The Perseids Meteor Shower that just ended had me wondering about the remaining 2009 meteor showers. One of the coolest things about astronomy is a meteor shower but I tend to forget about them. Kind of like I did the Perseids, ahem. So, I decided to mark my calendar for future events. In all honesty, I prefer the meteor showers in the winter because in Florida it is a much more comfortable time to watch for shooting stars. Here goes:

• October 17-25   Orionids Meteor Shower, peek fall rate will be the 21^st and 22^nd, look to the east after midnight for a great show.
• November 13-20 Lenoids Meteor Shower, peek fall rate will be on the 17^th and 18^th look toward Leo after midnight.
• December 6-19 Geminids Meteor Shower, peek fall rate will be the 13^th and 14^th, best visibility early morning but look east after midnight towards Gemini.

I have been known to take powerful binoculars or my telescope out to watch but usually find I enjoy it the most when I just take a chair or blanket and some hot chocolate. I can’t wait till my son is old enough to watch for shooting stars with me! Do you like summer or winter meteor showers best and how do you enjoy viewing them?

Photo Credit Chrisacuna

Upon checking my newsfeeds this morning, I read an article in the Irish Times recapping an interview with a Turkish guard. In it, he casually discussed his many sightings of UFOs, and the growing popularity of UFO watching in his country.

The article went on to review the many different “alien encounters” that celebrities and farmers alike had experienced in Turkey, including a friendly, “prawn-coloured” alien who plucked one women from her bed and gave her a “whistle-stop tour of earth [sic],” complete with telekinesis.

With a quick Google search, I found different sources linking Turkey to alien life, including an impressive collection of “aliens and Turkey” videos in the History Channel’s archives. Two examples:

CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD: ALIEN UNDERGROUND IN TURKEY

UFO’s in Turkey

So what is the deal? Has anyone seen aliens in Turkey or know more about their “roots” there?

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joka2000/238088206/

Do you ever look up into the night sky and find yourself amazed at the beauty you see there? I do, all the time. I live out in the middle of nowhere so I have a pretty nice view. Not a lot of lights from town (some, I’m not totally isolated) and no other houses nearby. Heck, when we built our new house I made sure we didn’t have one of those obnoxious yard lights that keeps it bright as day just so I could look up and enjoy the night sky.

I love how peaceful it is and how amazingly magical everything feels on a cloudless night. Preferably a cool night, but that’s probably because I live in Florida and who wants to sit in the heat with the bugs? Sidetracked…sorry. My point is, that astrophotography allows you to take that moment of ‘looking up’ and keep it all day every day, even high noon. Pretty cool. I’m just getting into the active participation of night sky viewing but I think it is going to be a lifelong love affair.

I’ve already got my computer ready for the amazing pictures I’m sure I will be gathering. Routine defragmentation, extra disk space, and some smokin’ photo editing software.

What else do I need to capture that ‘looking up’ feeling?

Photo Credit Computer Hotline

Some of the guides out there will tell you that the first thing you need to do if you want to get started in astrophotography is to buy some really expensive cameras and books. Not true. The very first thing you need to do is defrag your computer. Don’t laugh, I’m being serious. You are going to be editing a bunch of pictures, and of course downloading and deleting a bunch of pictures and you need to get your computer ready. A fragmented hard drive is not ready.

Now you need to go buy some books (before the camera). While you are reading the books (well not at the same time of course but over the course of the few days it takes) go outside with the camera you already have and get a few images. See if you like being outside at night and how your images compare with what you want. This may help you decide just how much you want to spend on your new camera.

Then join some of the boards and groups dedicated to astrophotography. Get some personal advice and see what everyone recommends. Find a buddy that is willing to apprentice you. Sure you could go it alone, but with help you’ll have more fun and be able to troubleshoot faster.

Do you like astrophotography? How did you get started?

Photo Credit Ryan Wick

As far as eclipses go, lunar is the minor leagues in difficulty. But what it lacks in difficulty it makes up for in beauty. The beauty of a lunar eclipse, to me, isn’t when the full eclipse occurs. It is all of the phases preceding the big event. Of course, I might be the itsy bitsiest bit biased, because I’m a night person and I have a natural affinity for the moon.

Where was I? Oh yes, there are several ways you can get your image(s) of a lunar eclipse. You can use a film camera (although, I’m not so good at it) or you can use a ‘regular’ digital camera or an SLR digital camera. As for methods, you can use a wide angle, multiple exposure, or telephoto. Obviously a post isn’t enough room to get into the pros and cons of all the options, but if you are interested in learning more you can check them out.

No matter what you use you are probably going to want to do some digital editing. The one time I tried this I had lots of images and I ended up putting them all together for one larger composite image. It turned out pretty cool but it did take lots of saving and deleting to get it. So, while getting the raw data to create your perfect image may not consume tons of disk space, for me, editing it all together certainly did. I suppose, I’m just going to have to accept the fact that my love with photography has the natural consequence of fragmenting my hard drive. I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, but defragmentation is a small price to pay for the addiction.

Photo Credit foxypar4

Being in the right place at the right time to capture a total solar eclipse

Back on track… if you are really interested in astrophotography, you will at some point find yourself on a mission to capture a solar eclipse on film. It’s like the Holy Grail of astro-geeks (which I mean in the most loving way). I know if I ever have the opportunity again, I won’t be inside. As a matter of fact I’ll be outside with all of my cameras (heck, I’d say that kind of event would call for some new cameras too!) and tripods. Timers, remotes, every gizmo I can get my hands on. Prior to show time? I’ll obviously defrag my hard drive so that I’m able to play (quickly, because I’m an instant gratification kind of girl) with all of the bazillion images I’ll have.

Have you ever captured a solar eclipse? How did you do it, and how did it turn out?

Photo Credit luc.viatour

For people unfamiliar with astrophotography a star trail may sound like something from Star Trek. (Oh yeah, I got a Trek reference in!) First, let’s start with a visual representation by checking out the image to the left. Pretty, huh? That’s a star trail. Basically what you do is set your camera (digital or film) to a slow exposure. Over minutes or hours you will capture the movement of the stars. Technically it isn’t the stars that are moving, I guess, it’s the Earth. But you get the idea.

I think this is a great way to get into astrophotography. It doesn’t require any fancy lenses or computerized help. You can do it with pretty much any kind of camera and you get something that is all sorts of pretty when you are done. The thing about all forms of astrophotography is that your images really need to be pretty high resolution so you can really see what you are getting a picture of. This means lots of disk space. If you are like me you won’t want to keep every single image you take so you’ll end up deleting the ones that are substandard. Do this enough times and your hard drive will look like a fragmented minefield. When getting into astrophotography it is important to start defragging regularly.

Do you have an interest in astronomy? Have you ever tried to capture a star trail? How did it go and what camera did you use?

Photo Credit xtacocorex

ISS fan clubs allow people to come together and share their love of science, the stars and astronomy. What’s more, since the ISS can be easily seen from Earth without the aid of special equipment, you can schedule your fan club to meet on nights when the ISS will pass over your city!

If you’re interested in joining or starting an International Space Station fan club in your city, post a message here!

(photo credit: bestrated1 and NASA)

As a (presumed) Earthling, I like the idea that there’s some nobler purpose to our existence, even if we’re ultimately nothing more than a flux of electrons inside from unfathomable alien computer. Just as some of us enjoy historical simulations such as Renaissance fairs, an arbitrarily advanced civilization — either alien or human — might decide to reconstruct a time-period for educational purposes. Indeed, we are fortunate (?) to find ourselves living in such a pivotal time, possibly just years away from achieving the technological “Singularity” predicted by some futurists.

Humans have existed for untold thousands of years, but only recently have we developed the capability to transcend our home planet or, conversely, extinguish all life upon it. If we are in fact experiencing the early 21st century in “real time” (and not as a VR recording), then it’s tempting to envision future scholars, endowed with immense computing power, creating a simulated version of our era — and then, just maybe, immersing themselves in it for the sake of understanding.

This scenario is unabashedly hopeful, as it implies that there is a future for humankind. On a darker note, we could be the computational spawn of alien archaeologists, doomed to simulate our own impending demise.

Mac Tonnies

(photo credit: paulgi)

Maybe we should attempt a more formal, quantitative analysis of these claims. One example that I find oddly amusing is the famous Hopkinsville, KY “invasion,” in which a family opened fire on bizarre, goblin-like beings that they assumed were alien visitors.

Many ufologists committed to the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) exclude the Hopkinsville incident from their files because, at least in retrospect, it seems so implausible; attacking an isolated farmhouse hardly seems like the behavior expected of “real” extraterrestrials. Interestingly, journalists noted that purported psychic Edgar Cayce had grown up just south of Hopkinsville. Some Forteans wondered, not completely without justification, if there might be some sort of connection.

Enter artist Budd Hopkins, whose research has rendered “alien abductions” and the ETH virtually synonymous in the public imagination. Books such as “Missing Time” and “Intruders” (both seminal works in several respects) echo Hopkins’ belief that manipulative ETs are visiting Earth in order to engage in a long-term transgenic experiment.

Is Hopkins an unwitting player in an acausal mosaic of weird happenings? If so, it seems his nuts-and-bolts conclusions regarding the alleged alien presence comprise a kind of “punchline” to the unlikely antics exhibited by the Hopkinsville “goblins,” who behaved more like mechanized circus monkeys than Hopkins’ own methodical genetic engineers.

Skeptics will point out that “Hopkins” is hardly an unusual name. But there are enough cases of synchronicity within UFO research alone to justify a closer, more rigorous analysis. Perhaps Fortean events unfold in a barely glimpsed “Matrix,” their manifestations only partially perceptible to baseline human consciousness.

Mac Tonnies

(photo credit: grendlx)