What did you see in the sky tonight?

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Chris Peterson
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Feb 24, 2021 11:32 pm

Orca wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 10:31 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Sat Nov 21, 2020 10:14 pm 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.
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Tue Mar 02, 2021 4:30 am

The Pleiades and Mars started a conjunction junction what's your function tonight! :ssmile:
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Knight of Clear Skies » Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:27 pm

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
Caradon Observatory, Cornwall, UK.

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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Mar 03, 2021 6:39 pm

Indeed, Mars passing by the Pleiades is a beautiful binocular object right now.
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E7_47662p.jpg
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by CURRAHEE CHRIS » Wed Mar 31, 2021 1:43 am

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.

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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Sun May 16, 2021 5:21 am

Mars and the Moon in Gemini
IMG_1493.JPG
were tight tonight. :ssmile:
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Sun Jun 13, 2021 4:44 am

Going outside to see the moon and Mars tonight
IMG_1613.JPG
it was a reminder how well you can make out craters in the crescent. :ssmile:
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:59 am

Walking the dog, my wife pointed out the conjunction tonight.
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She literally pointed it out! :wink:
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:59 pm

At sunrise this morning
IMG_1977.JPG
rose a planetary-looking ball of plasma! :ssmile:
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Ann » Thu Aug 05, 2021 4:05 am

Fred the Cat wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:59 pm At sunrise this morning
Image
rose a planetary-looking ball of plasma! :ssmile:
Image
Lovely balls of plasma, Fred!


Image

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?

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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Thu Aug 05, 2021 2:15 pm

Ann wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 4:05 am
Fred the Cat wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:59 pm At sunrise this morning
Image
rose a planetary-looking ball of plasma! :ssmile:
Image
Lovely balls of plasma, Fred!


Image

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. :wink:
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Cousin Ricky » Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:08 pm

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.

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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Chris Peterson » Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:22 pm

Cousin Ricky wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:08 pm 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.
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Orca » Fri Aug 13, 2021 3:18 am

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.

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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Chris Peterson » Fri Aug 13, 2021 8:57 pm

Orca wrote: Fri Aug 13, 2021 3:18 am 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
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Sun Aug 22, 2021 7:11 am

Despite the moon in its full brightness...
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... enhanced you could see Jupiter's moons quite clearly. :thumb_up:
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Without the brightness, the sky's the limit! :ssmile:
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by neufer » Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:30 pm

Cousin Ricky wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:08 pm
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.
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=turbid&ref=searchbar_searchhint wrote:
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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliacal_rising wrote:
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.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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Chris Peterson
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Chris Peterson » Mon Nov 01, 2021 4:11 pm

Really nice Sun pillar this morning.
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Mon Nov 08, 2021 1:56 am

Conjunction tonight was quite a sight!
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Thu Nov 11, 2021 2:50 am

That same conjunction continued tonight except with Jupiter and Saturn in the sight. :ssmile:
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Dec 01, 2021 1:15 am

Comet Leonard this morning before sunrise. Looking very pretty. Tail is at least a third of a degree long now.
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Ann » Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:15 am

Chris Peterson wrote: Wed Dec 01, 2021 1:15 am Comet Leonard this morning before sunrise. Looking very pretty. Tail is at least a third of a degree long now.
_
Comet Leonard sure looks very nice in your image, Chris!

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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Chris Peterson » Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:11 pm

The entire sky.

Been playing around with the new allsky camera I've been developing. Here's a single capture- you can see Orion, the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, and more. And a stack of 2100 images covering about 12 hours, twilight to twilight. Fun.
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M20220204_211619.jpg
2022.02.04 Stack.jpg
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Fred the Cat » Mon Feb 07, 2022 3:42 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:11 pm The entire sky.

Been playing around with the new allsky camera I've been developing. Here's a single capture- you can see Orion, the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, and more. And a stack of 2100 images covering about 12 hours, twilight to twilight. Fun.
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M20220204_211619.jpg
2022.02.04 Stack.jpg
Very fun! Is that different than your meteor camera? If so, how do you keep them from the image. :?
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Re: What did you see in the sky tonight?

Post by Chris Peterson » Mon Feb 07, 2022 3:48 pm

Fred the Cat wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 3:42 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:11 pm The entire sky.

Been playing around with the new allsky camera I've been developing. Here's a single capture- you can see Orion, the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper, and more. And a stack of 2100 images covering about 12 hours, twilight to twilight. Fun.
_
M20220204_211619.jpg
2022.02.04 Stack.jpg
Very fun! Is that different than your meteor camera? If so, how do you keep them from the image. :?
It's a new meteor camera. There just weren't any bright enough to show in the summed trail image here.
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