APOD 2.7 / Observation Post

Geminid Fireball over Mount Balang

   

This past Saturday (December 13, 2014) was the Geminid meteor shower! I actually observed this shower for a collective two hours or so from my own house (the magnitude is great where I live - there is hardly anything around to cause pollution).  I saw somewhere between 25-35 meteors, which was astounding because I had never seen a single one before.  The first meteor I saw I actually thought it was a white bird flying through the night sky, but it disappeared after about a second.  Birds don't typically disappear so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ When I realized it was a meteor I kept watching for more.  From 8:00-9:00 PM I only spotted about five or six, and then I went back inside because it was so cold.  I went back out at midnight and this is when I started seeing more.  So glad I decided to look up!

In this week's APOD image you can see a fireball from the Geminid meteor shower over Mt. Balang in China.  The fireball is the white streak of light in the lower right hand corner.  At the top of the image you can see Orion clearly and the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, in the middle.  This is truly a beautiful photograph. 

-Melanie

Charles Messier - Works Cited

"Messier, Charles." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. "Messier, Charles." Encyclopedia.com. HighBeam Research, 01 Jan. 2008. Web. 19 Dec. 2014.

Redd, Nola Taylor. "Charles Messier Biography | Space.com." Charles Messier Biography. Space.com, n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.

"Charles Messier (June 26, 1730 - April 12, 1817)." Charles Messier (June 26, 1730 - April 12, 1817). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.

APOD 2.6

"Moondog Night"

This image was taken on November 14, 2014 and displays the effects of when a last quarter moon's light disperses through the clouds above the mountaintop of Kitt Peak National Observatory (Arizona).  To the left of the lunar disc you should be able to note Jupiter.  This is a really entrancing image. 

APOD 2.5

Milky Way over Moon Valley

In the night sky over the Chilean Atacama desert, the Milky Way displays itself in entirety.  The clear sky and temperate weather opened a window for this amazing photograph to be taken.  On the left side of the image, you will find four Magellanic clouds and on the right side is the Andromeda Galaxy.  (The Andromeda galaxy is around 2.5 million miles away - it's amazing we can see it from Earth's surface with our naked eye !)