“Celebrate the Winter Solstice with a Total Lunar Eclipse and Ursid Meteor Shower - YAHOO!” plus 1 more |
| Celebrate the Winter Solstice with a Total Lunar Eclipse and Ursid Meteor Shower - YAHOO! Posted: 19 Dec 2010 10:46 AM PST Attention parents: Tuesday, Dec. 21, will showcase an event you and the family won't want to miss. No need to purchase expensive tickets. This event is coming to a galaxy near you. Keep the kids up late for winter solstice plus a total lunar eclipse and meteor shower. That's right folks, it's a TKO of the sun with a meteor shower to light the way. Kids, mom and dad have no excuse not to let you stay up for this stellar event because most of you are on Christmas vacation; no school night issues to worry about. It's not a common event that a total lunar eclipse coincides with Winter Solstice. The last time this happened, 372 years ago, Anne Hutchinson was being ousted from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for reading the Bible with other women, the Shogun was trouncing rebels and the Sultan was strangling Cyril of Constantinople. For our winter solstice, Ursid meteor shower and total lunar eclipse event, we will have front row seats. Enjoy this once in a quatercentenary (400-year) event. Getting the Ursid meteor shower, named Ursid because it emanates from the star Kochab in Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, is a special bonus. The Dec. 22 to 23 Ursid meteor shower is usually difficult to see because of the full moon around that time of month. The total lunar eclipse does double duty as is not only blots out the moonlight and makes the Ursids visible, an eclipse is pretty amazing to watch, too. A total lunar eclipse can be viewed safely with the naked eye, also. Unlike a solar eclipse which must be viewed with a pinhole camera or with special glasses, moonlight is not strong enough to harm the eyes. When is the best time to view the winter solstice, total lunar eclipse and Ursid meteor shower? According to Space.com, it depends upon where you live. West Coast viewers will want to start watching about 9:30 p.m. while viewers on the East Coast will see the total lunar eclipse best at 12:30 a.m. (just after midnight). The eclipse will reach full strength at 12:17 p.m. out west and 3:17 a.m. in the east. Across the country, the time zones add an hour as they move east. Live Science says that "across the country, the eclipse will be visible until the moon sets in the west and the sun rises." Another fascinating phenomenon about a total lunar eclipse is that the moon may appear deep orange or blood-red. For best viewing of the Ursid Meteor Shower, try to get as far from city lights as possible. Open fields and at the beach across bodies of water are best viewing sites. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Lunar Eclipse Could Boost Underdog Meteor Shower - msnbc.com Posted: 19 Dec 2010 06:42 AM PST When skywatchers think of meteor showers during the month of December, they immediately think of the Geminids, which over the years have evolved into the most prolific and reliable of the dozen or so annual meteor displays that take place. And yet, there is also another notable meteor shower that occurs during December that, in contrast, hardly gets much notice at all: the December Ursids. The peak of this meteor display usually occurs on the night of Dec. 22 to Dec. 23. While the Ursids would normally be difficult to see during this time because of bright light from the full moon, the rare upcoming total lunar eclipse may provide a special chance to catch a glimpse of the Ursid meteor shower. Check this NASA lunar eclipse chart to see how visible the eclipse will be from different regions around the world. The Ursids are so named because they appear to fan out from the vicinity of the bright orange star Kochab, in the constellation of Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. Kochab is the brighter of the two outer stars in the bowl of the Little Dipper (the other being Pherkad), that seem to march in a circle like sentries around Polaris, the North Star. These meteors are sometimes called the Umids, in a rather unsuccessful attempt to make clear that they originate from the direction of Ursa Minor, not Ursa Major. Often neglected The fact that Kochab is positioned so near to the north pole of the sky means that it almost never sets for most viewers in the Northern Hemisphere. And since the Ursids seem to fan out from this particular region of the sky, you can look for these faint, medium-speed meteors all through the night if you care to. The fact that they reach their peak on Dec. 22 to Dec. 23, however, is not good news for prospective Ursid watchers in 2010, as this coincides with the first full night of winter, with a brilliant nearly full moon that will shine in the sky all night from about 5:00 p.m. local time onward. This is unfortunate because the underappreciated Ursids "badly need observing," according to the British Astronomical Association. That observers have neglected the Ursids is not surprising. Everything about them is wintry. The Ursid meteor shower usually coincides with the winter solstice, and is best seen by polar bears since they come from near the celestial north pole. In contrast to the Geminids, which can produce up to 120 meteors per hour, the usual Ursid rate is but a fraction of that; generally speaking they produce about a dozen or so per hour at their peak. The Ursids are actually the dusty debris shed by the periodic comet Tuttle 8P/Tuttle, which circles the sun in a 13.6-year orbit and was last seen in early 2008. On occasion, the Earth has interacted with a dense, narrow stream of particles shed by this comet, which has caused brief outbursts of Ursid meteors numbering in the dozens per hour, but no such interaction is expected this year. The eclipse will help! But don't cross the Ursids off your observing calendar just yet. As I noted above, this year they coincide with a brilliant almost-full moon, which likely will squelch visibility of most meteors. If only the moon weren't in the sky But wait! The night before the Ursid peak (Dec. 20 to Dec. 21) is the long-awaited total eclipse of the moon. In fact, for 72 minutes, while the moon is completely immersed in the Earth's shadow, the moon will appear anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 times dimmer and will allow many of the fainter stars and even the Milky Way to temporarily appear. [ Amazing photos of a total lunar eclipse ] And possibly a few Ursid meteors too! Usually not many people would be outside on a cold late-December night looking up at the sky, but the eclipse will be the feature attraction that will draw many outdoors. So if, while you're admiring the totally eclipsed moon, you happen to also catch sight of a few meteors streaking from out of the northern part of the sky, congratulations! You've probably caught sight of the Ursids. © 2010 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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