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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2012 1:59:45 GMT
SUMMER SOLSTICE June 20, 2012, 7p.m. EDT.
The loooooooooooongest day of the year...............
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Post by Kimby on Jun 28, 2012 16:48:48 GMT
It was a long one, wasn't it?
It started in Wisconsin around 4:15 a.m. with the birds beginning their wake up chorus.
In Montana, it ended with the sky finally getting too dark to read around 11 p.m.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2012 21:58:04 GMT
I so enjoy having the extended daylight....it's almost like having another mini day after a siesta during the hottest part of the day and then being able to do gardening, go for a bike ride or out for a nice walk in the neighborhood.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 30, 2012 13:20:55 GMT
Ain't summer grand?  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2012 17:27:55 GMT
Were I not so nostalgic for the seashore Kimby, and had a cool place to retreat, I would agree. It should be. But,it's downright oppressively hot here,  |
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Post by Kimby on Jul 11, 2012 20:17:42 GMT
Ain't air-conditioning grand, casi?
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2012 21:38:59 GMT
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Post by mossie on Aug 2, 2012 8:05:07 GMT
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Post by htmb on Aug 2, 2012 13:49:26 GMT
Due partly to the full moon there is a "tidal anomaly" occurring in the Virginia/Washington DC area along the Potomac. Last night at high tide the water where I was in Alexandria Va came up level with the sea wall and flooding was predicted for areas along the river during high tide this morning.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 6, 2012 15:31:33 GMT
Next week will be the Perseids meteor shower, peaking around the 12th. And for the first time in recent memory, we won't have a full moon to interfere with our viewing!
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 1, 2012 0:35:29 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Sept 1, 2012 14:20:31 GMT
I went out to look for it, but clouds or trees obscured it from view.
Couple nights ago, though, the almost full moon was bright orange from the smoke of many forest fires in the region.
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Post by lugg on Sept 20, 2012 18:52:33 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Sept 23, 2012 19:36:32 GMT
Worked for me, lugg. Wow! Great shots, especially at the beginning and again around 2:22.
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Post by Kimby on Sept 23, 2012 19:37:15 GMT
BTW, Happy Autumn, to my Northern Hemisphere friends.
Happy Spring, down-under.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2012 21:20:42 GMT
The Orionid meteor shower is this upcoming weekend. Supposed to be a huge spectacular show!!!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2012 13:17:40 GMT
Reminding folks that tonight and tomorrow night is the Orionid meteor shower.  |
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 20, 2012 14:45:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2012 17:03:55 GMT
Great link!! Thanks Bixa. I hope we can see them within the city limits here!!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2012 5:12:44 GMT
My husband just headed out a few ago to drive for work to Port Fourchon and then on to Houston. He's on the look out for shooting stars and will very likely see a plenty! ( I made him read the link, thank you Bixa!)
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Post by auntieannie on Nov 16, 2012 18:20:57 GMT
I thought it was tonight, the orionid meteor shower?? obviously, the sky it totally obstructed tonight... not a hope in hell to see a star, let alone a meteor shower...
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Post by auntieannie on Nov 17, 2012 15:57:51 GMT
Ah, sorry, last night were the LEONIDS... and many people could see clouds, rain or fog...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2012 11:28:02 GMT
Haven't seen the sky here in at least a week!
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Post by mossie on Nov 18, 2012 16:06:46 GMT
We have had a clear day at last so perhaps there is some hope of seeing something tonight. We have too much light pollution here to get a good view of anything astronomical unfortunately. Just boasting, but I did the majority of my flying in Meteors, the tin variety fortunately. I can remember in Egypt on a moonless night at high altitude, just laying back in the cockpit looking through the roof. There seemed to be more stars than sky , and I did also see a few shooting stars that way. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 6, 2012 6:23:43 GMT
That must have been a (forgive me) celestial experience, Mossie!
I've been way up on a mountain in absolute darkness & the stars are so much more in evidence than we'd every dream living in populated areas with light pollution. But to see the night sky the way you did, from an airplane ........ wow!
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Post by mossie on Dec 6, 2012 14:50:24 GMT
As an aside to that, when we were being taught how not to lose our precious aeroplanes, we studied Astro Navigation. This involved having to learn how to find some 30 named stars so that we could take sextant shots from them, plus the sun and moon. The drill would involve deciding on 3 stars in suitable positions, i.e. with about 60 degrees seperation. Then taking a sextant reading from each, using an averaging sextant which ran for two minutes, and the sight had to be timed exactly to the second. A second in error was a mile in error . Then each sight had to be reduced by reference to TWO books of tables, before a position line showing the direction from the aircraft to the calculated position on the Earth surface immediately below the star could be drawn on the chart. Where the three position lines crossed was your position. I forgot  , one had to transfer the lines forward to a time as if they had all been taken at the same time. Of course all sorts of inaccuracies occurred and so the three lines formed a triangle, known as a "cocked hat". Our training flights generally followed a roughly triangular route with each leg about 100 miles long. I always remember my partner producing a "cocked hat", which superimposed on our tracks, looked just like the Star of David ;D ;D One was lucky to find a position correct to within 20 miles |
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 6, 2012 15:28:43 GMT
when we were being taught how not to lose our precious aeroplanes Or your precious b*tts! A second in error was a mile in error Is that why seconds are included in latitude and longitude positions, or does it mean something else? One was lucky to find a position correct to within 20 miles I guess in those prop planes you could see what you were doing in daytime, but nighttime flying must have been nerve-wracking. |
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Post by mossie on Dec 6, 2012 20:45:25 GMT
Our butts were not considered precious at all. In the first 4 years that I was in the mob, aircrew deaths from accidents averaged 300 a year, this was an accepted risk. Give a 20 year old a fast car, what is the first thing he wants to know. "How fast can I make it go" then " how quickly can I get round that corner". Degrees are divided into 60 seconds, I guess that has some relationship. We were taught all these things, but it is rather a long time ago Hell it is over 62 years ago I volunteered for the job like a fool . Actually finding your way at night is easier than by day, as long as people remember to put the lights on. We also generally had a little magic black box or two to twiddle the knobs on. |
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Post by mossie on Dec 7, 2012 15:28:15 GMT
I realised I had made a mistake in my Astro-Nav lecture. The position line was obtained because the calculations gave the distance to the point immediately below the star. So, in theory you could be anywhere on the circle round that point, and in fact, because one had to assume a position the line one drew was only a very short arc of that circle.
A very basic knowledge of spherical trigonometry was knocked into our thick heads in consequence. ;D ;D
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Post by Kimby on Dec 13, 2012 17:52:20 GMT
Could be good meteor watching tonite! Space Weather News for Dec. 13, 2012 spaceweather.comGEMINID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is passing through a stream of debris from "rock comet" 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Around the world, observers are counting as many as 60 shooting stars per hour, a number which could increase sharply as the shower peaks on the night of Dec. 13-14. Wherever you live, the best time to look is during the dark hours between local midnight and sunrise. Visit spaceweather.com for sky maps, photos, and updates. |
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with that old song. 
, one had to transfer the lines forward to a time as if they had all been taken at the same time. Of course all sorts of inaccuracies occurred and so the three lines formed a triangle, known as a "cocked hat".