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  1. #1

    Look to the skies in 2018 and take photos.

    For anyone who has any interest in planets and the skies above, 2018 is jammed packed with events in our solar system.
    I'm no astrophysicist, I just like to observe everything around me.

    The other day my son read out to me just how jammed-packed our calendar is for 2018.
    For ten out of twelve months we have light shows. I can't recall any past year like this.

    31st of Jan: (Tonight in Australia) we have a "super blue blood moon" which only happens once every 400 years. It is a "solar eclipse" at night, but not a "lunar eclipse".
    15th of Feb: Solar eclipse.
    2nd & 31st of March: Blue moon.
    16th to 25th of April: Lyrids meteor shower.
    6th & 7th of May: Hailey's comet tear. Remnants of hailey's comet.
    July: Red moon.
    12th & 13th of August: Perseids meteor shower.
    2nd of Oct: Orionids meteor shower.
    17th & 18th of Nov: Leonid meteor shower.
    7th & 17th of Dec: Geminides meteor shower.

    BTW, I saw Hailey's comet back in 1986. The next passing of Hailey's comet is 2061. See ya there. lol
    Last edited by AccadaccA; 01-31-2018 at 06:57 AM.

  2. #2
    I will attempt to view all of these with the naked eye...., naked chest and naked butt. lol "Look, there's Uranus" they'll say.

    Some of this stuff only comes once in a life time, some only come once every four or five life times. But enough about my sex life.
    Some of it your grand parents and / or your grand kids will never see.
    I urge anyone with a telescope or telescopic zoom lens camera to take some photos and post them here. Please.

    Happy spotting.
    Cheers

  3. #3
    Thanks for the list! I've been fairly interested in space exploration since I was a kid. I've been keeping tabs on things like the Kepler missions etc as of late. It was also quite interesting when Voyager 1 reached the interstellar medium, expecting to reach the Oort Cloud in a (mere) 300 years. The probe will then take tens of thousands of years to clear that structure which will result in it freeing itself from most of the gravitational effect of the Sun. Good stuff!

  4. #4
    Cool. I'm not the only one. lol
    With just a little over an hour (until 10pm for Aust. best vantage) to see this once in 400 years event, after such a hot day we've had thunderstorms which has brought lots of cloud coverage so that won't help.
    Its only starting to clear up now but I doubt it will be soon enough.

    I hope you and people of other countries have better luck.

  5. #5
    Administrator Major_A's Avatar
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    I ment to reply yesterday, but I watch that stuff too when it's seeable here.

    I used my ipcam to watch the eclipse last summer.
    I put a welding helmet glass over it lol

    Now though I have a camera mount that will go over my telescope to get closer.

    The reflection in first 2 pics are the circuit board in the camera reflecting into the helmet glass.
    2nd image has 2 welding glass pieces over it.


    Last edited by Major_A; 02-02-2018 at 12:10 AM.



  6. #6
    Great stuff mate placing the tinted welding glass over the lens. lol
    At least you got to see it. None of Queensland's South / East would have seen it due to the cloud cover.
    But that's Queensland (Australia) for ya, always blanketed from seeing the light for no less than 400 years after the rest of the world. lol
    The people born in this state would make "Dumb & Dumber" look like "Smart and even Smarterererer".

    Thanks for the pics and extra effort.

  7. #7
    Has anyone else notice a dramatic change in weather since the super blue blood moon?
    For months up until and including Jan 31, we had temps in the mid to high 30s Celsius.
    That night saw a thunderstorm as most hot days bring to South East Queensland.
    The recorded local temp was 38 C (100.4 degree Fahrenheit) yet the following day Feb 1, it only reached 25 C (77 degree Fahrenheit).
    That's a pretty dramatic drop from one day to the next.

    Every day since has been in the low to mid twenties.
    Yesterday a town one hour away from here, which usually has similar temps, recorded a maximum high of only 15 C (50 degree Fahrenheit).
    That was the coldest recorded temperatures for Feb since weather records have been kept in Australia.

    I'm just wondering if other countries have also experienced such a rapid change in temps? Perhaps hotter?
    If so, it may have something to do with the rare moon phase as we all know it has the strength to change the ocean tides.


    edit:
    Oops sorry,
    Earlier I wrote "16 C (60.8 degree Fahrenheit)" but the radio announcer just repeated that the town I was referring to,Toowoomba, only had 10 C (50 degree Fahrenheit) yesterday.
    That's a difference of 50 degree Fahrenheit or exactly half the temp Toowoomba had the previous day.
    Last edited by AccadaccA; 02-03-2018 at 05:49 AM.

  8. #8
    I've not noticed anything personally, and while the gravitational effect is different, it is quite negligible in causing differences to the Earth. The most it affects is, like you said, tides, and while these levels can affect the atmosphere, meteorologists aren't issuing warnings or pointing out dramatic differences in temperature due to supermoons. Some people go to extremes claiming catastrophic earthquakes are a result, which is a common paranoia perpetuated in the media by pseudoscience. It's often a 'post hoc ergo propter hoc' fallacy.

  9. #9
    Okay, no worries.
    Its not that I heard or read anything about it, just an observation of strange weather we're having in S.E. Queensland.
    BTW it has rained constantly for the past 3 days and nights (all of Feb 2018 so far lol) which is very strange for an Aussie summer, especially in this "sunshine state".
    Although I love the rain and much prefer cooler weather than the sub-tropical heat we usually have, it just adds to dramatic change that happened so suddenly like flicking a switch.

    So I'll mark it up as nothing more than a coincidence... and continue to enjoy it.

  10. #10
    Btw I wasn't saying you were doing any of the below, just that it's a common attitude during events like these for many people, including the media .

    It's not impossible that it's the cause, but there isn't much if any scientific evidence to suggest it is. Again, these types of events happen all over the world (record temperature change etc.) all the time so it's bound to happen somewhere during a lunar event too. It's especially prevalent now due to global climate change which may have a part to play. I think it was back in 2012 when a Japanese earthquake was thought to be caused by a supermoon, as well other global events, but if you check the records it happened no more frequently than any other year if you were to take the planet and all its regions as a whole. People who live in those pockets of activity see the pattern and instantly assume it's the cause.

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