Perseids in 2008!

What could be best time to watch for ETV and UFO than a night where the sky is filled with meteors.

The Perseids will next be active from July 17 to August 24, 2008, with their peak on the morning of August 12, 2008.

Head out with your small laser and enjoy a couple evenings signaling to our space brothers and watching meteors!

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids)

Venus and Jupiter together in the sky!

Although no one likes getting up early, the morning of February 1 will be worth the effort. Just before local dawn, the scene is set as brilliant planets Venus and Jupiter rise together ahead of sunrise. The planetary pair will be so close together they can easily fit in the same binocular field of view and in a low power, wide field telescope eyepiece. Even if you don’t use optical aid, the dazzling duet will capture the eye….

“Your eye is like a digital camera,” explains Dr. Stuart Hiroyasu, O.D., of Bishop, California. “There’s a lens in front to focus the light, and a photo-array behind the lens to capture the image. The photo-array in your eye is called the retina. It’s made of rods and cones, the fleshy organic equivalent of electronic pixels.” Near the center of the retina lies the fovea, a patch of tissue 1.5 millimeters wide where cones are extra-densely packed. “Whatever you see with the fovea, you see in high-definition,” he says. The fovea is critical to reading, driving, watching television. The fovea has the brain’s attention. The field of view of the fovea is only about five degrees wide. On Friday morning, Venus and Jupiter will fit together inside that narrow angle, signaling to the brain, “this is worth watching!”

But Venus and Jupiter aren’t the only pair sparkling the pre-dawn skies. If you look a bit further south, you’ll notice that the waning Moon and Antares are also making a spectacular show! While they will be separated by a little more distance, the red giant and earthshine Moon will still fit within the eye’s fovea – and a binocular field of view!

Where will all the celestial action take place? Look no further than the ecliptic plane – the imaginary path the Sun, Moon and planets take across the sky. For many observers, the ecliptic plane begins low in the southeast – but southern hemisphere viewers have a much different view! But don’t wait until Friday to have a look. If you’re up before dawn, step outside and watch as Venus and Jupiter draw closer together over the next several days and the Moon creeps to the east. On February 3, the Moon will form a line-up with the two planets and a striking triangle on the morning of February 4. Be sure to have a camera on hand and share your photos!

(Source: http://www.universetoday.com)

Quadrantid Meteor Shower Will Sparkle on January 3rd

I’d like to invite you to stargaze! Weather in the Ottawa region will get warmer, so this is a great opportunity to stargaze and see meteors!

Beginning each New Year and lasting for nearly a week, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower sparkles across the night sky for nearly all viewers around the world. Its radiant belongs to an extinct constellation once known as Quadran Muralis, but any meteors will seem to come from the general direction of bright Arcturus and Boötes. This is a very narrow stream, which may have once belonged to a portion of the Aquarids, but recent scientific data points to a what may have been a cosmic collision.

According the most recent data, the Quandrantid meteors may have been formed about five centuries ago when a near-Earth asteroid named 2003 EH1 and a comet smashed into one another. Historic records from ancient China put comet C/1490 Y1 in the path of probability. As Jupiter’s gravity continues to perturb the stream, another 400 years may mean this shower will become as extinct as the constellation for which it was once known… But NASA scientists and astronomers are taking to the skies to study the event.

A Gulfstream V aircraft will fly scientists and their instruments for 10 continuous hours over the Arctic to observe and record meteor activity. From above the Earth, the stream can be studied without light pollution and clouds to determine when the activity peaks and how the stream is dispersed. “We will fly to the North Pole and back to compensate for Earth’s rotation and to keep the stream in view throughout the flight,” said Peter Jenniskens, a principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

According to NASA, scientists believe this could be the most brilliant meteor shower in 2008 with over 100 visible meteors per hour at its peak. Best viewing times with the highest meteor rates are expected to be in either the late evening of Jan. 3 over Europe and western Asia or the early morning of Jan. 4 over the eastern United States. For the USA: 6pm – 2am (Pacific Time) on Jan. 3 and 4, 2008. For Northern Europe: 2am – 10am (London) on Jan. 4, 2008. For Northern Asia: 11am – 7pm (Tokyo) on Jan. 4, 2008. For almost of us, this means bundling up against the cold and battling the remnants of the waning Moon… But the sight of even one “shooting star” can make the trip worthwhile!

Will the Quadrantid Meteor Shower live up to its expectations? No one knows for sure… But we’ll be watching!

(Source: http://www.northantset.co.uk)