Apparently there was another aurora show last night but I must have been asleep. There is another one due tonight in the UK but now it’s raining! This bad photo is from a few weeks ago. I have a tremor and as this was a long (night) exposure over 60 seconds it means I have awful camera shake. Anyway it seems Auroras are increasing because we are close to solar maximum (the sun’s magnetic poles get more and more tangled until suspots explode out as various coronal mass ejections or solar flares, maximum is every 22 years) Then in 11 years later it returns to solar minimum. I’m sorry if this isn’t explained very well.
Penkhull Ukelele Band tonight! Music like the Sloop John B, a couple of Beatles songs, other songs from the 1960s. Some fantastic Ukelele playing, singing, and fiddle playing.
I’m afraid I have a blind spot when it comes to music, I can sing a song with a choir or on my own, but I can’t recall the words until I actually start singing. It’s the same with song titles, I can sing them, but ask me the title five minutes later? I’ve forgotten it! I can answer most quiz questions but the group and the title? No chance! I’m better at classical music, but I can’t recognise a symphony or a stanza. It’s very strange.
Meteor showers are caused by dust and debris from old comets or broken up asteroids, or other rocks or metallic pieces that are within earth’s orbit.
A comet might leave dust as it passes through the solar system. As the Earth orbits the Sun it can pass through the cloud of dust from a comet and burn up in our atmosphere, the burning pieces are what we see as shooting stars or meteors. If one falls to Earth it is classed as a meteorite.
Meteorites come in two types, carbonaceous (with carbon compounds) and metallic (with metals such as iron inside them). If you find one that has landed it can be worth a great deal of money.
Finally the meteor shower is named after the area or constellation in the sky they apparently come from. So the Perseid shower appears to emanate from the constellation Perseus. Others include the Orionids, Geminids, and other star groups. They happen throughout the year and astronomers can predict when they are due although not always the strength of the shower or storm. Tonight’s shower may have up to 100 shooting stars an hour. They usually start after local midnight… Good luck if you try to see them, I wish you clear skies.
I tried to view the shower a few years ago. We drove miles, but we’re stuck under a cloud base that was miles across. I gave up after forty miles. Tonight it’s the same, cloud everywhere. But if you get the chance try and see it for yourself!
The Geminid meteor shower is tonight. (morning of 14th December 2020). I looked up the information on Wikipedia I’m afraid as I don’t know enough about them:
The Geminids are a prolific meteor shower caused by the object 3200 Phaethon,[4] which is thought to be a Palladian asteroid[5] with a “rock comet” orbit.[6] This would make the Geminids, together with the Quadrantids, the only major meteor showers not originating from a comet. The meteors from this shower are slow moving, can be seen in December and usually peak around December 6–14, with the date of highest intensity being the morning of December 14. The shower is thought to be intensifying every year and recent showers have seen 120–160 meteors per hour under optimal conditions, generally around 02:00 to 03:00 local time. Geminids were first observed in 1862,[1] much more recently than other showers such as the Perseids (36 AD) and Leonids (902 AD).
Mallaband-Brown 