729 replies to this topic

[Savannah]

The Leonids. I went out at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and the sky was, amazingly enough, clear. (I'd fallen asleep the night before at 9 p.m., resulting in the early rising.) However, I didn't see any. By 7:00 a.m. it was overcast and about to rain. Again.

[Rob Randall]

I was at Lake Cowichan Saturday night and saw a very bright satellite tracking across the sky. I also saw a very faint point of light following closely behind it. I had never seen satellites in parallel before so later I Google-Newsed "Soyuz" on a hunch and sure enough, earlier that night a Russian space freighter had been launched to dock with the International Space Station so that explained the two fast-moving dots of light.

It was very cool to watch that happen. My girlfriend saw a slow-moving streak of light earlier and I wonder if it was a meteorite or the expended stage from the Soyuz rocket launch.

[Hotel Mike]

There is also a list of the times you can see the International Space Station from the Victoria area. It can be found at: http://spaceflight.n...a&city=Victoria

[North Shore]

^ Great site! I love using it so i can take my 4 year old outside to look at a 'rocketship'.

[Savannah]

And the times are astoundingly accurate. It's always been right where it's supposed to be. Good viewing over the past week or so.

[Mike K.]

For those of you with an iPhone or iPad, download the Pocket Universe applet.

It simulates the night sky over any location in the world (you hold the phone up and pan around to line up the nights sky with the applets simulator) and identifies exactly what you are seeing/helps you find what you're looking for. It also includes links to info on satellites and other man-made objects visible to us.

It's worth every penny

[sebberry]

Good 6 min long sighting of the ISS tonight if you're lucky enough to be facing North ish.

Lots of shorter sightings coming up:

http://spaceflight.n...a&city=Victoria

[Mike K.]

The bright object in the sky is the planet Venus as I see it from my bedroom window. With a telescope you can clearly see the crest of sunlight on the surface of the planet which really gives it a mini-moon appearance.

Venus is the second brightest object in our night sky after the moon.

[Mike K.]

Tonight at sundown we'll get to see a spectacular celestial event -- the transit of planet Venus.

What will happen is Venus, roughly the same size as Earth, will pass between Earth and the setting sun. Venus will appear as a black speck traveling across the sun's surface.

If you have a telescope there are filters you can purchase that allow you to view these events without damaging your eyesight. You will be able to see this with your naked eye but of course you can only view it for very brief moments at a time. The weather is expected to cooperate by sunset despite the foggy and rainy start to the day.

Great spots to take this in include The Cairn in Esquimalt, Mt. Tolmie or the summit of Mount Doug.

[VicHockeyFan]

^ I think you're off by a few days.

http://en.wikipedia...._of_Venus,_2012

Anyway, won't happen again until 2117, so lucky Mike K. got the date early, rather than late eh?

Someone really missed the boat on sponsorship of this though. In 2117 it'll be called the Transit of Venus past the Chinese Sun©, brought to you by China National Nuclear & Petroleum Corporation.

[Mike K.]

Wow, an article I had read stated "today" instead of "Tuesday." I see that has since been corrected.

Nevertheless, I'd pluck myself down at a suitable viewing spot several days early just to secure a good vantage point. You can thank me later.

[VicHockeyFan]

Venus yesterday.

Doug Clement Photography on Facebook.

[Mike K.]

Here's a close-up shot of Venus' transit taken by a Japanese satellite. Apparently the slight ring around Venus that you can just barely make out is the planet's atmosphere!



Photo courtesy of: http://www.bydio.com...ng-its-transit/

[Savannah]

So... who's watching the Perseids tonight? And if you are, where is your favourite dark (but safe!) site?

Need answer fast! (Or in about 2 hours!)

[G-Man]

Moss Rock is awesome.

[Baro]

I had a great time on the rocks just below the lookout on Gonzales hill. Saw an awesome one that exploded and split into 3 pieces!!

[Holden West]

We went to the Saanich Fair today and some astronomy buffs had some telescopes out aimed at the Sun. Apparently we're experiencing some intense solar flare activity and sure enough, you could actually see the flares ejected from the Sun's surface through the telescopes. The Sun was a red disk against a black sky due to the strong filters. One telescope set up to project sunspots on paper had no filtering and the operator placed a stick of wood in front of the eyepiece and it immediately started smoking, the rays were so intense.

[sebberry]

NASA captures stunning sun eruption

[sebberry]

Several good ISS sightings coming up over the next few days here. Scroll down past HTV4 sightings: http://spotthestatio...a&city=Victoria

We were just sitting down on the patio at The Keg tonight when I looked up and said "Hey, that looks like ISS". Friends thought I was nuts and suggested it was an airplane. I quickly whipped out my BlackBerry and looked online (Yes, BlackBerrys go online) at the sightings, and sure enough it was ISS.

Saw it just by chance as a couple of minutes earlier we were at a different table and I wouldn't have been looking towards it.

[VicHockeyFan]

 

Douglas Gradecki - Any reports of a fireball in the sky, heading SW into the sunset? We just saw something BIG over the distant Olympics, from East Sooke. Exciting and perplexing!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Douglas Gradecki - actual photo from this afternoon - "One of the pics I took a bit before 5pm tonight. This is what I am asking about."