I have an awesome view of the whole sky off my back deck. My daughter and I sat out for about an hour and saw @15 really good meteors before the moon rose. Jupiter was bright as hell too, but I didn't have the telescope out. Should be a better night for meteors tonight, I think the peak is this afternoon here, so hoping tonight is active.
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Darned few, and they're all dead!
Venus would be visible with Mars, but not until almost dawn. Jupiter dominates the sky in August this year, coming closest to Earth on August 14. It rises pretty early in the evening, so it would probably be the first object you could see when it starts getting dark. It starts out ESE and would be at it's highest around midnight, although this year it doesn't get very high. But, it will definitely be the brightest thing in the sky all night long, and the brightest thing all year on August 14.
Another cool thing is the International Space Station. That was visible here last week for several days in a row at a reasonable time, so we checked that out, too. Not much to it, just looks like a really bright light floating across the sky pretty quickly. I was more intrigued by the accuracy of where NASA said you'd be able to see it, when, and for how long. Talk about precise.
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Darned few, and they're all dead!
I went outside last night at midnight to see if i could spot anything of this meteor shower, and what do ya know...2 of them came blazing right away. Like two shooting stars. I waited for about 10 minutes but didn't see any more.
The most awesome meteor shower that I saw was when I was growing up in my teens. I was at Yosemite National Park and we went to a place that was around 10,000 feet altitude. It seemed most of the meteors would go across a 90 degree viewing arc and the meteors were very plentiful. Never have seen anything like it since.
Make as many mistakes as you can as quickly as you can. We want to make sure that we make a great enough number of mistakes in a given amount of time so that we can be successful.
"Persistence is the magic of success." Paramahansa Yogananda
I was sitting outside last night for a couple of hours. I don't think I saw any Perseids but I did see several faint lights (through binoculars) arcing across the sky in various directions.
At one point I saw two such lights cross over in the sky. They were moving at a constant speed and moved from one side of the sky to the other, fading in and out of sight near the horizon. They weren't aircraft because I saw no flashing signal lights.
Could these be satellites? I was actually more excited about possibly seeing satellites than seeing Jupiter the other day!
Could definitely have been satellites. I was out Wednesday night again and saw a few meteors, and two satellites. The ISS would appear to be pretty bright, but satellites (as far as I know) aren't nearly as bright. The two I saw were slightly dim, kind of orangish and just floated across the sky for a few seconds then disappeared. I think that was cooler than the perseids that night, definitely wasn't expecting that.
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Darned few, and they're all dead!
I saw it too. It was an object that was flying but unfortunately not identified because it had left its identification tag at home.
Make as many mistakes as you can as quickly as you can. We want to make sure that we make a great enough number of mistakes in a given amount of time so that we can be successful.
"Persistence is the magic of success." Paramahansa Yogananda
All lucky. I was also out on 14 August, but saw no meteors. However, I also saw Jupiter with two moons. (Well, I suspect it was 2 moons...) I only have a crummy 70mm el-cheapo telescope, so I couldn't make out what the two "dots" next to the planet was, but I could definitely make out the cloudy figures of Jupiter.
Which reminds me... I baught a book that is supposed to tell you when what is happening in the night sky. It's for 2009, yet according to that book, we in South Africa aren't supposed to see Jupiter throughout August... Should I just get a different book, or should I just give up reading completely?
Which reminds me... I baught a book that is supposed to tell you when what is happening in the night sky. It's for 2009, yet according to that book, we in South Africa aren't supposed to see Jupiter throughout August... Should I just get a different book, or should I just give up reading completely?
The book was obviously written by someone in a different hemisphere.
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Make as many mistakes as you can as quickly as you can. We want to make sure that we make a great enough number of mistakes in a given amount of time so that we can be successful.
Originally Posted by kleinma
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However, I also saw Jupiter with two moons. (Well, I suspect it was 2 moons...) I only have a crummy 70mm el-cheapo telescope, so I couldn't make out what the two "dots" next to the planet was, but I could definitely make out the cloudy figures of Jupiter. 
Should I just get a different book, or should I just give up reading completely?
