Local astronomy events

From SpaceWeather.com :

TAURID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is passing through a stream of debris from periodic Comet 2P/Encke, and this is causing the annual Taurid meteor shower. "On Nov. 5th, a Taurid meteor came streaking down over the famous Ship Rock near Sedona, Arizona," reports Marsha Adams, who took this picture using a Nikon D700:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2009/06nov09...

"It was visible in spite of the bright moonlight," she says.

The shower has a broad maximum lasting from Nov. 5th through 12th. At most, only about 5 Taurids per hour streak across the sky, but what they lack in number they make up for in dazzle. Taurid meteors tend to be fireballs, slow and very bright. Look for them falling out of the constellation Taurus during the hours around midnight.

[sky map]
http://www.spaceweather.com/images2009/05nov0...

After the clouds cleared out last night, I broke out my 27mm panoptic and OIII filter and with some assistance I managed to find the Veil Nebula. It was truly a "WOW" moment for me!

If you've never seen the Veil, here's what a portion of it (NGC 6960) looks like:

http://www.astronomersgroup.org/gallery/displ...

Saw this photo and story on SpaceWeather.com and thought I'd share it. During our event Saturday night, we saw a few meteors shoot through the sky but nothing quite this spectacular:

SUNSET FIREBALL: If only photographers had faster reflexes.... On Saturday, Nov. 7th, around 5 p.m. Pacific time, a brilliant fireball raced4 across the sky of California's San Francisco Bay, where tens of thousands of people saw it. So far, however, not a single photo of the fireball has emerged. The meteor disappeared into the sunset before anyone could raise his or her camera. When shutters finally started clicking, all that remained was a trail of debris:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2009/10nov09...

"Pepper Dela Cruz took this picture outside the Miramar Restaurant in Half Moon Bay on the San Francisco Peninsula just as the sun was setting," says Doug Moore, who submitted the photo on Pepper's behalf. "It shows debris from the fireball, which lasted for several minutes before dissipating."

The origin of the fireball is still uncertain. Meteor expert Peter Jenniskens of NASA's Ames Research Center believes it was "a small, random asteroid that crashed into our atmosphere. The remains [of the space rock] probably landed in the Pacific Ocean," he says.

More fireballs are in the offing. Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Comet 2P/Encke, and this is causing the annual Taurid meteor shower, which peaks between now and Nov. 12th. The shower only produces about 5 meteors per hour, but what the display lacks in number, it makes up for in dazzle. Taurids tend to be fireballs, slow and very bright. The best time to look is during the hours around midnight when the constellation Taurus is high overhead:{sky map}

http://spaceweather.com/images2009/09nov09/sk...

Note: Based on the time of day and other factors, Jenniskens says "the Bay Area fireball was probably not a Taurid."

The Amateur Astronomers Group will be hosting a free and SAFE solar viewing event on Saturday, November 14th from 9:00am-Noon at the South end of Alameda Park.

Check out our website and please sign the guest book while you're there!
www.astronomersgroup.org

NASA finds 'significant' water on moon

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/11/13/wate...

(CNN)-- NASA said Friday it had discovered water on the moon, opening "a new chapter" that could allow for the development of a lunar space station.

The discovery is based on preliminary data collected when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, intentionally crashed October 9 into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole.

After the satellite made impact, a rocket flew through the debris cloud, measuring the amount of water present.

"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," the space agency said in a written statement shortly after a news conference began at its Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Francisco.

Anthony Colaprete announced the discovery at a noon news conference -- "Indeed, yes, we found water."

Cool! Check out Google's home page in recognition of today's news:

www.google.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33891078/ns/techn...

Well, hopefully these clouds will clear out for at least a couple hours tomorrow.

The Amateur Astronomers Group (AAG) will be hosting a free and SAFE solar viewing event at the south end of Alameda Park on Saturday November 14th from 9:00am-noon.

www.astronomersgroup.org

RIP John Gregory, world famous amateur astronomer and father of the Gregory Maksutov telescope design, was killed in a head-on automobile crash Saturday morning about 9AM. He passed away about 5PM Saturday afternoon, Nov. 14, 2009, at age 82. His wife Carolyn was critically injured and is currently on life support in an Austin area ICU.

If you're out in the chill EARLY tomorrow morning, keep your eyes peeled to the sky. Hopefully you can catch a meteor or two. Or follow the link below to listen to the meteor show.(Pretty awesome sounds, kinda remind me of whale calls)Enjoy!

From SpaceWeather.com :

LEONID METEOR SHOWER: The Leonid meteor shower peaks this year on Nov. 17th. The shower begins on Tuesday morning around 0900 UT (4 a.m. EST; 1 a.m. PST) with a sprinkling of 20 to 30 meteors per hour over North America. The new Moon provides ideally dark conditions for viewing this initial flurry. The best place to be, however, is Asia, where forecasters expect as many as 300 Leonids per hour. The predicted outburst occurs between 2100 - 2200 UT, just before local dawn in that part of the world:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2009/16nov09...

Got questions about the Leonids? Astronomer Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office will answer them during a live Leonid chat beginning at 4:00 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 16. Click here to join.

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/09-094.html

You can also listen to the Leonids. The Air Force Space Surveillance Radar is scanning the skies above Texas. When a Leonid passes over the facility--ping!--there is an echo. Tune into Spaceweather Radio for a live audio feed.

http://spaceweatherradio.com/

Here's a quick 5 second example of what they may sound like:

http://spaceweatherradio.com/startup/geminide...

And some people complain about the jets causing sonic booms, here's the story of the meteor that flashed over Utah literally turning night into day. 911 calls were made and several video cameras caught the fireball. Watch the video story at the link to see the meteor flash through the sky. The hunt is on to see if the meteor can be found on the ground in Utah.

From SpaceWeather.com

GREAT WESTERN FIREBALL: Yesterday, Nov. 18th, something exploded in the atmosphere above the western United States. Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho say the fireball "turned night into day" and issued shock waves that "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. The fireball was so bright it actually turned the night sky noontime blue, as shown in this image from KSL TV in Utah:

http://www.ksl.com/...

Although the fireball appeared during the Leonid meteor shower, it was not a Leonid. Infrasound recordings of the blast suggest a small asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere and exploding with an energy of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. Experts liken the event to the Park Forest fireball of 2003, which scattered dozens of meteorites across a suburb of Chicago. Meteorites are likely from this fireball as well. Stay tuned for developing information about the possible fall zone.

The Amateur Astronomers Group will sponsor a free and SAFE solar viewing event on Saturday December 12th from 9:00am-12:00pm at the South end of Alameda park. You can view solar prominences and (hopefully) sunspot activity through white light and hydrogen-alpha telescopes.