Orionids Meteor Shower- October 21-22, 2010

Amateur Astronomers of Rhode Island Reports: "This shower produces a peak rate of 20 yellow and green meteors per hour, which are fast moving at 41.6 miles per second and are known to produce fireballs."

Parent Comet: 1P/Halley
Moon Phase: Full

To prepare you for this I found this wonderful resource that has been posted numerous times on my blog:


For more information:
http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/

Draconids Meteor Shower- October 8-9, 2010

Amateur Astronomers of Rhode Island Reports: "Expect a peak rate of 10 meteors per hour under clear, moonless conditions."

Parent Comet: 21P/Giacobini-Zinner
Moon Phase: New

To prepare you for this I found this wonderful resource that has been posted numerous times on my blog:


For more information:
http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/

Comet & Good weekend of observing

Comet tracking
Originally uploaded by MPR Photography-PhotoMPR.com

This weekend I enjoyed two nights under very dark sky at a private observatory of a family friend.

One of the goals of the nights was to see the approcahing comet. It was in Cassiopia near "ET".

I first spotted it with my celestron 20x80 binoculars. Then to the 10"
Dobsonian. It was clearly visible with both. I looked it around 8:30pm then started starhopping around. Then went back to it at 9:45 movement through star feild was noticable. So I decided to sketch it but all I had on hand was post-it notes and a pen, not the best.

I made 2 sketches: one @ 9:55pm the another at 11:25pm. I then overlaid the two post it notes and was able to measure the amount it moved and created a scale to predict it's movement in 1 and a half hour increments. The result is below:


See composite sketch and prediction:
Here:  http://flic.kr/p/8GeEkf


List of other objects seen:
"et"
Jupiter
Neptune
Ring nebula (sketch here:   http://flic.kr/p/8GbTrg)

M45
M31
M70
M71
M15
M57
M92
M13
M39
M4
M55
M30
M62
M20
M110
M27 (very nice)
M19
M21
M32
95 her- double star
M2
Saturn Nebula
NGC6624
NGC6569
NGC6528
NGC6522
NGC6638
NGC6723
NGC6716
NGC6583
NGC6528
IC1369
IC4756
NGC6633
NGC6709


Happy observing!
-MatthewTracking the movement of Comet hartley 2 night of Oct. 2, 2010.

Sketch post-it note with pen looking through 10" f4.5 dob with 18mm ep.

This Month's Light Pollution Video: Snow Party

Take a stand on Light Pollution in 2010!