What did you see in the sky tonight?

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:07 am

I got to see a Perseid at 11:00 pm. YEA!

Ron-Astro Pharmacist · Post by **Ron-Astro Pharmacist** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:42 pm

Well - it wasn't exactly tonight...

Lot's of smoke in our air for some reason lately.

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:45 pm

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:Lot's of smoke in our air for some reason lately. :(

It's making it all the way out to Colorado, too. And I've seen lots of crepuscular rays the last few nights. No anticrepuscular rays, though.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 8:53 pm

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:
Lot's of smoke in our air for some reason lately.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=86458 wrote:
Click to view full size image 1 or image 2
<<The top image was acquired in the early morning local time on August 19 by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor on the Suomi NPP satellite. The image was made possible by the instrument’s “day-night band,” which uses filtering techniques to observe dim signals including those from wildfires. Labels point to the large, actively burning fires in the region.

The bottom image shows the same area in natural-color, acquired in the afternoon of August 18 with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Red outlines indicate hot spots where the sensor detected unusually warm surface temperatures generally associated with fires. Thick plumes of smoke are visible emanating from the hot spots. Use the image comparison tool to see the how the view at nighttime differs from that during daylight hours.

According to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, the Okanogan Complex Fire in Washington was among the larger active fires; as of August 20, the fire had burned 143 square miles. In Oregon, the Canyon Creek Complex Fire had burned 75 square miles, destroyed 26 residences and threatened another 500. Both fires were less than 40 percent contained. Meanwhile, firefighters have made progress on the large, damaging Cornet-Windy Ridge Fire in Oregon, which as of August 20 was 70 percent contained; smoke from this fire is more visible in earlier images.>>

Ron-Astro Pharmacist · Post by **Ron-Astro Pharmacist** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:28 pm

This was our view from Boise right before we left to go north to view the Perseids. It literally looked like it took up the entire southwestern horizon.

: Soda Fire.jpg (4.76 KiB) Viewed 5629 times

It eventually consumed around 280,000 acres but luckily has been extinguished. Not many live in southwest Idaho in Owyhee county and southeast Oregon but many of those who do were considerable affected by that fire. Many in the northwest are still very at risk.

http://www.northernag.net/AGNews/AgNews ... -Fire.aspx

But many grazing animals gave their lives; unable to flee the fire. I'll spare you those images but how fatally ironic is that? I'd hope we become smarter and develop something de"fence"able.

saturno2 · Post by **saturno2** » Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:53 pm

Only clouds and a
crescent Moon . Nothing more

saturno2 · Post by **saturno2** » Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:21 am

I saw a splendid "quasi" Super Moon
in this night

FullMoon · Post by **FullMoon** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 6:04 am

A large red moon, and a few stars here and there. A thrilling sight.

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 6:43 am

A pretty nice eclipse... at a convenient time for a change!

This is at sunset, just as the Moon is appearing over the Pikes Peak massif. What's cool here is that you can see an anticrepuscular ray, converging directly onto the Moon... which is, of course, precisely at the antisolar point during a lunar eclipse.

And here, a couple of hours later, near the middle of totality. Note also the near grazing occultation of SAO 109144 (mag 8.4) at the top edge, near the lunar north pole.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist · Post by **Ron-Astro Pharmacist** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 4:55 pm

Very nice Chris. It's awesome to get two-fers!

Two interesting things in the same photo I mean. One's fun too.

Ann · Post by **Ann** » Mon Sep 28, 2015 10:35 pm

saturno2 wrote:I saw a splendid "quasi" Super Moon
in this night

On the night of the lunar eclipse, I woke up to see the full Moon shining brilliantly bright, painting the landscape silver. It was really the beautiful.

The eclipse itself was a bit dull, and the Moon wasn't particularly red at all. (And that is not just my own opinion, because others said so too.)

Nice pictures, Chris and Ron!

Ann

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:03 pm

I observed the eclipse myself and thought it was quite red, redder than I thought it would be, but also quite a bit darker at mid eclipse than I thought it might be. This is the first eclipse I have been fortunate enough to witness in many years and I cannot recall the last one I saw. I took a photo. If I do this again I will put the effort forth to get out the timer and take a series.

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:15 pm

geckzilla wrote:This is the first eclipse I have been fortunate enough to witness in many years and I cannot recall the last one I saw. I took a photo. If I do this again I will put the effort forth to get out the timer and take a series.

Well, before the next total lunar eclipse we'll have a total solar eclipse cross the U.S. That's the one you want to be tuning up your equipment list for, and planning your drive to see.

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:19 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:Well, before the next total lunar eclipse we'll have a total solar eclipse cross the U.S. That's the one you want to be tuning up your equipment list for, and planning your drive to see.

I wish I could get anyone I know to be excited about that and go with me.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:14 pm

: [b][color=#FF0000][size=200]Supermoon eclipse September 28, 2015[/size][/color][/b]

: [b][color=#FF0000][size=200]Micromoon eclipse April 4, 2015[/size][/color][/b]

geckzilla wrote:
I observed the eclipse myself and thought it was quite red, redder than I thought it would be, but also quite a bit darker at mid eclipse than I thought it might be.

It was darker, in part, because supermoons are actually smaller than micromoons in relationship with the size of their umbras.

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Tue Sep 29, 2015 4:07 pm

True, the umbra would be somewhat less diffuse with the moon a little closer. Perhaps more importantly, as illustrated, is that the moon is closer to the center of the umbra, where the darkest part should be.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist · Post by **Ron-Astro Pharmacist** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 3:33 pm

It may be more like "What did you see in the sky this morning?" but it looks like a good week overall for sky viewing.

http://earthsky.org/tonight/use-summer- ... -milky-way

BMAONE23 · Post by **BMAONE23** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 5:00 pm

Took out the trash at shortly after 9pm, looked up and saw the ISS traversing the NW sky. Just saw the last 20 seconds or so as the Light reflected by the ISS vanished shortly before it reached Alkaid (The tail star of Ursa Major)

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 4:50 pm

Today you can easily see Venus in the daytime sky, because it's right next to the Moon.

Deee92 · Post by **Deee92** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 6:04 am

Saw the moon in its full glory, and Sirius, before bed last night. Missed my alarm to watch Orion (yeah, I do that). Did not miss my alarm at dawn to catch the Venus-Jupiter-Mars (extremely bright-quite bright-faint, in that order) conjunction.

Tried to take a photo with my cellphone camera, came out exactly as I had expected - nowhere close to the real deal.

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 2:33 pm

Deee92 wrote:
Saw the moon in its full glory, and Sirius, before bed last night. Missed my alarm to watch Orion (yeah, I do that).

Sirius rises after Orion. (Perhaps you saw Vega.)

Chris Peterson · Post by **Chris Peterson** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 2:37 pm

Deee92 wrote:Saw the moon in its full glory, and Sirius, before bed last night. Missed my alarm to watch Orion (yeah, I do that).

Where do you live that you could see Sirius but not Orion?

Deee92 · Post by **Deee92** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 5:48 am

I live in New Delhi, India. It has been particularly cloudy around bedtime lately. I managed to see Sirius (not Vega) from in-between the clouds, but Orion had been hiding from sight. I try to wake up later to catch Orion, when the clouds have gone to bed too.

CURRAHEE CHRIS · Post by **CURRAHEE CHRIS** » Mon Nov 09, 2015 1:40 pm

I think I am seeing a quarter moon with Venus and Mars running in a straight line the last 2 mornings I have awoken.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist · Post by **Ron-Astro Pharmacist** » Fri Nov 13, 2015 9:42 pm

Do you suppose they ever place a wide angle lens and camera "on top" of a helium balloon to capture meteor showers when it's cloudy outside? Saw one last night but then "someone" closed the aperture. Of course if you tether the balloon sometimes it gets loose and drags its tether across power lines. Unless one has deep pockets that would seem too expensive for most who want to look for incoming targets.

Starship Asterisk*

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