“Planets align for rare sky-show over NW - msnbc.com” plus 1 more

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Planets align for rare sky-show over NW - msnbc.com Posted: 03 Aug 2010 01:18 PM PDT PORTLAND The planets will be aligned just right for a unique sky-show over Oregon, starting Monday night. Three planets Saturn, Venus and Mars will be glowing and extra visible starting at 8:48 p.m., from August 2 through August 8. KGW Meteorologist Nick Allard said the planets will form a triangle and a beautiful sky-show. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Leonid Meteor Shower of 1833 and End Times dogma - Examiner Posted: 30 Jul 2010 12:11 PM PDT Every November, Earth passes through what is in essence a dirty trail. The comet Temple -Tuttle passes through the inner solar system at intervals of 33.25 years, and like any comet, leaves a "tail" of dust and debris behind it. Earth happens to move through that trail of debris every November. This year the peak occured during the early morning hours of Tuesday, November 17th. The show was expected to be slightly better than average. Here in Northwest Oregon it's often cloudy in mid November, so we miss it more times than not. Area sky watchers are usually more able to clearly view the Perseids meteor shower that shows up every August. It happens for the same reason, different comet. The tail of comet Swift -Tuttle. This November the predictable came to pass for Leonid, a strong Pacific storm negated any Northwest viewing chances. Still, there were many places where the Leonid meteor shower was very visible, and provided a great show. Scientists do find it hard to accurately predict the level of activity, but past showers give clues, and projections are made. This year turned out to be enjoying to see, but not nearly as dramatic as say - 1833. The Leonid meteor shower of 1833 would have been amazing to witness. Estimates run as high as 240,000 visible meteors during a nine hour period. No wonder people were amazed. And yes, many saw it in apocalyptic terms. Fundamentalist Christians with strong end-time beliefs flourished in America in the 17th century. When the sky virtually lit up with cascades of falling meteors, they took it as a sign of the end. In the bible's book of Revelation believers are told how the end will be marked in the passage which reads "And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth." When the Leonid meteor shower hit in flaming glory in 1833, fundamentalists saw it as the third sign of the imminent return of Christ. Two other predictions - the sun going dark (eclipse), and a great earthquake, had already happened. Soothsayers thinking they were in the know were sure Jesus would return by 1840. When that didn't happen, some believers took Leonid to be not a harbinger of an immediate return, but a warning to be prepared at any time for Christ to show up. What some might call an easy out for a botched prophesy others called a sign from God for a future return. The forming of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1863 was accomplished by people who held the 1833 Leonid meteor shower to be a warning to prepare for the "Second Advent" of Christ. One day, perhaps, all people will realize that astronomical events are wonderful to observe, they are not "signs from god." On the plus side, scientists at the time came to widely understand that meteor showers are in fact caused by debris in space. Up to then many had considered them some sort of atmospheric phenomenon. Science marches on. This year's Leonid meteor shower was visible in Europe and Western Africa beginning just an hour or two before dawn. The lighting sky quickly ended the show. On the Eastern side of North America, it was able to be seen beginning around 1 A.M. If you happened to be in a non-cloudy area of the west, you still had a good chance to see the peak before any pre-dawn light. Here in the Pacific Northwest, better luck next year! Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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