“Catch the sky show, courtesy of Halley's comet - San Diego Union-Tribune” plus 1 more

Catch the sky show, courtesy of Halley's comet - San Diego Union-Tribune

Posted: 03 May 2010 01:45 AM PDT

STARGAZER

By Dennis Mammana

Monday, May 3, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

It hasn't appeared in our sky for nearly a quarter-century, but during the pre-dawn hours Thursday, stargazers will have a chance to see pieces of the most famous of celestial visitors: Halley's comet. On that morning, sky watchers far from city lights will be treated to the Eta Aquarid meteor shower.

Meteors, or shooting stars, are specks of interplanetary dust hardly larger than a sand grain that encounter the Earth at speeds of tens of miles per second. As one of these slams into our atmosphere, it heats up and causes the neighboring atmospheric gases to glow. It is this fiery demise that we see as a meteor.

The meteors of the Eta Aquarid shower fell off Halley's comet. They tend to collide with our atmosphere almost head on at speeds up to 42 miles per second, and the brighter ones can often show a yellowish color.

These meteors will appear all around the sky, but you can tell if one is part of the Eta Aquarid shower by tracing its path backward. If it appears to come from the direction of Aquarius, low in the east-southeastern sky before dawn, it is almost certainly associated with this shower. If it doesn't, it's what astronomers call a "sporadic" meteor.

Though historical records suggest that stargazers have seen the Eta Aquarids since about 74 B.C., the shower was not officially "discovered" until 1870 by Lt. Col. G.L. Tupman.

To view the celestial show, head away from city lights where the sky is dark and clear. Under ideal conditions, stargazers may see as many as 40 or 50 meteors every hour, coming from the eastern sky. The best times for viewing will be between midnight and the first light of dawn. Though the moon will appear in its last quarter-phase, it should blot out only the faintest of meteors.

All you need to view the shower are your eyes, a lawn chair or sleeping bag, and some warm clothing. No binoculars or telescopes are needed — they would produce much too narrow a field of view to see the all-sky show, though you may wish to have binoculars handy to check out the smoke trails left behind.

© Creators Syndicate Inc.

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Celestial highlights on tap this week - Florida Today

Posted: 29 Apr 2010 10:14 PM PDT

A few of the brighter satellite passes over the next week will come close to some of the most prominent celestial objects. Following the moving satellite may help you to learn some sky knowledge.

Tonight, the Lacrosse 4 military reconnaissance satellite will get up close with Mars, the god of war. At 8:17 p.m., in the SSW, Lacrosse 4 will rise almost vertically toward the zenith. As it reaches its highest altitude, 81 degrees, it will brush by Mars at 8:24 p.m.

Saturday, at 8:24 p.m., the International Space Station will rise in the west, skimming low to the left passing below Venus. Never gaining more than 18 degrees altitude, the ISS circles north through Perseus and Cassiopeia, finally setting in the NNE.

On Monday, at half past 8:44 p.m., the Cosmos 1143 Rocket appears sky high at an altitude of 70 degrees in the constellatiion Lynx, about half way between Mars and Polaris, the north star. The satellite is on a polar path with an inclination of 81 degrees, so it appears to head directly for Polaris.

Around 4 a.m. Thursday, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks. You may expect to see about 10 meteors per hour from a fully dark location. They make parallel tracks through the atmosphere as the stream of debris intersects the earth's path. From the point of view of someone on the ground, they all seem to come from a particular part of the sky. The meteor shower is named after Eta Aquarii, a star near the apparent radiant point.

These shower meteors are bits of left-over dust from Halley's comet. The Earth will encounter the other side of the orbit of Halley's comet again around Oct. 21. This time the meteors to appear to come from the region of the consteallation Orion, so they are named the Orionid meteor shower.

Beginning Saturday, the BCC Planetarium in Cocoa presents The Planets, Africa's Elephant Kingdom, and the U2 Laser Experience at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. respectively. Contact the BCC Planetarium box office at 433-7373 for prices and show times.

The BCC Planetarium in Cocoa is closed today for a private function. If you are planning a visit to the BCC Planetarium, it's a good idea to call the BCC Planetarium box office at 433-7373 to verify business hours and show times. There's another closure on May 22. The website at www.brevardcc.edu/planet/ has pages for show schedules, travel directions, astronomical events and satellite lookup.

Bernie Badger is project coordinator at the Brevard Community College Planetarium in Cocoa.

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Meteor

Monday, May 3, 2010