
> year is scheduled to
> > reach its peak on Monday night, Dec. 13.
> > 
> > Skywatchers with dark skies away from city lights could see one 
> or two meteors every
> > minute during the Geminid meteor shower. The greatest activity 
> is expected to be visible
> > from North America, Europe and Africa.
> > 
> > The Geminids get their name from the constellation of Gemini, 
> the Twins. On the night of
> > this shower's maximum, the meteors will appear to emanate from a 
> spot in the sky near the
> > bright star Castor in Gemini. [Sky Map ]
> > 
> > Typically strong
> > 
> > The Geminid meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the 
> annual showers, even
> > surpassing the famous Perseids of August. Studies of past 
> displays show that this shower
> > has a reputation for being rich both in slow, bright, graceful 
> meteors and fireballs as
> > well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer objects of medium 
> brightness.> 
> > Geminids typically encounter Earth at 22 miles per second (35 
> kilometers per second),
> > roughly half the speed of a Leonid meteor. Many Geminids are 
> yellowish in hue. Some even
> > appear to form jagged or divided paths.
> > 
> > The Earth moves quickly through this meteor stream. Rates 
> increase steadily for two or
> > three days before maximum. So over the weekend, viewers between 
> midnight and dawn might
> > see a shooting star every few minutes. The number of meteors 
> drops off sharply after the
> > peak. Renegade forerunners and late stragglers might be seen for 
> a week or more before
> > and after maximum.
> > 
> > Ideal conditions
> > 
> > The Geminids perform excellently in any year, but British meteor 
> astronomer Alastair
> > McBeath has expects a "superb year" in 2004. Last year's display 
> was seriously
> > compromised by bright moonlight, when a bright gibbous Moon came 
> up over the horizon
> > during the late evening hours and washed-out many of the fainter 
> Geminid streaks.
> > 
> > But this year, the Moon will be at New phase Dec. 11. On the 
> peak night, the Moon will be
> > a skinny crescent, low in the west-southwest at dusk and setting 
> before 6 p.m. That means
> > the sky will be dark and moonless for the balance of the night, 
> making for perfect
> > viewing conditions.
> > 
> > According to McBeath, the Geminids are predicted to reach peak 
> activity on Monday at
> > 22:20 GMT, which is 5:20 p.m. EST. Locations from Europe and 
> North Africa east to central
> > Russian and Chinese longitudes are in the best position to catch 
> the very crest of the
> > shower, when the rates conceivably could exceed 120 per hour, or 
> two every minute.
> > [Predictions for Select Cities]
> > 
> > Maximum rates persist at only marginally reduced levels for some 
> 6 to 10 hours, McBeath
> > says, so other places, such as North America, should enjoy some 
> fine Geminid activity as
> > well.
> > 
> > When to watch
> > 
> > Indeed, under normal conditions on the night of maximum 
> activity, with ideal dark-sky
> > conditions, at least 60 to 120 Geminid meteors can be expected 
> to burst across the sky
> > every hour on the average. Light pollution greatly cuts the 
> numbers, so city and suburban
> > dwellers will see far fewer.
> > 
> > Generally speaking, depending on your location, Gemini begins to 
> come up above the
> > east-northeast horizon right around the time evening twilight is 
> coming to an end. So you
> > might catch sight of a few early Geminids as soon as the sky 
> gets dark. There is a fair
> > chance of perhaps catching sight of some "Earth-grazing" meteors.
> > 
> > Earthgrazers are long, bright shooting stars that streak 
> overhead from a point near to
> > even just below the horizon. Such meteors are so distinctive 
> because they follow long
> > paths nearly parallel to our atmosphere.
> > 
> > 
> > Jimmy Westlake imaged this Geminid in 1985. Click to enlarge it. 
> More about the image
> > below.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > The Geminids begin to appear noticeably more numerous in the 
> hours after 10 p.m. local
> > time Monday, because the shower's radiant is already fairly high 
> in the eastern sky by
> > then. The best views, however, come around 2 a.m. Tuesday, when 
> their radiant point will
> > be passing very nearly overhead. The higher a shower's radiant, 
> the more meteors it
> > produces all over the sky.
> > 
> > How to prepare
> > 
> > This time of year, meteor watching can be a long, cold business. 
> The late Henry Neely,
> > who for many years served as a lecturer at New York's Hayden 
> Planetarium, once had this
> > to say about watching for the Geminids: "Take the advice of a 
> man whose teeth have
> > chattered on many a winter's night - wrap up much more warmly 
> than you think is
> > necessary."
> > 
> > Hot cocoa or coffee can take the edge off the chill, as well as 
> provide a slight
> > stimulus. It's even better if you can observe with friends. That 
> way, you can keep each
> > other awake, as well as cover more sky.
> > 
> > Give your eyes 15 minutes or more to adapt to the darkness 
> before getting serious about
> > meteor watching. And have something comfortable to sit on; a 
> lounge chair will allow you
> > to stare up for long periods without straining your neck.
> > 
> > Geminids stand apart from the other meteor showers in that they 
> seem to have been spawned
> > not by a comet, but by 3200 Phaeton, an Earth-crossing asteroid. 
> Then again, the Geminids
> > may be comet debris after all, for some astronomers consider 
> Phaeton to really be the
> > dead nucleus of a burned-out comet that somehow got trapped into 
> an unusually tight
> > orbit.
> > 
> >  *  How Meteor Showers Work
> >  *  Meteor Watching Tips
> >  *  The Power of a Shooting Star
> > 
> > Meteor showers are notoriously difficult to predict, but the 
> Geminids are relatively
> > reliable. In addition to the Monday night peak, Sunday night 
> could provide a good show.
> > This chart shows expected rates of meteors every 15 minutes for 
> select locations.
> > However, these rates won't actually be visible from cities, due 
> to urban lighting. CLICK
> > TO ENLARGE
> > 
> > 
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________> 
> > Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's 
> Hayden Planetarium. He
> > writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other 
> publications, and he is also an
> > on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.
> > 
> > Picture
> > 
> > >From Jimmy Westlake:
> > 
> > "Back in 1985, I was teaching and directing the Rollins 
> Planetarium at Young Harris
> > College at the base of Georgia's highest mountain peak, 
> Brasstown Bald (Yes, Georgia has
> > mountains!).
> > 
> > "The 4784-foot mountain often served as my private observation 
> spot at night, as it did
> > on the night of December 13-14, 1985 during the Geminid meteor 
> shower. I aimed my
> > tripod-mounted Nikon FE-2 camera toward the celestial pole and 
> stopped down the lens to
> > f5.6 for a 60-minute exposure. Several meteors flashed by during 
> the hour, but none were
> > bright enough to record at f5.6.Two airplanes, headed for parts 
> unknown, left their
> > silent trails across the film. The silhouette of the tower 
> housing the Information
> > Visitors Center and observation deck is visible atop the peak, 
> 200 feet above me.
> > 
> > "After the hour-long exposure, I placed my gloved hand over the 
> 50 mm lens, carefully
> > opened the aperture ring to f1.8, and waited for 5 minutes. I 
> then removed my hand from
> > in front of the lens for a final 30 second exposure to punctuate 
> each star trail with a
> > bright dot. As fate would have it, during that 30-second 
> interval, the brightest Geminid
> > fireball of the night shot right across the center of the image! 
> My main concern was not
> > bumping the tripod as I jumped up and down in excitement!
> > 
> > "The result, as you can see, is a striking portrait of a Geminid 
> meteor."> 
> > Visit SPACE.com for more space-related news including videos, 
> launch coverage and
> > interactive experiences. Check out our huge collection of Image 
> Galleries and Satellite
> > Views from Space. Follow the latest developments in the search 
> for life in our universe
> > in our SETI: Search for Life section. Sign up for ou! r free 
> daily email newsletter
> > today!
> > 
> >                                   Copyright  2004 SPACE.com.
> > 
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> > 
> > 
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