Astronomy Group

[Ocean Girl]

Check out Jupiter! Next good view will be in 2022.
SPACE.com -- By Jove! Jupiter to Make Closest Approach to Earth Until 2022
Cheers,
Erika

[mintyspilot]

Never mind Jupiter. 2.5 degrees north of Jupiter is a dim green star. That is the planet Uranus. It's about magnitude 6 and is visible in binoculars. Uisng 7x50 binos ( with a 7 degree field of view) If you put Jupiter in the centre of the field of view, Uranus will be the dim star about 2/3 of the way from the centre to the edge.

Uranus Finder Map

[Ocean Girl]

Cool! Thanks Minty
E

[SuddenVibe]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

What would make a watch speed forward?

Erika

There was an experiment with a space mission where they had 2 precision time pieces synced up... Left one on earth and sent one into space... According to the clocks time passed significantly differently... Position to the earth shouldn't cause it but the differences in forces (gravity, magnetism, etc) would be more likely to cause the change... In the triangles there is known anomalies with energy and magnetism... I would put my money on you sailed through some type of a magnetic discharge from the earth... Think solar but energy from the earth... YouTube has loads of videos on this stuff...

S/V Joyen's Dream

[hummingway]

I'm not sure you're serious but gravity bends space/time as predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. With an accurate enough measurement of time, as with an atomic clock, at differing gravities we see less time has passed under a stronger gravity field. Magnetism might affect an electric watch but not space/time. The difference in the rate of time from an earth orbit to the surface of the earth isn't measurable with a wrist watch and there is nothing on earth that will cause a measurable change in the passage of time.

[SuddenVibe]

Originally Posted by hummingway

I'm not sure you're serious but gravity bends space/time as predicted by Einstein's theory of relativity. With an accurate enough measurement of time, as with an atomic clock, at differing gravities we see less time has passed under a stronger gravity field. Magnetism might affect an electric watch but not space/time. The difference in the rate of time from an earth orbit to the surface of the earth isn't measurable with a wrist watch and there is nothing on earth that will cause a measurable change in the passage of time.

Actually there is a noticeable difference in time... Approx 5-7 minutes on a shuttle launch... See it on YouTube! Magnetism is stronger than gravity... I've never had a dead battery speed my watch up like that. Now there are 2 theories eh...
Low battery
Magnetism in the triangle, maybe a boost of juice to the watch eh...

S/V Joyen's Dream

[SuddenVibe]

Originally Posted by hummingway

there is nothing on earth that will cause a measurable change in the passage of time.

I agree with you 100% and I just realized that we are talking about different things... I'm talking about a watch reading... Not bending of space-time with Einstein and newton...

S/V Joyen's Dream

[GordMay]

Perseid Shower 2023:
The Perseids, one of the biggest meteor showers we can see, occur every year, in the late summer.
Meteor showers happen when the Earth moves through fields of debris, floating around in space. The Perseids come from comet Swift-Tuttle [109P], a big ball of ice and rock, that sheds pieces of dusty debris, as it orbits around the sun. When the Earth passes by, those bits get caught in our atmosphere, and burn up, creating the streaking lights. The Perseids get their name from the constellation Perseus, because the meteors’ paths appear to start out, from this point in the sky [the radiant]. The average speed, for a Perseid meteor, is ±36 miles per second [±130,00 mph]. The air in front of the meteor is squashed, and heated to thousands of degrees Celsius. The smaller meteors vaporise, and leave behind a bright trail of light. Larger meteors can explode as fireballs.

This year’s [2023] Perseid Shower is already active [began ±July 17], but the main event will be this weekend [August 12 - 13], when the shower reaches its peak, from Saturday night, into Sunday morning.

During this weekend’s peak, the moon will be a waning crescent; just a small slice in the sky. That’s good news, because a bright moon can make it harder to spot the meteors. Last year, the moon was full, during the peak.

Anyone in the Northern Hemisphere [and down to the mid-southern latitudes] will have a good view this year, as long as the sky is clear of light pollution, and clouds. You don’t need any equipment to see them, but you will need to give your eyes around half an hour, to adjust to the dark. Avoid looking at your cellphone, or the moon, since that can ruin your night vision.

The Perseids can appear anywhere in the sky. So just lie on your back, look away from the moon, and take in as much sky as you can. On average, you might expect to see up to 100 meteors per hour, during the Perseid's peak.

Skywatchers, looking out for the Perseids, might also be treated to some stray meteors, from the southern delta Aquariid meteor shower, which peaked in late July. Though the southern delta Aquariids are best viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, they can sometimes be visible, to those in the mid-latitudes, in the Northern Hemisphere.

The UK’s National Schools Observatory [NSO] provides a great overview of meteor showers, and how to plan your meteor spotting.
NSO ➥ https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/l...ghtsky/meteors

[AKA-None]

Key words light pollution

[JPA Cate]

Good sightings offshore in Australia, in the past. Probably not tonight here in Tasmania because of the frontal passage and associated cloud.

Ann

[GordMay]

Perseus rises in the east, tonight, at roughly 10 p.m. local time, but the peak of the meteor shower lasts the entire night.

The best time to catch the most meteors [± 1/minute] is in the early hours of Sunday morning [Aug. 13] , before the sun rises.

However, if you're not a night owl, you could still be in for a treat Saturday night. That's because, although the radiant will be low on the eastern horizon, at around 10 p.m., the Perseids tend to do something spectacular.

You can see grazing meteors, meteors that are coming in at very low entry angle, and they sweep over the whole sky. And they're some of the most spectacular things you'll see, because they last [a few tenths of a second], but they stream over a huge part of the sky. So, that's sort of the intro’ to the fireworks, and then it sort of ramps up throughout the night, and it'll just get progressively better, right through until dawn.

How many can you expect? Western University launched its new Perseids meteor monitoring website [1], which allows the public to get a better idea.

Most meteor showers produce anywhere from five to 50 meteors an hour, under ideal conditions [clear, moonless skies with the radiant overhead], referred to as the ZHR Zenithal Hourly Rate [ZHR]. But there are a few, including the Perseids, that can produce 100 to 150 meteors an hour.

The website [1] gives an idea of the ZHR over a 24–hour period. But, for city-dwellers in particular, you might cut that number in half.
It'll probably be one every three or four minutes [or five minutes]. So it's not going to be a lot. But you'll see the brighter ones.

[1] “Meteor shower activity level” ~ Western University, NASA, & the Global Meteor Network
➥ https://globalmeteornetwork.org/flux/

[GordMay]

[CaptTom]

Forecast here is for mostly cloudy tonight.

We sat out for a while last night around 10. Lots of mist but directly overhead there was a relatively clear area. Watched planes and satellites for a while. Saw a couple of small blips which might have been shooters.

Then, suddenly, a very bright meteor with a nice, sparling trail streaked across the whole of the overhead clearing.

The odd thing was that it was moving more or less North to South. At that time the radiant should have been well to the East. Cassiopeia, Polaris and the Big Dipper were clearly visible, so no problem knowing which way was North. The origin seemed to be no more than 020 degrees true.

[GordMay]

Check out this video of meteors captured in prime, dark skies over Idaho overnight Saturday.
➥ https://weather.com/science/space/vi...its-peak-night

[GordMay]

August 31, the Supermoon will be back, for the third time this year, but with two amazing bonuses: it will be the largest full Moon of 2023, and will be a so-called “Blue Moon”, the 2nd full Moon of a given month.
This will be the closest full moon of the year, just ±222,043 miles away.

As a bonus, Saturn will be visible, as a bright point ,5 degrees to the upper right of the moon, at sunset, in the east-southeastern sky, according to NASA. The ringed planet will appear to circle clockwise around the moon as the night wears on.

“The 31 Aug. Blue Supermoon: online observation” – 31 Aug. 2023, at 3:30 UTC
➥ https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/