Meteors ...

[661-Pete]

does the atmosphere protect us?

If I could speak to a brontosaurus he'd maybe have a different opinion.

I doubt it. Brontosaurus became extinct around 145 million years ago. The 'dinosaur-killer' meteorite didn't hit until about 65 million years ago. About the latter - well no amount of atmosphere could have protected the Earth from that sort of object!

[old_windbag]

Brontosaurus became extinct around 145 million years ago

Moderators please take this pedant to the tower and throw away the keys .

well no amount of atmosphere could have protected the Earth from that sort of object!

Yes, also even a non impacting large object can create devastation from it's destruction in the atmosphere such as tunguska:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event imagine that over london.

On the meteor shower front I've just seen a nice long meteor trail by happenstance whilst in the garden.

[rjb]

We moved to Plymouth in early 1980, and within a few months, I'd sold it all due to hazy and obscured skies.

I don't expect to see any meteors or anything any more.

I lived in Plymouth in the 1950's, my childhood.
I can remember my dad pointing out the Milky Way to me. Not many street lights in those days - and we had gas lights, none of that electrickery stuff.



I now live in a Somerset village with very few street lights, but the only showers we are likely to see tonight are "Wet".

[661-Pete]

Moderators please take this pedant to the tower and throw away the keys .

Oh dear! I just hope they'll build a massive extension to the Tower to accommodate all the nefarious 'pedants' who'll need accommodation. Thanks to Wiki, everyone can now be a 'pedant' without effort. (Having said that, I knew the approximate timeline of the sauropods well before the internet became popular).

And talking of Wiki, I've just registered myself as a member of the Wikimedia community (for reasons totally unconnected with dinosaurs, meteors, or anything of that sort). So watch out! If you don't behave, there'll be an entry in Wiki entitled Old_windbag, packed full of startling revelations, before you can say "T. rex"!

[Cyril Haearn]

Moderators please take this pedant to the tower and throw away the keys .

Oh dear! I just hope they'll build a massive extension to the Tower to accommodate all the nefarious 'pedants' who'll need accommodation. Thanks to Wiki, everyone can now be a 'pedant' without effort. (Having said that, I knew the approximate timeline of the sauropods well before the internet became popular).

And talking of Wiki, I've just registered myself as a member of the Wikimedia community (for reasons totally unconnected with dinosaurs, meteors, or anything of that sort). So watch out! If you don't behave, there'll be an entry in Wiki entitled Old_windbag, packed full of startling revelations, before you can say "T. rex"!

Is there a Wikipedia entry about Wikipedia?
Why do people say they "googled" something? Usually they mean they wikichecked it (my new word %-))

[old_windbag]

"T. rex"!

Disambiguation...... do you mean a dinosaur of the cretaceous period or a glam rock group of the 70's

I've been getting wikipaedia begging notices of late but apparently they get well funded beyond their needs from other sources( according to online information ).

[661-Pete]

Disambiguation...... do you mean a dinosaur of the cretaceous period or a glam rock group of the 70's

Aha! Gotcha! You may have noticed that I wrote the phrase "T. rex" in italics. That is normal practice amongst biologists, palaeontologists, etc., when referring to the Latin name of a living species (or, in this case, 'used-to-be-living' ). Moreover it is common practice, when there is no ambiguity, to abbreviate the name of the genus to a single-letter (always upper case) plus full stop. "E. coli" for example....

Whether the rock group (which I admit could have a tenuous link to meteors - did anyone do yesterday's crossword in the Guardian?) always wrote their name in italics, I don't know - but I guess not.

[Audax67]

Dinosaurs live!



Tyrannosoreass secateurii

[old_windbag]

palaeontologists

It may surprise you that this is what I wanted to be when 8+ yrs old. I would be asked what I'd like to do when grown up( whats that? ) and I say a palaeontologist. The dropped mouths was a treat, also drawing an archaeopteryx as per the famous image below and spouting out it's name caused surprise. Dinosaurs and fossils played an important part in my childhood, along with the war!



As audax67 points out the dinosaur link still exists.... possibly. I could always see the likeness to dinosaurs with the sunday chicken with it's feathers gone as well as the chickens legs/feet we'd play with( who did that trick ).

I still collect fossils to this day when possible, I have a nice section of stigmaria upstairs, I was never ever lucky enough as a kid to travel to lyme regis where mary anning made her name.

**** on the meteor front I saw 3 in around 5 minutes prior to going to bed at around 2am.

[Psamathe]

....
I have to admit, I prefer to do this exercise nowadays in summer when it's a bit warmer (even though the shorter nights mean you get less time-window). ....

That is the main thing stopping me using my telescope as much as I'd like. I really feel the cold and indoors, warm, good book can easily discourage lugging gear outside, freezing, setting-up, etc. and that despite that I now have linked up full remote control (incl camera) over Wi-Fi so once set-up I can sit indoors in the warm and do everything over my laptop (and it's all setup, tested, adjusted, fixed and I've not yet used in "in anger")!

Part of my "challenge" in the winter is that I can't start until after 23:00 - neighbour (from a town, does not understand the countryside) leaves their outside lights on often 24/7 but occasionally they might switch off at 23:00 which becomes my only opportunity. Shame as I'm in the rural countryside where darkness prevails expect some city dweller with their "country home" is scared of the dark outside and seeks a street-light environment!

Ian

[[XAP]Bob]

....
I have to admit, I prefer to do this exercise nowadays in summer when it's a bit warmer (even though the shorter nights mean you get less time-window). ....

That is the main thing stopping me using my telescope as much as I'd like. I really feel the cold and indoors, warm, good book can easily discourage lugging gear outside, freezing, setting-up, etc. and that despite that I now have linked up full remote control (incl camera) over Wi-Fi so once set-up I can sit indoors in the warm and do everything over my laptop (and it's all setup, tested, adjusted, fixed and I've not yet used in "in anger")!

Part of my "challenge" in the winter is that I can't start until after 23:00 - neighbour (from a town, does not understand the countryside) leaves their outside lights on often 24/7 but occasionally they might switch off at 23:00 which becomes my only opportunity. Shame as I'm in the rural countryside where darkness prevails expect some city dweller with their "country home" is scared of the dark outside and seeks a street-light environment!

Ian

BB gun - or walk round and ask them to turn their lights off, offer to show them what they are missing.

[old_windbag]

Part of my "challenge" in the winter is that I can't start until after 23:00 - neighbour (from a town, does not understand the countryside) leaves their outside lights on often 24/7 but occasionally they might switch off at 23:00 which becomes my only opportunity. Shame as I'm in the rural countryside where darkness prevails expect some city dweller with their "country home" is scared of the dark outside and seeks a street-light environment!

A sad situation that I see myself in my area from several sources.

When my telescope drive had issues I thought It made me revisit telescopes and their prices. I must admit for general observing and planetary/lunar imaging the small catadioptrics such as the celestron below( or skywatcher equivalent ) look beautifully portable without the collimation issues of newtonians if putting in the back of a car.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-NexStar-127-SLT-Telescope/dp/B0038LX8XE?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duc08-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0038LX8XE

Not high end I know but the portability has its benefits, and the optics are far from poor quality.

[Psamathe]

....
Yes very true and you also get to see man made events every night such as iridium flares......

Watch them whilst you can as true "Iridium flares" are to become a thing of the past. Iridium NEXT satellites (which don't flare) are already being deployed and last I heard they will be de-orbiting the old "flaring" variety. IridiumNEXT being launches 10 per launch started Jan 2017, 4th batch due for launch just before Christmas. 2 of the flaring satellites already burnt-up and all due to end some time in 2018.

There will still be other satellite flares but nothing like as common not as high profile so catch it whilst you can. To find when/where there are many sites e.g. http://www.heavens-above.com/IridiumFlares.aspx (remember to set a location using box top right of page then select "Iridium Flares" link from the left column e.g.http://www.heavens-above.com/IridiumFlares.aspx?lat=51.5074&lng=-0.1278&loc=London&alt=8&tz=GMT for observer in London. Sometimes by default the checkbox near the top "include daytime flares" is unchecked so if observing during the day check the state of the checkbox.

Ian

[old_windbag]

Watch them whilst you can as true "Iridium flares" are to become a thing of the past.

As much as they were just man made passing objects they were always an impressive thing to see and show others. Only one of my sightings was a planned event( an astro group ), all the others were happenstance when out sitting looking at the sky. I've never specifically gone out to see one rather they've been there coincident with my sitting out. The ISS is impressive too.

[Cyril Haearn]

The ISS is an inspiring project where the two greatest powers on earth work together for the good of all