Overlapping meteor showers: Piscids south, Geminids east. Get out between sunset and midnight and again before dawn. Look up!

A New Meteor Shower in December? – NASA Science

To sky watchers, he recommends having a “meteor night” after sunset on Dec. 13th, when the criss-crossing debris streams could produce the greatest combined number of shooting stars. “Meteors from the new shower (if any) will be visible in the early evening, with the Geminids making their appearance later on and lasting until dawn,” he says.

A New Meteor Shower in December? – NASA Science

The Sky This Week, 2012 December 11 – 18 — Naval Oceanography Portal

[The Geminids are] one of the few showers that you don’t need to get up at “oh-dark-thirty” to view; the best viewing time should be between 10:00 pm on the 13th and around 2:00 am on the 14th. A single observer in a dark location can expect to see up to 50 meteors per hour, while urban skywatchers may see 25 to 30 per hour. The Geminids are much slower than the Perseids, and brighter ones will travel across a good swath of sky before they burn out, often leaving a faint smoke train from their passage.

The Sky This Week, 2012 December 11 – 18 — Naval Oceanography Portal

The Sky This Week, 2012 December 4 – 11 — Naval Oceanography Portal

December 7th marks the beginning of the series of phenomena associated with the winter solstice. This is the evening of the year’s earliest sunset, which in the Washington, DC area occurs at 4:46 pm EST [mjh: 4:54pm in Albuquerque, New Mexico]. From this evening onward Old Sol will set a little bit later on successive nights. The change is very incremental at first, but by the time the solstice occurs on the 22nd sunset will be four minutes later. By the end of the year sunset will occur at 4:58 pm. The trade-off comes with the time of latest sunrise. That won’t occur until January 4th, 2013, when the Sun peeks over the horizon at 7:27 am. The shortest day of the year still falls halfway between these dates on the solstice itself, marking the astronomical beginning to the winter season.

The Sky This Week, 2012 December 4 – 11 — Naval Oceanography Portal

APOD: 2012 November 29 – Super Moon vs Micro Moon

Super Moon vs. Micro Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Catalin Paduraru

Explanation: Did you see the big, bright, beautiful Full Moon Wednesday night? That was actually a Micro Moon! On that night, the smallest Full Moon of 2012 reached its full phase only about 4 hours before apogee, the most distant point from Earth in the Moon’s elliptical orbit. Of course, earlier this year on May 6, a Full Super Moon was near perigee, the closest point in its orbit. The relative apparent size of November 28’s Micro Moon (right) is compared to the famous May 6 Super Moon in these two panels, matching telescopic images from Bucharest, Romania. The difference in apparent size represents a difference in distance of just under 50,000 kilometers between apogee and perigee, given the Moon’s average distance of about 385,000 kilometers. How long do you have to wait to see another Full Micro Moon? Until January 16, 2014, when the lunar full phase will occur within about 3 hours of apogee

APOD: 2012 November 29 – Super Moon vs Micro Moon

Follow the link to read about Betelgeuse, the red giant in Orion. peace, mjh 

The Sky This Week, 2012 November 27 – December 4 — Naval Oceanography Portal

In Greek mythology Orion is connected to another constellation with a distinctive reddish star. According to legend the Hunter, who was a mere mortal (albeit a very big and strong one) boasted that he held dominion over all the creatures on the Earth, a claim which upset Diana, goddess of the hunt. To put Orion’s ego in its proper place Diana sent a scorpion to challenge the boastful giant; the scorpion stung Orion in the heel as he tried to squash it with his foot. To her dismay Diana realized that she had a “crush” on the now-defunct Hunter, so she placed both victims in the sky in such a way that they would never be seen at the same time. The scorpion is, of course, the constellation Scorpius, and its brightest star is the red supergiant star Antares.

The Sky This Week, 2012 November 27 – December 4 — Naval Oceanography Portal

The Sky This Week, 2012 November 20 – 27 — Naval Oceanography Portal

Luna waxes to Full Moon on the 28th at 9:46 am Eastern Daylight Time. November’s Full Moon is variously known as the Frosty Moon or the Beaver Moon. The latter name comes from Native American skylore reminding trappers to set their final traps for the season before the beaver ponds freeze up for the winter.

The Sky This Week, 2012 November 20 – 27 — Naval Oceanography Portal

The Sky This Week, 2012 November 20 – 27 — Naval Oceanography Portal

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the winter holiday season for many of us. We’re now entering the weeks when we experience the year’s earliest sunsets and nightfall seems to come well before we’re ready to end our day. It is a time of great seasonal shifts in both the climate and the sky ….

The yellow-hued star Capella is nearing the meridian at this time, and its passage is entirely appropriate for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Capella is one of the few bright stars whose name does not have Arabic origins. It derives from the Latin word for a female goat, and if you have keen eyes or a pair of binoculars you can see a small triangle of stars tucked close to the bright yellow beacon. These stars form an asterism known as “The Kids”. In Roman mythology Capella represented a she-goat named Amalthea which suckled the infant Jupiter. The young god, evidently a rambunctious little boy, accidentally snapped off one of Amalthea’s horns, which became the “Cornucopia”, or “Horn of Plenty”. In turn the Cornucopia has become associated with our observance of Thanksgiving and the feasting that goes along with it. Amalthea has been recognized by giving her name to the fifth moon of Jupiter, discovered by the American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard in 1892 on his first night of observing with the then-new 36-inch refracting telescope at Lick Observatory, the largest in the world at the time. This was the last moon in the solar system to be found visually. Thanks to Earth-based and spacecraft photography we now know that Jupiter has some 64 moons!

The Sky This Week, 2012 November 20 – 27 — Naval Oceanography Portal

The Sky This Week, 2012 November 13 – 20 — Naval Oceanography Portal

Moonlight shouldn’t interfere with this year’s display of the annual Leonids meteor shower. Conveniently this display peaks on the night of the 17th/18th, with best viewing times between 2:00 am and morning twilight on the 18th. … This year expectations are for a more “normal” display with perhaps 20 or so meteors visible per hour in a dark location, but the shower is notoriously unpredictable in its “off” years, so you may see many more or possibly many fewer. The meteors themselves are very swift, traversing 20 or 30 degrees of the sky in a fleeting instant, with the brighter members leaving persistent smoke trains. The shower radiant is in the “head” of the constellation of Leo, the Lion. [mjh: look for the backward question mark that forms Leo’s head (body to the left/north).]

The Sky This Week, 2012 November 13 – 20 — Naval Oceanography Portal

NASA – How to See the Best Meteor Showers of the Year: Tools, Tips and ‘Save the Dates’

Leonids
Comet of Origin: 55P/Tempel-Tuttle
Radiant: constellation Leo
Active: Nov. 6-30, 2012
Peak Activity: Night of Nov. 17, 2012
Peak Activity Meteor Count: Approximately 15 per hour
Meteor Velocity: 44 miles (71 kilometers) per second
Note: The Leonids have not only produced some of the best meteor showers in history, but they have sometimes achieved the status of meteor storm. During a Leonid meteor storm, many thousands of meteors per hour can shoot across the sky. Scientists believe these storms recur in cycles of about 33 years, though the reason is unknown. The last documented Leonid meteor storm occurred in 2002.

NASA – How to See the Best Meteor Showers of the Year: Tools, Tips and ‘Save the Dates’

The Sky This Week, 2012 October 23 – 30 — Naval Oceanography Portal

Full Moon occurs on the 29th at 3:49 pm Eastern Daylight Time. She courses a lonely path this week, with no bright companions to call upon until she encounters Aldebaran and Jupiter next week. October’s Full Moon is known as the Hunter’s Moon, with similar orbital geometry to last month’s Harvest Moon. Just as the Harvest Moon provides a little extra light to help farmers bring in their crops, the Hunter’s Moon gives hunters a little extra light to pursue game across the stubble of the harvested fields.

The Sky This Week, 2012 October 23 – 30 — Naval Oceanography Portal

The Sky This Week, 2012 October 2 – 9 — Naval Oceanography Portal

With sunrise in Washington now occurring after 7:00 am EDT many of us are being dazzled by the bright glimmer of Venus in the east as we gather the morning paper or walk the family dog. The planet shines at a blazing magnitude of -4.1, which is bright enough to cast shadows in very dark locations. You won’t see your shadow by the light of Venus this week since the Moon gives her fierce competition, but later this month you can try to spot this elusive sight.

The Sky This Week, 2012 October 2 – 9 — Naval Oceanography Portal

The Sky This Week, 2012 September 25 – October 2 — Naval Oceanography Portal

Full Moon occurs on the 29th at 11:19 pm Eastern daylight Time. Since this Full Moon occurs closest to the autumnal equinox it is almost universally known to Northern Hemisphere residents as the Harvest Moon. The name derives not only from the season but also from a curious quirk of orbital geometry. For viewers in mid to high northern latitudes the Moon seems to skip along the eastern horizon as it rises from night to night around the time of the full phase. In fact, at latitudes north of the Arctic Circle the Moon rises earlier on successive nights! For most of us, though, the difference in moonrise times is somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes for a few days around Full Moon, depending on latitude. Thus the effect is one where the light of the rising Moon adds to the light of twilight, enabling farmers to squeeze a little extra time into their harvest activities each day. Out of the many different names that sky lore ascribes to the year’s various Full Moons, the Harvest Moon is probably the most widely recognized by the general public, followed by next month’s Hunter’s Moon. Of course, in the Southern Hemisphere the opposite case applies; their "Harvest Moon" would fall near the vernal equinox in March.

The Sky This Week, 2012 September 25 – October 2 — Naval Oceanography Portal

The Sky This Week – 2012 September 18 – 25 — Naval Oceanography Portal

September 22nd has been designated as "International Observe The Moon Night", a special evening to look at and learn about our closest neighbor in space. …

The 22nd also happens to be the date of autumnal equinox, which occurs at 10:49 am EDT. At this time the Sun stands directly over the Earth’s equator just off the northeast coast of Brazil. Although the equinox officially marks the beginning of the astronomical season of autumn, the duration of night doesn’t exceed that of daylight until the 26th due to a combination of atmospheric refraction and the Sun’s apparent disc. However, it is one of the times of the year when the times of sunrise and sunset change most rapidly, so most of us will quickly notice the shortening days

The Sky This Week – 2012 September 18 – 25 — Naval Oceanography Portal

Follow the link for the most thorough, detailed explanation for how the use of blue moon evolved from the third full moon in a quarter with four to the second full moon in a month. As it happens, August’s meets both definitions, but January 2018 won’t!

Blue moon: one small mistake, giant folklore for the sky – Capital Weather Gang – The Washington Post

The next blue moon occurs on July 31, 2015. We get two blue moons in 2018 when they fall within January and March. (Always deprived of days, February 2018 gets no respect and no full moon.)

Blue moon: one small mistake, giant folklore for the sky – Capital Weather Gang – The Washington Post

Blue moon and Sturgeon moon in August 2012 – Capital Weather Gang – The Washington Post by Blaine Friedlander

[H]anging out at the Astronomy Café, you can learn amazing things about blue moons. In 1999, you may recall we had two full moons in January and March. And February had no full moons at all.

In 2018, we’ll enjoy double blue moons again in January and March – and once again February is devoid of official lunar plump. Odenwald – the author of “The Astronomy Café,” “Back to The Astronomy Café,” and “Patterns in the Void” – explains on his website that the lunar month is 29.53 days long. The largest number of days in February is 29 days, so February will never see a blue moon.

Rare among the rare: Blue moons can occur in months with only 30 days – and that happened Nov. 30, 2001, Odenwald says. We have two more decades before that happens again on Sept. 30, 2031.

On many different levels, blue moons have a bright, festive future: Get your Halloween costume ready for the Oct. 31, 2020 and the Oct. 31, 2039 events. You can ring in 2029 with a blue moon on Dec. 31, 2028.

Blue moon and Sturgeon moon in August 2012 – Capital Weather Gang – The Washington Post

Watch Out for the Blue Moon – NASA Science

A truly-blue Moon usually requires a volcanic eruption. Back in 1883, for example, people saw blue moons almost every night after the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded with the force of a 100-megaton nuclear bomb. Plumes of ash rose to the very top of Earth’s atmosphere, and the Moon … it turned blue!

Smoke from volcanoes and forest fires can cause the Moon to turn blue. [Blue Moon Stories]

Krakatoa’s ash was the reason. Some of the plumes were filled with particles 1 micron wide, about the same as the wavelength of red light.  Particles of this special size strongly scatter red light, while allowing blue light to pass through. Krakatoa’s clouds thus acted like a blue filter.

People also saw blue-colored Moons in 1983 after the eruption of the El Chichon volcano in Mexico. And there are reports of blue Moons caused by Mt. St. Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991.

Certain forest fires can do the same trick.  A famous example is the giant muskeg fire of Sept. 1953 in Alberta, Canada.  Clouds of smoke containing micron-sized oil droplets produced lavender suns and blue Moons all the way from North America to England.

There are plenty of wildfires burning in the hot, dry USA this month.  If any of them produce smoke with an extra dose of micron-sized particles, the full Moon might really turn blue.

On the other hand, maybe it will turn red.  Often, when the moon is hanging low, it looks red for the same reason that sunsets are red.  The atmosphere is full of aerosols much smaller than the ones injected by volcanoes.  Measuring less than a micron in diameter, these aerosols scatter blue light, while leaving the red behind. For this reason, red Blue Moons are far more common than blue Blue Moons.

Watch Out for the Blue Moon – NASA Science

The Sky This Week, 2012 August 27 – September 4 — Naval Oceanography Portal

The month’s second Full Moon occurs on August 31st at 9:58 am Eastern Daylight Time. The second Full Moon to fall in a calendar month has now become popularly known as a "Blue Moon", although skylore experts don’t necessarily agree on this. The term initially referred to the third Full Moon in a season with four Full Moons (normally there are three.) However, a misinterpretation of the 1937 "Maine Farmer’s Almanac" in a popular magazine in 1946 led to the current definition. Either way the event is comparatively rare, occurring seven times in a 19-year cycle. By either definition the "Blue Moon" resets the monthly calendar of popular Full Moon names, so the next one, which will occur on September 29th, will be the fabled "Harvest Moon".

The Sky This Week, 2012 August 27 – September 4 — Naval Oceanography Portal