Night Sightings

[Yellow Jacket]

You are welcome Mike. Really, I don't remember where I got that link from but thought someone on this board found it. BTW, that home page only shows Starlink satellites, but if you go to the left side you can scroll up or down to see other satellites like the ISS etc..   

[minimac]

When we're in Florida for the winter, I have a spot near our house to watch the rocket launches. Most of the Starlink launches are pretty neat, but the one to the space station was breath taking.  If I can figure out how to get it from my phone to the computer I'll try to post the one cool picture I was able to catch.
https://spacecoastlaunches.com/

[Maggie]

Look for Mercury tonight

[Yellow Jacket]

Thanks for that Maggie. I've not knowingly seen Mercury. Not much chance of it tonight either, but tomorrow night looks pretty good. I've have to leave the house though, can't see the western horizon from my yard.

[sailingskier]

Missed these potentially great sightings .......we had a cloudy spell..... again.
If nothing else I've learned through interests in astronomy ...it is that
you can almost be a successful gambler if betting on poor weather or
cloudy skies occurring at times when interesting things are happening
in the same skies.  Just makes seeing the events even more exciting.

Great chart Maggie ... thanks.

Mike

[sailingskier]

Thursday, June 10 was the morning of an annular solar eclipse - at sunrise.  In Halifax sunrise was at an un-Godly hour of 5:30.  Sad to say ...I was almost hoping for a rainy day ...as most days are for anything of interest happening in the sky.  But this was a perfect morning.  I loaded the Silverwing and proceeded to a pre-selected observation location.  Unfortunately a tree line kept the partially eclipsed sun hidden for 30 minutes after actual sunrise.  My location was at the end of a wharf next to a bench.  Unless you are really interested in watching an eclipse, as the moon crosses the sun, it may seem like watching paint dry.

However, thanks to the perfectly clear sky, this was an interesting venture.  Today, Theodore Tugboat is leaving Nova Scotia to take up life in Hamilton Ontario.  I expected crowds at this wharf or my chosen eclipse viewing because this is where Theodore has wintered.  In one of the pictures you can see
the tugboat's red cap, to the left.  Anyway, some  (too many?) pictures follow.  The last was a week ago while selecting a location for today.






























Mike

[jdbrot]

Very nice!

[Yellow Jacket]

Thanks for the post Mike. That's as close as I could get to the real thing. 100% clouds here plus I'm in the wrong part of the world to have seen it best.

[sailingskier]

It was a really early morning ...but worth it in the end, Vic.  Cloud is never a good thing when it blocks an event in the sky.

More cloud tonight but just enough to let me catch the new moon and Venus.  Luckily we have a good western sky at the edge of our property. I haven't really checked but I don't think the moon is much more than 36 hours old in this picture. Venus is to the upper left.  The exposure was short and I didn't have a tripod set for this ...therefore a shaky hand held picture.




Yes, the moon is in the picture ...lower right of center..

Mike

[Yellow Jacket]

Took me a little while but if I hold my computer screen just right I do see them. I have 0 view to the west. This time of the year in this location it is quite rare to have a clear sky. Usually anywhere from 30 to 90% rain every day.

[sailingskier]

I'll try again tonight Vic. Clear clear sky today  ...not a cloud in sight.  Venus won't be as close to the Moon but I'm anxious to get a better exposure setting on the moon.

Mike

[Maggie]

That's awesome, Mike!  Thanks for sharing.

[sailingskier]

Thanks Maggie,

Thinking after the eclipse, like so many other eclipse pictures which have used iconic backgrounds, such as the Statue of Liberty, the Toronto C N Tower, various bridges , an so on ....  it would have been nice to have the Peggy's Cove Light House as a background. (Well I guess ... more of a foreground.) But, other than photo-shop the only way to get a shot like that would have meant leaving home at 3 or 4 am.  And not knowing what the lay of the land is there now with all the destruction/construction going on  ...it could have been a fools mission. But it would have made for quite the picture.

Mike

[Yellow Jacket]

Don't be going on any fools mission.

[Yellow Jacket]

Heads up night sky lookers. Now through Aug. 24 Perseid meteor shower. I don't expect to see much here in WNC, but some of you might have better conditions.

[Yellow Jacket]

Wow!!, I can't believe how bad the smoke is here in Western NC, from fires 2000+ miles away on the west coast. Not as bad a NYC but it is here. You can just make out the profile of mountains that are only 10 miles away. Did a bit of internet searching and found that Canada also has many fires, even up in the Yukon.

[sailingskier]

You can really see the smoke effects at sunset here.  Last night after an afternoon of thunder and some of the heaviest rain fall I can remember, the humidity was less but the sun was quite red and almost obscured by the smoke.  The weather office had issued air quality warnings for Halifax.  If they had our rain at the fire sites ...it would be all but over.

Mike

[Yellow Jacket]

Finally we've had a few days of decent nighttime viewing but, unfortunately not a lot to see, just some space junk, spent rocket boosters, etc. So, the Chinese now have a maned space station which should be easy to spot. Any one seen it and how did you find it?   

[Maggie]

Jupiter and Saturn have been super bright this week


I'm not sure how to track China's Space Station Vic.  I'll have to research that one.

[sailingskier]

Vic,  Go to Heavens-Above.com and Tiangong is listed just below the ISS in the left menu.  This is set for my location in N'S.

https://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx?lat=44.729&lng=-63.6818&loc=Bedford&alt=90&tz=AST  But when in the site you can set your location easily.

Click on the location  (Bedford) in the box to the upper left and this brings a new page used to select your location.
 When on this page scroll down below the map and you will see the block to type in your location.  This will bring up a selection of places and select the right one for you.  Then click on the UPDATE button  below to select this location.  Then once all set to go you will find on the home page a menu to the left with many items to keep you busy looking skyward.

Tomorrow morning ( for me) at 5:41 it is only 40° in the South  and at 1.7Mag ...which isn't terribly bright ...but visible.

Once on the page for the station you will see a chart of data.  Click on the date in the block of info and this brings the sky map of where the track is in the sky.  But click on the Ground Track at the top of the page and this shows where to look relative to your location.

Hope this helps,

Mike

[Yellow Jacket]

Moon and Venus tonight. Jupiter and Saturn also visible but not can't get a decent picture.
Just now realized I forgot to attach picture with this post. 

[sailingskier]

On Nov 19 ...in the early morning don't forget about the lunar partial eclipse.  Only 2 seconds shorter than the next longest partial eclipse...back in 1440.
Not sure how much visible in your area, Vic, but we should see quite a bit before sunrise in NS; a middle of the night event. However the weather looks bad for mid week here.

Mike

[Maggie]

I have my alarm set!!

[Yellow Jacket]

Don't think I'll able to see it for the clouds and probably wouldn't get up anyway. Don't want to get up at 3 am and go out in freezing weather in my undies. Note, I just put up a photo on my Nov. 7 post. Sorry, forgot the photo the first time.   

[Maggie]

Lunar Eclipse 3:03am
It had a tad more reddish hue than my camera would pick up.

[sailingskier]

Nice shot Maggie !!

Nothing here but clouds for the eclipse.

Mike

[Yellow Jacket]

little cloudy tonight but still able to see the ISS, Hubble, and the Chinese space station.

[jdbrot]

Wonder how long it takes for Russia to scuttle the ISS. Guess that view won't be here in the near future.

[CelticCross]

little cloudy tonight but still able to see the ISS, Hubble, and the Chinese space station.

And just like Hubble, will it take some time before we see pictures?

[sailingskier]

It has been a while since I looked up ....  So much cloud lately ....

And tonight, May 15/16 some of us might see a really dark lunar eclipse.  And once again Nova Scotia has cloud and slight showers lined up.  So, in order to see any of the eclipse I will be watching the NASA TV live stream....maybe.  Just not the same as looking up.  I had the camera, telescope, and telephoto all set to press into action ...but  this won't happen here.

I hope the rest of you will enjoy clear skies because this promises to be an eclipse not to be forgotten.

And, the thing is ..... the past week has seen a good stretch of clear weather.  Yesterday and Friday broke weather temperature records dating back to 1870's !!  It was 27 C .  Today we are back to 12C.

Hope you see the eclipse!
Mike