You should go outside and watch the Leonid meteor shower tonight (Friday Nov. 16, 2012). It will produce many more shooting stars than the normal 6-10 per hour, and if we’re lucky, it’ll be a one-per-second show. It all depends on the density of the stream that the Earth is passing through (see the link). …
Category Archives: Astronomy
Plutopia!
One month from today is the 2nd anniversary of Pluto’s demotion from Planet status to lowly Dwarf Planet/Kuiper Belt Object. I’m thinking of doing a blog carnival, or having guest bloggers on board that day for a random series of tributes to our favorite solar body named after a Disney Character. Any takers?
"Why I Read Blogs" -or- "Wicked Stuff!"
I have a feedreader, appropriately named Feedreader, which serves up to me on a daily basis a stew of random stuff. Some of this is fluff, some is interesting, some is funny, some is crap, and some is so freaking cool, that I have to pass it along to you. The reason why I get …
Awesome Astronomy, Terrible Reporting
This morning, I was alerted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution (reg. req’d) that a Georgia State University astronomy program on Mt. Wilson, in California, had imaged the surface of Altair, a sun-sized star that is one of the brightest in the northern sky. This is cool because it’s the first time a star this size …
Big Kaboom! Massive Star Goes Nova
The NY Times reports that the most massive supernova every observed occurred last September. Better information available at Space.com. The NY Times waters down the science, as usual. I haven’t been keeping up on my Blog Tracking or this wouldn’t be a surprise to me. This supernova is particularly cool because it does not fall …
Galactic Faerie Lights
If you don’t like fantastic wondrous phenomenal things, do not click on this link.
Pluto, redux?
Well! As posted here, and here, I’ve been talking about this whole “Planet” thing. Now there’s more development. Apparently the IAU is revising their revised revision again, and might eliminate Pluto from the planet list, dropping back to the 8 “classical” planets, and number all other bodies that would have previously been called “planet” into …
We've got 12 Planets!
It’s official! The voting membership of the IAU has accepted the draft definition of “Planet.” This means that we’ve got three new planets, with many many more to come. Ceres, the planet formerly known as an asteroid, takes the coveted fifth planet position away from Jupiter. Charon, the planet formerly known as Pluto’s satellite, is …
Pluto, Plutons, Plutonium, Plutae?
The International Astronomical Union has posted a draft definition of “planet” that will serve to define our solar system and all others for all time! Well, not exactly, as Phil Plait over at badastronomy.com points out quite well. The rules boil down thus: 1) It’s got to be big enough to be spherical due to …
Summer Solstice
Tomorrow is the summer solstice, known as the first day of summer to Americans. Why do we call this the first day of summer? Weather-wise, it’s more like the end of the first third of summer. Oh well… I trolled for some Solstice Superstitions. Most of them hark to druidish type things, and were too …