Astronomy Toadfish Nerds Unite!

[anthrobabe]

I wonder if the dog'll wanna be dragged out for a late-night walk.

In my experience cheese will help the dog decide-- usually a YES

[Opsa]

Psssttt... my better half and I watched last night between 11 and midnight and we saw over a dozen shooting stars, some with lasting trains... and that wasn't even on peak night- which is tonight!

Pick up extra cheese and go look tonight!

I think that the show may start as early as 10 p.m.

[Alpaca]

10 PM Eastern?

[Opsa]

Yes!

Most Perseids I've previously spotted have been in the after 2 a.m. time period, when I'm in danger of dozing off.

The new moon really helps, if you don't have much cloud cover. I'm going to be out looking again tonight.

[Aggie]

We saw a number of meteors, some quite large, last night around midnight.  Even managed to get out to the edge of the city and walk out in the Provincial Park, so the light pollution wasn't too bad.

As a side note, I was overjoyed to see the Milky Way, as it's been some time since I've seen our galaxy.

I doubt I'll get a clear view tonight, as I'll be stuck downtown. 

[Alpaca]

It will be very difficult to get a clear view tonight - damn "upscale communities" are polluted with pretentious street lamps everywhere.

[Aggie]

Lunar eclipse coming up tomorrow for North America...  does anyone have details on time/direction?

[Opsa]

Cool! Thanks for the heads-up!

According to my Astronomy Nerd Calendar for 2007, it will happen in the middle of the night and set while it is still in eclipse. If I can't sleep, I'll go take a look around 3 a.m. while it's fully eclipsed. Apparently it's an extra long one this time.

More here: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/lunar.html

Edit: I found a time table. I guess it won't be starting here until almost daybreak. http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2007Aug28/TLE2007Aug28.html

[Aggie]

So that's about 4 a.m. here.  Hmm...  might be worth a look if I remember to set the alarm.

And it's tonight, right?  Always need to double-check dates when it's in the early AM...

[Opsa]

Technically tomorrow, August 28th, but early in the morning, in what we might call tonight's nighttime hours.

I love lunar eclipses. Eclipsi? I saw one several decades ago that was full at sunset and it was an amazing sight. The sky was soft shell pink and the moon was bright copper. The colors swore at eachother in a most fascinating way. This one could be like that just before dawn.

[Alpaca]

I'm getting up sometime after 6 Eastern for school. I'll take a peek and see if I can't catch it.

[Bluenose]

It starts at about 7:30 PM Melbourne time.  (In about 3 1/2 hours from now)  If it is clear enough and my camera can take a good enough photo (don't have a very long lense, but it is reasonably high pixel count) I wil post a picci up here.

[ivor]

This eclipse is cool!  I wish I had a decent camera.

Five minutes ago I was looking at the eclipse and a meteor fell straight down in front of the moon.  That was very cool.  Did anybody else see it?

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

Five minutes ago I was looking at the eclipse and a meteor fell straight down in front of the moon.  That was very cool.  Did anybody else see it?

Missed the meteor - I got up too late.

I tried for something new: I took shots of the eclipse at 2-minute intervals.  Hopefully they turned out, especially since I couldn't really tell where my camera was aiming in the dark.  Assuming I don't just have 30 shots of my neighbor's roof, I'll post something once I've checked them out and fiddled with them.

BTW - does anyone here have the software to make a whole whack of JPEGs into some sort of movie format, maybe slide show style?  That might be cool for this.

[Aggie]

Missed the meteor.  But I did get lucky with the eclipse...  woke up with about 2/3 eclipsed, and discovered that I could see it very well from my bed if I opened the blinds.  Kind of drifted in and out until total eclipse, then fell asleep.