Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Beautiful Skies

      There are sky memes where beautiful cloud and sky photos are posted. There are some very talented photographers out there. 

       What I'm thinking about are the night skies and what we can see and enjoy.

       We've had a week or two of very clear weather. I get up at 7:00 AM and usually take a look out the window. I noticed a very bright object in the southeast sky. It was obviously a planet as it didn't twinkle. finally I used my sky watch app to see what was out there. It turned out to be Venus.  A little higher up and to the right is Mars. I could see these from my window. In line with Venus and Mars is Jupiter, but you have to go outside to see Jupiter because it's further west and maybe is northwest. . 

      So if you have some clear mornings take a look at the sky. These planets rise around 3 or 4 AM. They set sometime in mid afternoon or early evening. You can check for times if you check a chart. You may see Venus again at sunset.

    This week there is a meteor shower that I'm looking forward to. The Gemini's meteor shower will happen this weekend. Look in the eastern sky. The peak will be Dec. 13-14 night. You should see meteors Dec. 12-15. Now most of the activity will be after midnight? If it's clear, I'll be up.

    As for meteors there's one I'll never forget. Half a dozen of us were in the farmyard in the middle of a very bright Sunday afternoon. In the north west sky there was a brilliant  flash and a trail of smoke. All of us were startled. Being very young at the time we did not think of a meteor in the daytime. It was a mystery until later newscasts reported the meteor and the flash was explained.

     By the way , there are many free apps for looking in the night sky. These apps tell you what you're looking at.

     So do you watch night skies?