2017-9-1: Asteroid 3122 Florence
Sky and Telescope has prepared four detailed charts to help observers locate 3122 Florence this week. Two of these show the asteroid’s general motion northward among the constellations. Two more show small areas of sky, plotting all stars brighter than magnitude 9.5, for North American observers on the evenings of August 29-31 and September 1-3. […]
2017-8-14 : Asteroid to shave past Earth on Oct 12: ESA By Mariette Le Roux Paris
A house-sized asteroid will shave past our planet on October 12, far inside the Moon’s orbit but without posing any threat, astronomers said Thursday. The space rock will zoom by harmlessly at a distance of about 44,000 kilometres (27,300 miles) — an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the Moon, according to the […]
The Apr 22 Lyrid Meteor Shower, Aurora Borealis and “STEVE”
April 4 and the 22nd had some excellent Aurora Borealis, and Saturday the 22nd was also the Lyrid meteor shower. The skies were clear for a brief time, so I saw a few Lyrid meteors. Jerry Mason’s photo above shows green auroral glow and blue streaks. Taken from College Way above Vernon at 10:30pm. […]
Passing Asteroid of 19 Apr 2017
Ken Tapping, April 19, 2017 On 19 April an asteroid will pass close by. At its closest it will be less than five times the distance of the Moon. The asteroid, named 2014 JO25, is about 600 metres across. It will scoot across our northern sky in a few hours, moving at 33.5 km/s. It […]
Fireball of Thursday 16 Mar 2017 at 9:39pm Pacific Time
A Meteor fireball fell over Central Washington State, and broke up over the Colville Reservation north of Yakima. The bright fireball was seen by many people from Vancouver Island , Vancouver, Seattle, and as far East as Spokane, Washington. The American Meteor Society received 116 reports of “a fireball” over Washington, B.C., Idaho and Oregon. […]
Allsky founder Dick Spalding died Feb 8
Father of Meteor Allsky Networks, Richard Spalding died Feb 8. [Excerpts from an article by Tom Dorman.] Dick passed away Wed, Feb 8 2017, after battling multiple heart issues this past year. Dick was the Founder of the SkySentinel Allsky Network (Sandia National Laboratories) and was instrumental in setting up and running the meteor fireball […]
Fall 2016 Meteor Showers
Meteor Showers in Oct, Nov, Dec 2016. **The Geminids are the best at 120 meteors per hour, are on 14 Dec. *The Orionids (21 Oct) and the Leonids (17 Nov) both at 15 meteors per hour are middling. The Northern Taurids on 12 Nov at 5 meteors per hour aren’t as frequent but they produce […]
Perseid Meteor Shower Thursday 11 Aug 2016
The college meteor camera is already seeing more bright meteors zipping overhead. The Perseid meteor shower started July 17, ends Aug 24 but peaks on Thursday night, August 11 and Friday morning Aug 12. If it’s cloudy Thursday, note that Wednesday night and Friday night will also be very active. This year the Earth will […]
Northern Lights Flare of 7 May 2016
The strongest solar storm so far of 2016 hit us Saturday night at 10:48pm and again between 2 to 3am (according to our college meteor camera). The clear starry East Kootenay sky lit up with glowing curtains and spikes that reached a third of the way up from the Northern horizon. Our meteor cam has […]
Geminid Meteor Shower 14 Dec 2015
The best and most reliable meteor shower of the year are the Geminids at 120 meteors per hour on early Monday December 14. The second best are the Quadrantids at 120/hr on January 4 but these last only for a few hours. The Perseids are better known, since they occur on August 13 when it’s […]