Astonomy Picture of the Day 8/13/02

NASA ^ | 8/13/02 | Sebastian Gauthier Astrolab du Parc Du Mont-Megantic

[sleavelessinseattle]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2002 August 13

Contemplating the Sky
Credit & Copyright: Sebastien Gauthier (Astrolab du Parc du Mont-Megantic)

Explanation: Have you contemplated your sky recently? Last night was a good one for midnight meditators at many northerly locations as meteors from the Perseid meteor shower frequently streaked through. The Perseid meteor shower has slowly been building to a crescendo but should continue to be rewarding tonight and into the week. Pictured above on August 1, a group of celestial sightseers near Quebec, Canada are treated to a dark and wondrous night sky that contained bright stars, green auroras, the band of our Milky Way galaxy, a majestic Moon rising, the International Space Station slowly gliding by, and the occasional flash of a Perseid meteor.

Although no meteors were caught in this frame, the Big Dipper remained quite prominent.

[sleavelessinseattle]

BE SURE to click on the Milky Way shot...Granted it was an APOD of yore, but its worth visiting again via tonight's APOD DESPITE a rather humdrum main graphic...PLEASE don't shoot the HTML EDITOR!!!8-O...But its open season on his broken links! Fire away FReepers!(That means politely point out errors!)
BTW, Thank You ALL for your support of APOD!
BR
SS

[sleavelessinseattle]

APOD PING!
Many nice links, sort of a Celestial Pot Pourri!

[sleavelessinseattle]

Astronomy Fun Fact!
You probably already have visited the Asterism link activated by clicking on The Big Dipper above...BUT
If you scroll down the list of asterisms you arrive at the
Coal Sack...Which is described as a dark spot on the Milky Way in the Constellation Crux. African Bushmen independently coined the area as the "old BAG"...Which BEGs the question...what do they think of the Female Senator from New York?

[kayak]

I have some questions I hope someone who sees this can answer. First, let me state that I am not an Art Bell think-alike ....... *grins*

Tonight hubby and I were out on our deck for a few minutes and noticed what at first appeared to be an airplane quite high up so it was just a tiny speck of light. As I watched it, it soon became obvious that it was not a jet.

It's movement was somewhat erratic ..... it would seem to almost stop; then it would move ahead in little spurts; and then would seem to move straight ahead again. Although generally heading in a southwest direction, it did not move in a straight line but sometimes meandered a little. We watched it for over 10 minutes and in that time it had traveled possibly 15-20 degrees across the night sky.

Could this possibly have been the ISS? Has anyone seen it to know how it "behaves" when crossing the sky? Any other ideas what this might have been?

This was at about 10:30 p.m. EDT in south-central NC.

[kayak]

LOL!!!

[sleavelessinseattle]

Hi Kayak! I'm sorry I'm just the sub, but I think if you dig into this sight you'll be able to determine EXACTLY where in the sky the ISS would be from your location...Let us know how it works out! BR SS WWW.Heavens-above.com

[sleavelessinseattle]

*sigh...sight should = site. Oh well...My cats are still impressed with my ability to produce catnip out of a jar. I suppose that will have to do as a source of self esteem!

[mtngrl@vrwc]

African Bushmen independently coined the area as the "old BAG"...Which BEGs the question...what do they think of the Female Senator from New York?

ROTFLALALAL!

I checked out the Milky Way link and was just mesmerized by the photo there. Comet Hyakutake on one side and The Large Magellanic Cloud on the other! What a fabulous picture!

Perfect thread tonight, Sleaveless!

[mtngrl@vrwc]

Could this possibly have been the ISS? Has anyone seen it to know how it "behaves" when crossing the sky?

I saw the International Space Station when the space shuttle was hooked up with it a month or so ago. I found a schedule which showed exactly when it was expected to travel over where I live and what direction it would be traveling so I am certain that is what it was.

When I saw it, it traveled from the northwest towards the southeast. It wasn't visible until it was about five degrees above the horizon. Then it brightened quickly and it continued to brighten until it was really bright when it was straight overhead. It got less bright as it traveled farther along and disappeared when it got to within five degrees or so from the horizon.

I didn't time it but would say that it took about five minutes to travel clear across the sky. I didn't notice that it moved in an erratic fashion. It moved quite steadily.

I will see if I can find that site that gave the ISS's schedule so we can know for sure, but I would think it wasn't what you saw. Could be wrong though. ;-)

[formerDem]

Per your advice, I checked out the milky way photo. Bee-yoo-tee-ful!

Thanks!

[sleavelessinseattle]

I bow to your compliment...but mostly SO glad I got a public jab in at that...That...non celestial OBJECT! Looking for you tomorrow Mtn Gal!!! I abjectly beg the indulgence of Loyal APOD watchers for my lack of political forebearance!

[sleavelessinseattle]

Ain't space grand? Glad you saw it! If anyone EVER wants to find a mountain top that has zero light pollution around it, I'll be happy to talk you in to Slate Peak in the Paseyten Wilderness in the Cascades of WA STATE...I've lain out on the TOP of a mountain and watched the Milky Way turn overhead like a giant clock...You haven't lived till you've spent a night dozing and watching your planet spin against the sky...all I can say about the experience is WTG GOD!

[kayak]

I thought I remembered that someone mentioned on the Dose that they saw the ISS but couldn't remember who it was. From what I've been able to decipher from the site sleaveless mentioned in #6, it wasn't the ISS. This was straight overhead ...... and it was not zipping along at all.

I'm still trying to wade through all that talk about azimuths and such to see if I can figure out anything. I am a very amateur astronomer ..... don't understand all the technical jargon ....... :-)

[sleavelessinseattle]

I've also seen a link recently regarding ISS and my layman's synopsis of the piece was..."It Books!" But it IS visible from the Continental US right now...That much I retained...
Sorry you got jargoned out! I'll see if I can google a simpler link...Feedback is absolutely appreciated Kayak!
Domo Arigato!

[kayak]

Just to enrich your life .......

Today's Julian day number: 2452499.74618

*grins*

[sleavelessinseattle]

HA HA HA!!! I am indeed MORE than I was thanks to this Datum! Here is the Nasa version of the calculator! LOL http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/temp/StationLoc.html

Click on the Jpass header to determine YOUR personal time space coordinates!

Nice easy to remember URL eh?Sleavester get a grip! this is science, man!

[WSGilcrest]

I can't remember where I came across this link, maybe right here. This is just about the coolest thing.

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/3D/JTrack3D.html

[sleavelessinseattle]

News flash...NOT! APOD ROCKS...Thanks!

[mtngrl@vrwc]

Here's where I got the info about the space station. It appears that it hasn't updated since the last time I visited the site though. Hm....

[WSGilcrest]

Also, the last shuttle rendezvous with the ISS I tracked on that JTrack3d site while getting live feed from the shuttle here:


http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/index.html


~Stu