What did you see in the sky tonight?

[Chris Peterson]

Two nights ago. Coming down off a hard hike up and back from a 12,500 foot pass...

That is a remarkably causal reference to a very big mountain! The highest point in OR is Mt Hood which is 11,250 feet - and that is a peak, not a pass.

Out of curiosity I compared the Cascades to the Rockies for highest peaks - Mt Rainier (14,411) is just a few feet shorter than the highest peak in the Rockies, Mt Elbert (14,433). Of course they are different types of mountain ranges and formed very differently. Not that it's a contest and I am comparing our mountains or anything! :shock:

I live at close to 10,000 feet. Almost every ride or hike I do gets up to at least 11,000. And there are dozens of 14,000+ peaks around here, so it's really common to get up over 12,000. I aim for such places, in fact, because I love being up at or above treeline, which is mostly around that hereabouts.

[Fred the Cat]

The Pleiades and Mars started a conjunction junction what's your function tonight!

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[Knight of Clear Skies]

Was lucky enough to see a fireball over the UK a couple nights ago. Bright, even though a nearly full Moon was out, orange (possibly due to atmospheric reddening from my perspective? it was quite low to the horizon) and with visible fragmentation. Looking at the projected track some fragments may have impacted somewhere North of Cheltenham.

https://youtu.be/PZBjmScEbY8

[Chris Peterson]

Indeed, Mars passing by the Pleiades is a beautiful binocular object right now.
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[CURRAHEE CHRIS]

Did anyone see a flash of red light a few degrees away from NGC 2362 in the Canis Major constellation tonight? I went out to the edge of my driveway around 9:13 EST tonight to set up and there was a bright red light shining on par (in brilliance) with the dogstar. It led me to pause as I thought it was a plane perhaps or helicopter. The point stayed fixed and after about 20-25 seconds it disappeared. I focused my telescope to that approximate region to see if I could see anything in the scope but nothing. I was curious if anyone else saw that same thing this evening. It really isnt along any flight routes that I have observed.

[Fred the Cat]

Mars and the Moon in Gemini

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were tight tonight.

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[Fred the Cat]

Going outside to see the moon and Mars tonight

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it was a reminder how well you can make out craters in the crescent.

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[Fred the Cat]

Walking the dog, my wife pointed out the conjunction tonight.

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She literally pointed it out!

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[Fred the Cat]

At sunrise this morning

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rose a planetary-looking ball of plasma!

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[Ann]

At sunrise this morning

rose a planetary-looking ball of plasma!

Lovely balls of plasma, Fred!

Tell me this, though. I've been meaning to ask you about the long green streak in another of your images.

What is that thing?

Ann

[Fred the Cat]

At sunrise this morning

rose a planetary-looking ball of plasma!

Lovely balls of plasma, Fred!

Tell me this, though. I've been meaning to ask you about the long green streak in another of your images.

What is that thing?

Ann

My wife carries a green laser pointer on our walks to point out sky objects and to ruffle a few feathers. It illuminates her dark side.

[Cousin Ricky]

During 40 minutes of looking up last night, I saw one (1) meteor. It had a Perseid trajectory. The sky was really turbid; so much so that I could barely make out the Pleiades as an indistinct fuzzy blob.

I drove out to a dark lookout point, because the new neighborhood streetlights are so bright that they make home astronomy all but impossible. Fortunately, they are full cutoff, making it possible for the lookout point to remain dark. A lot of people were already there, and there was a party atmosphere; I only hope they were masked up and vaccinated.

[Chris Peterson]

During 40 minutes of looking up last night, I saw one (1) meteor. It had a Perseid trajectory. The sky was really turbid; so much so that I could barely make out the Pleiades as an indistinct fuzzy blob.

I drove out to a dark lookout point, because the new neighborhood streetlights are so bright that they make home astronomy all but impossible. Fortunately, they are full cutoff, making it possible for the lookout point to remain dark. A lot of people were already there, and there was a party atmosphere; I only hope they were masked up and vaccinated.

My camera is picking up Perseids, but the heavy smoke layer above the U.S. is significantly reducing my count in comparison to most years.

[Orca]

I was hoping we'd catch some Perseids tonight or tomorrow night but the sky went from clear to obscured within hours; the smoke really rolled in fast.

[Chris Peterson]

I was hoping we'd catch some Perseids tonight or tomorrow night but the sky went from clear to obscured within hours; the smoke really rolled in fast.

Pretty bad here, too, but not a total washout. Combining the last six nights, I've got:

24 alpha Capricornids (CAP)
13 kappa Cygnids (KCG)
3 Piscis-Austrinids (PAU)
100 Perseids (PER)
16 Southern delta Aquariids (SDA)
65 sporadics (SPO)

Most of the sporadics are Perseids, but with trails to short to reliably connect with the Perseid radiant, so I've colored them the same as Perseids.

(The long streak, mostly yellow, from 150° to 240° azimuth is Jupiter.)
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2021-Perseids-(sorted)-2.jpg

[Fred the Cat]

Despite the moon in its full brightness...

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... enhanced you could see Jupiter's moons quite clearly.

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Without the brightness, the sky's the limit!

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[neufer]

During 40 minutes of looking up last night, I saw one (1) meteor. It had a Perseid trajectory.

The sky was really turbid; so much so that I could barely make out the Pleiades as an indistinct fuzzy blob.

turbid (adj.) "muddy, foul with extraneous matter, thick, not clear," used of liquids having the lees disturbed or colors, 1620s, from Latin turbidus "muddy, full of confusion," from turbare "to confuse, bewilder," from turba "turmoil, crowd," which is of uncertain origin. De Vaan writes: Turba seems most similar to [Greek syrbe, Attic tyrbe] 'noise, commotion', ... which are probably loanwords. In that case, Latin would have borrowed the word from a Greek dialect, or both Greek and Latin borrowed it from a third source. In view of the quite well-developed word family already in Plautus, which suggests that turba had been in the language for some time, the latter option seems preferable.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/image ... g-in-sudan
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/image ... white-nile

<<The heliacal rising or star rise of a star occurs annually, or the similar phenomenon of a planet, when it first becomes visible above the eastern horizon at dawn just before sunrise (thus becoming "the morning star"), after it has spent a season behind the sun rendering it invisible. Historically, the most important such rising is that of Sirius, which was an important feature of the Egyptian calendar and astronomical development. The rising of the Pleiades heralded the start of the Ancient Greek sailing season, using celestial navigation.

Because of its position about 40° off the ecliptic, the heliacal risings Sirius occur over a "Sothic year" almost exactly synchronized with the solar year. Since the development of civilization, this has occurred at Cairo on July 19 on the Julian calendar. Its returns also roughly corresponded to the onset of the annual flooding of the Nile before it was ended by the Aswan Low and High Dams. The ancient Egyptians appear to have constructed their 365-day civil calendar at a time when Wep Renpet, its New Year, corresponded with Sirius's return to the night sky. Although this calendar's lack of leap years caused the event to shift one day every four years or so, astronomical records of this displacement led to the discovery of the Sothic cycle and, later, the establishment of the more accurate Julian and Alexandrian calendars.

To the Māori of New Zealand, the Pleiades are called Matariki, and their heliacal rising signifies the beginning of the new year (around June). The Mapuche of South America called the Pleiades Ngauponi which in the vicinity of the we tripantu (Mapuche new year) will disappear by the west, lafkenmapu or ngulumapu, appearing at dawn to the East, a few days before the birth of new life in nature. Heliacal rising of Ngauponi, i.e. appearance of the Pleiades by the horizon over an hour before the Sun approximately 12 days before the winter solstice, announced we tripantu.>>