Aug 22,2016

Was out of town for most of the weekend so no Sunday post.

Not much happening other than it remains hot but we have had a little rain and water levels are beginning to recover.There's still a long way to go to reach normal.

Low water levels in the Petite Riviere.Quite easy to see on the rocks where the water levels are normally. 

This week's forecast:

Haven't been doing very much sky shooting...too many clouds but did catch one lonely meteor.

A few things to look for this week if conditions permit:

Have a great week !!

Al

Getting back to normal + Perseids

The weather is starting to return  to normal and we have had a little rain.It's good to see that the hot and humid weather is behind us but for how long? There's more heat moving this way from the central US so time will tell.
All in all,this week appears to be within the normal range for August.

Sky conditions were favorable a few nights last week to photograph the Perseids ,the ISS and some Iridium flares.There were a few very bright meteors spotted and lots of dimmer ones.There has been some controversy over what is a meteor and what is not.Here's a little explanation:

'It's really not that difficult to determine what is a meteor and what isn't meteor to an observer.Meteors usually move extremely fast and disappear quickly.Planes are much slower and usually have blinking navigational lights.Here they generally travel from east to west or vice versa.The ISS is seen as one solid dot of light and is much slower than a meteor.The ISS always rises from a westerly direction...it can be anything from SW to NW, but it's always seen coming into view from the western part of the sky.Iridium flares start as a small,fairly fast moving, dot of light and,after the 'flaring',it returns to being a small moving dot while fading to below the visibility level.Iridium flares are seen travelling N to S or vice versa since the Iridium satellites are polar orbiting which means that they traverse the earth from pole to pole in a continuous loop.Visible ISS passes and Iridium flares are predictable and listed ,location specific,via various apps and websites ( Heavens-Above for one) .Meteor showers are almost always predictable as to their general sky location but where any one meteor will appear at any given moment is basically unpredictable.'

Hopefully this will help night sky viewers / photographers.

So....here's a few pics I took last week:

Two frame composite of the ISS and an Iridium flare.Both were  visible within minutes of each other with the flare being first.

                                                               A small Perseid meteor.

Prior to the photo of the meteor in the pic below,this 'debris was spotted.

The three most common night sky objects for August.

........and just for fun,the Moon....

If the skies are clear this week,here's a few things to look for:

Have a great week!!

-Al

Remaining hot and dry

      The hot,dry weather continues here and water levels are reaching critical levels.There has also been some forest fires,thankfully most were in uninhabited areas.There are still two burning nearby and north of here.Last report they were both about 70% contained.
      We need rain.Last night some areas received some heavy showers along with thunder and lightning but there was only a few drops at my location.
       According to the official forecast and the weather models,there doesn't appear to be any rain or cooler weather anytime this week.

Did get out to do some astrophotography over the past week.Here are some images taken nearby.

The crescent Moon and Jupiter conjunction.at full 200mm zoom.

The Milky Way

Weak Northern Lights from the outburst early last week.

Some things to look for this week.By the way,the Perseid meteor shower is forecast to be the best in years with a possibility of 200 meteors visible per hour.

Have a great week.
- Al

Still hot and dry

Just put another week of hot weather behind us and there's more on the way....plus,we are in serious need of a good soaking rain here.According to the models,the temps will be slightly lower this week but there's no possibility of rain until late in the week.

For those of us that are into astrophotography and astronomy,we've had a few nights last week to enjoy clear skies.Last night in particular was spectacular...the best one of the week!

We're also seeing evening ISS passes once again here.To find out when it's visible in your area I recommend using either ISS Tracker for android devices or the Heavens Above website on a computer.

Here's a few pics I took over the past week:

Some things to look for this week as posted on Star Date :

Have a great week

- Al

A little of this and that

The hot weather continues....and even though we had a few showers here yesterday,it remains very dry.There's not a whole lot of improvement coming this week other than it may possibly cool to more seasonable temperatures....saying this as I type at almost noon and it's currently +25°C  / 77.5°F on my weather station's readout.
So....here's the forecast for this week:

and the expected sky conditions :

I did do some sky imaging over the past week when the clouds were not an issue.

Here's a few pics of some 'flaring' objects:

So...if it's clear,here's a few things to look for in the night sky:

That's all for now.Have a great week.

Al

Hot !

It's been very hot here over the past week.Daytime highs have been in the 30°C range and the humidity from the Atlantic has been high.Luckily for us here on the coast ,the ocean breezes help to cool it down at night so no issues with getting a good night's sleep here.
More of the same is expected this week with only a few chances of some slight precip so I would expect that the camp fire bans will soon be re-instituted.

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There's not a whole lot going on in the night sky at present...just a few Iridium flares,some early morning space station passes and the odd,stray meteor.The full moon is on the 19th so seeing the dimmer objects is not easy in the moonlight.

Iridium flare ,July 13th

Last night's almost full moon through the trees.

Things to look for this week if you have clear night time skies:

All for now.

- Al

A couple of clear nights in a row! (photos)

Finally!! Clear nights in succession and warm temps.
Had the cameras snapping away and picked up a few objects.All were taken July 13th with the cameras pointed East ,first 2 are early morning ,the rest are late night:

Unknown object - possible meteor or space junk

Close up of the fist shot

Iridium satellite 96 flaring (A-610)

Iridium satellite 59 flaring (Canon EOS XS)

Iridium satellite 96 flaring (Canon EOS XS)