I got up early (3:15 AM CDT) to watch the Perseids. The sky was clear and even though I'm in town it was dark enough that I could see M31 (the Andromeda galaxy) with the naked eye (or could if I didn't need glasses). This morning is not the real peak of the Perseids. That's tomorrow morning. But this morning was close and had good weather. I ( Read more... )

Tonight is nearly the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, so if you have good weather and reasonably dark skies you might want to stay up a bit later, or get up much earlier to see them.

There is a mnemonic for remembering the order of nine planets. Going outward from the sun, it is: My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. With the current contested definition of a planet excluding Pluto, that would no longer apply and so a new mnemonic is needed.

In an editorial in the November 2006 Sky & Telescope, Richard Tresch ( Read more... )

Of the two recent definitions of (major) planet, I find I don't really mind either one. The first one, which would have made Pluto and Charon a double planet system, returned planet status to Ceres, and made planets of a few objects not yet formally named was reasonable. That it would make planets of a good many things bothered some, but it was ( Read more... )

A new icon from verypinkygirl. Hopefully I'll have plenty reason to use it. Thank you, verypinkygirl!

I was up, for a few minutes anyway, early enough to see jmaynard just as he left on his way to his second appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel live show. I think I was more nervous about his appearance than he was.

That evening I recall being rather tired but not napping, determined to stay up and see if I could spot comet NEAT* since it was in an easy-to-find ( Read more... )

The trip to Houston for Christmas week went fairly well. jmaynard summed it up here.

Didn't do anything special for New Year's Eve. Nothing unusual there. If anything, I'd stay up till the year changed and then get some sleep. Spending the later evening at home keeps the probability of dealing with those who drink to excess down.

New Year's Day wasn't ( Read more... )

It was mostly clear last night so the eclipse was visible. Drove south of town and watched the moon emerge from some clouds and slowly slip into the umbra. A nice quiet, relaxing time - aside from the odd car going by and the light that came with that. The fully eclipsed moon seemed darker and less orange than I recall from other lunar eclipses. I ( Read more... )

As detailed in http://skyandtelescope.com/aboutsky/pressreleases/article_946_1.asp

There will be a full lunar eclipse Thursday night. Things start at 8:05 PM (CDT) when the moon enters the penumbra - but that doesn't dim things very much. At 9:03 PM ( Read more... )