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Random Night Sky Happenings

Everything that is sub-orbital or beyond.
 

JeffSFO (Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 21 Mar 15, 06:00Post
Tonight (March 20) I was using the Google Sky Map app to check something but then noticed that I missed quite a line-up just after sunset... {hissy}

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vikkyvik 22 Mar 15, 22:36Post
JeffSFO wrote:Tonight (March 20) I was using the Google Sky Map app to check something but then noticed that I missed quite a line-up just after sunset...


Ahhh, me too.

Crescent Moon and Venus will be about 4 degrees apart tonight.

Also, the nova in sagittarius is getting brighter:

http://www.universetoday.com/119511/nov ... naked-eye/
vikkyvik 23 Mar 15, 03:34Post
vikkyvik wrote:Crescent Moon and Venus will be about 4 degrees apart tonight.


I must say, that's quite a striking conjunction, even though they're not THAT close.

No photos from me, as it's too windy for decent tripod shots.
JeffSFO (Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 23 Mar 15, 04:12Post
vikkyvik wrote:
vikkyvik wrote:Crescent Moon and Venus will be about 4 degrees apart tonight.


I must say, that's quite a striking conjunction, even though they're not THAT close.

No photos from me, as it's too windy for decent tripod shots.


I'm fogged-in tonight so I'm SOL but thanks for the tip, Vik.
KFLLCFII 30 Mar 15, 01:54Post
Jupiter's moon Ganymede was faintly visible tonight with the naked eye, so I decided to grab the DSLR. I wasn't sure which one it was at first, but after a brief web search, I came across this website which tracks the current positions of the four brightest moons.

Here's my grab on the top, zoomed to a couple hundred percent and then rotated and marked, and below it is the current layout as depicted in the aforementioned site:

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vikkyvik 30 Mar 15, 04:24Post
KFLLCFII wrote:Jupiter's moon Ganymede was faintly visible tonight with the naked eye, so I decided to grab the DSLR. I wasn't sure which one it was at first, but after a brief web search, I came across this website which tracks the current positions of the four brightest moons.

Here's my grab on the top, zoomed to a couple hundred percent and then rotated and marked, and below it is the current layout as depicted in the aforementioned site:


Very nice. The amazing thing to me is how fast those 4 moons zip around Jupiter; the visible lineup changes significantly from one night to the next.
vikkyvik 07 Jun 15, 04:51Post
I've been idly watching Venus and Jupiter on their long march towards each other in the western sky over the last few months. As they're now within ~15 degrees of each other, I thought I should check how close they will pass by, and when that will be.

Well. June 30, this is what will be visible at about 9:15 in the western sky:

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Note that they're only about 20 minutes apart - as close as I can recall seeing two planets, never mind the two brightest.

Even better, as you can see, all 4 of the Galilean Moons will be visible that night.

Should be interesting!

Actually, it'll be worth checking out the previous day too - slightly farther apart, but Jupiter's moons will be nicely spread out:

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vikkyvik 28 Jun 15, 05:40Post
On their journey toward their approaching conjunction, Venus and Jupiter were about 2 degrees apart last night. Moons Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede also visible:

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JLAmber (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 28 Jun 15, 15:30Post
vikkyvik wrote:On their journey toward their approaching conjunction, Venus and Jupiter were about 2 degrees apart last night. Moons Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede also visible:



Very cool {thumbsup} I think they were visible here on Wednesday, I drove over the Pennines and there is so little light radiation up there that you could easily recognise Jupiter.
A million great ideas...
vikkyvik 30 Jun 15, 04:28Post
Unfortunately it's currently cloudy in the western sky here. Dammit, tonight was the night I was hoping to get photos, with Jupiter's moons nicely spread out.
JeffSFO (Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 30 Jun 15, 17:57Post
vikkyvik wrote:Unfortunately it's currently cloudy in the western sky here. Dammit, tonight was the night I was hoping to get photos, with Jupiter's moons nicely spread out.


I had forgotten all about this but saw them last night from my front door when I was on my way out. Grabbed my compact camera and popped off a few hand-held shots but had to leave it at that because I needed to get to the local grocery store before it closed.

Apologies for the poor quality and lack of perspective but it was fun to see them. If I have time tonight I'll set up the tripod and try again:

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vikkyvik 01 Jul 15, 06:22Post
Very cool, Jeff.

I had to go out earlier than I wanted to, as clouds were rolling in. Got the following photos:

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Stack of 7-or-so photos:

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Cropped in:

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Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 01 Jul 15, 09:13Post
Bada-bing bada-boom, those pics were awesome, Vik. Showed them to some family who were out gazing and they were very impressed. :)

Texted to a friend, too. She was out in the woods, though, and unable to see. Flippin' Montana.
JeffSFO (Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 03 Jul 15, 09:05Post
Great shots, Vik! I've been fogged-in every night since my meager attempt posted earlier. {boggled}
vikkyvik 06 Aug 15, 06:46Post
Perseids are apparently going on right now. Didn't realize it till I just saw an incredibly bright, slow-moving meteor. Bright greenish, with a faint orange-ish tail. Moving slow enough that the guy I was talking to said "hey, do you see that?" and I had time to look up and still catch it for a second before it disappeared behind the apartment building across the street.

Easily brighter than Venus.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 15 Sep 15, 13:32Post
How cool is this?! Earth and Moon both eclipsing the sun at the same time:

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_up ... _id=117504
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
vikkyvik 15 Sep 15, 19:56Post
ShanwickOceanic wrote:How cool is this?! Earth and Moon both eclipsing the sun at the same time:

http://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_up ... _id=117504


Say what? How does that happen?
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 15 Sep 15, 20:36Post
vikkyvik wrote:Say what? How does that happen?

You put a camera in space and hope it all lines up:

http://sdoisgo.blogspot.co.at/2015/09/a ... rtant.html
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
vikkyvik 15 Sep 15, 20:44Post
ShanwickOceanic wrote:
vikkyvik wrote:Say what? How does that happen?

You put a camera in space and hope it all lines up:

http://sdoisgo.blogspot.co.at/2015/09/a ... rtant.html


Ohhhh, I didn't realize SDO was the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Makes sense now.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 23 Sep 15, 14:12Post
The supermoon lunar eclipse will be visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa, western Asia and the eastern Pacific Ocean on the night of Sunday, Sept. 27.

http://www.space.com/30586-supermoon-lu ... hotos.html
My friend and I applied for airline jobs in Australia, but they didn't Qantas.
vikkyvik 28 Sep 15, 03:34Post
ShanwickOceanic wrote:
The supermoon lunar eclipse will be visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa, western Asia and the eastern Pacific Ocean on the night of Sunday, Sept. 27.

http://www.space.com/30586-supermoon-lu ... hotos.html


So I actually did about an hour of planning for this one, to decide exactly where I was going to go and what I was going to shoot, involving airplanes and the lunar eclipse.

Of course, it ended up being cloudy. And not totally overcast, so I could just go home. No, these were hazy, high, sorta-transparent clouds. {grumpy}

Anyway, I'll see in a few minutes if I was able to get anything decent.
vikkyvik 14 Oct 15, 06:11Post
This is very odd.

This exact same thing:

vikkyvik wrote:I just saw an incredibly bright, slow-moving meteor. Bright greenish, with a faint orange-ish tail. Moving slow enough that the guy I was talking to said "hey, do you see that?" and I had time to look up and still catch it for a second before it disappeared behind the apartment building across the street.


...just happened again. I mean literally, almost all the details were the same:

Same part of the sky, about the same trajectory, same bright green with orangish tail, same very slow speed (for a meteor), and disappeared just before it went behind the same apartment building across the street.

Only difference was this one was even brighter. There is some haze/clouds this evening, and it was still ridiculously bright with a very visible tail.

Oh, and this time I was talking to a different neighbor, and I was the one who spotted it and said "hey, check it out".
GQfluffy (Database Editor & Founding Member) 14 Oct 15, 13:22Post
Was the trajectory headed up or down? :))
Teller of no, fixer of everything, friend of the unimportant and all around good guy; the CAD Monkey
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 14 Oct 15, 16:12Post
Did you see if other people posted reports of it?

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GQfluffy (Database Editor & Founding Member) 14 Oct 15, 17:38Post
False.

It's Los Angeles.

There's no explaining Los Angeles.

I'm surprised he can see the night sky, much less the stars.
Teller of no, fixer of everything, friend of the unimportant and all around good guy; the CAD Monkey
 

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