Perseid Meteor Shower and Three Planets Align (Almost)

If you enjoy checking out the night sky, you should wander outside and take a peak this evening. Tonight, around 11 pm. up until early morning should be ideal viewing conditions for the Perseid Meteor shower. Since the moon will be in a crescent, the light interference should be minimal. If you live in a dark, rural area with minimal light interference, you could see up to 100 meteors per hour! Even if you do live where there is more lights about, you can still be in for a pretty cool show. Look toward the Northeast sky to enjoy the show.

You can also see the planets Mars, Venus and Saturn line up, sort of. They will be all together in a cluster in the western/southwestern sky. Look toward the moon to find them. They should be right above its crescent.

Sky Watch-December 24th, 2008

It's Christmas Eve and I am in pain because I ate tooooo much! I am sure I am not the only one suffering from the evils of well-meaning relatives who enjoy stuffing others full of food. Since many of you may not be able to handle a hike, but can surely waddle outside and look up, here is what the night sky should look like. You can see Mercury, Venus and Jupiter if you look toward the Southwest around 40 minutes after sunset. Get outside for a bit and enjoy!

Alien Encounter or Space Shuttle ??!!

While visiting Goose Pond Sunday, Don Gorney noticed a large satellite-like object moving across the sky. He remarked that it might be the space shuttle. I joked that it might be aliens.

And, sure enough, it was aliens! No, not really. Don went home and confirmed it was the space shuttle and station. Here in Indianapolis, there are a few more opportunities to view it. Click on the link below to find out the times to view the shuttle.

http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_States&region=Indiana&city=Indianapolis

Do you live in another area? You can click this link and put in your country, state, and city and find the best viewing times. Just go under the heading Sighting Opportunities on the left side of the screen and put in your location.

http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/

While out there at Goose Pond, where there is very little light pollution, we grabbed the opportunity and looked at some of the other stars and planets in the sky. Don shared this great website, Sky and Telescope, that describes what one can see in the sky each night. This week, Jupiter and Venus are almost in alignment. Click on the link below to see what is happening in the night sky each week.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance/

Happy viewing and Happy Thanksgiving!