Beautiful galaxies in space

Star islands in space are beautiful to look through small and bigger telescopes.
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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Perseids what a hype and what a bust

I've been watching meteors for years so I guess when the skies are clear, whether cold or warm, I will try, as I have done over the years despite the hype. The hype of the Perseid meteor shower, this year , was nerve racking.

It was clear over Kansas for the most part but the Moon was keeping many of the faint ones. I don't care about seeing the faint ones, all I look forward is a few bright ones to remember.
I only could compare this Perseid hype to Comet Kohoutek when much is expected but little if nothing is delivered. Not only were two maximum dates expected but the extra bombardment was supposed to happen either later evening and/or early morning. This was compounded by observers seeing a lot (which led me to believe what are they smoking anyway) or literally nothing (my case).
A human eye can see so much and when the hype media says 100- 200 meteors per hour these are expectations not realizations. You are not going to go out and see fireballs falling around you. If you are lucky you can see one or two bring ones or some every few minutes at the peak.
I gave it a go one more time.
In Olathe, KS (near Kansas City), the Moon was finally setting a little lower so that the sky was darker in the area of the NE and the constellatioin Perseus. It was far better than last years Full Moon but up until now seeing the meteors was still disconcerting. However supposedly there was to be another "spike". So instead of going to bed, I go out my sleeping bag and waited, again.

In an hour , with clear skies, all I saw was 8 Perseids. But all except one was pretty bright.
The best was a short yellow Perseid at zero magnitude (not quite a fireball) , that left a nice 0.75 train (smoke trail). There were 2 fireballs (yellow and yellow-white) at -2 that were 25 degrees long and pretty. So at least I saw something.

But an all sky camera can see much more over time. Ths spectacular photo shows dozens. There is on that stands out and I wish the author would have said more how bright this particular wide bright one was.
8/14/09
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http://spaceweather.com/

Perseids meteor shower tonight

The Moon will be close but that won't keep us from seeing the brighter meteors as they strike the atmosphere. It is definitely a hindrance but it you see a few bright ones, then I (and others) will be happy.

Earthgrazers, meteors that skim the atmosphere and appear after sunset are bright, long and spectacular and some might appear in your location.

There also might be an extra flurry of meteors around midnight for about an hour so we shall see.
More information
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/31jul_perseids2009.htm

If you see some meteors tonight let me know . I will post my own . I might even try to take some photos.

Jupiter Impact clouds

Much is happening to the clouds that created when some type of celestial object punctured the atmosphere of Jupiter on 7/19/2009
8/8 spaceweather
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Small comet or asteroid plows into the atmosphere of Jupite

While I was in China seeing the country and getting ready for the day of the total eclipse, we heard about this unexpected discovery- a small celestial object plowing into the atmosphere of Jupiter. Here now are 3 d like images. Give it a try.
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http://spaceweather.com/