14 December 2009 by Tristan Gooley
A restless night for lots of reasons, but that did at least allow some good Geminid-watching. Most meteor, ie. shooting star, showers occur when Earth passes through the dusty trail of a comet. The particles burn brightly as they hit our atmosphere. The Geminid meteors are some of the most dependable for night-skywatchers, taking place each year in mid-December and characterised by relatively slow moving yellow burning points. They appear to originate in the part of the sky that is home to the constellation Gemini, hence the name. The exact nature of the object causing the Geminid showers is less well understood. It has the beautiful name, Phaethon, was discovered in 1983 and is believed to be a now burnt-out comet, but may actually be closer to an asteroid.
The best meteor I saw last night, while well wrapped up and standing in the neighbouring field, burned for about two…
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Tags: crescent, gemini, Geminids, meteors, moon, stars |
17 December 2008 by Tristan Gooley
On Monday night I gave my lecture, ‘Travel and Exploration: a new direction?’ to the Royal Geographical Society. I really enjoyed it, but with about five hundred people in the audience it was fun in a pulse-quickening kind of way. It is time for a little confession.
Last Friday was a full moon and no ordinary full moon either. It was a perigee full moon, when the moon passes closest to the earth and appears a lot larger than normal. On Friday evening it was due to be the largest full moon that we had seen for 50 years. There were also due to be meteors from the Germinid showers.
I am not generally a hugely superstitious creature, although I do enjoy reading about the historical and cultural associations surrounding sky omens. At the end of last week it was easier for me to see how these connections and beliefs…
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Tags: meteors, omens and portents, perigee moon, rgs lecture, tristan gooley |
