Night Sky Tour: January 1 - 15, 2012

From January 1st - January 15th Venus's movement in the evening sky is along the tail of Capricorn into the constellation Aquarius. Mercury's movement in the morning sky is from Scorpio to Sagittarius. The Moon joins Jupiter and Mars in the night sky and we have a meteor shower. The video below will show you where to find it and where to locate the planets.

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower Peaks on January 4th. The Quadrantids Meteor Shower is active from 12/28 – 1/12 and peaks on the morning for January 4th from about 5:30 AM until dawn blots some of the shooting stars from view. The Quadrantids are compliments of parent comet 2003 EH1. They have an extremely variable rate of 25 – 200 meteors per hour and their radiant lies just north of Bootes. Now this is a rather curiously named shower isn’t it? We know that meteor showers are named after the constellations they radiate from, but we have no Quadrantid constellation, so how did this shower get its name? The Quadrantids are actually named for a now defunct constellation called Quadrans Muralis, a constellation named after a medieval instrument the measured the altitude of stars by French astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 1795. Quadrans Muralis contained stars belonging to Bootes, Hercules, Ursa Major and Draco to form the shape of the quadrant murillas used to plot the stars.

To find out what happened to this constellation watch the video - and at the end you'll hear about two reclassification events with the IAU (International Astronomical Society) that resonate with the Uranus cycle! Ahhh the synchronisity! :)



Happy New Year everyone!!!

Namaste,
Julene

Sky Tour - New Year's Eve

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Locate the planets from Sunset on New Year's eve until the morning when Mercury rises before sunset on New Year's day in this quick 3 minute video tour of the sky.

Night Sky Tour December 21 - 31, 2011

Happy Solstice Everyone!

Join me on a guided tour to locating Mercury, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter & Venus from December 21-31, 2011. Plus find out where to locate the Ursid Meteor Showers that peak on December 22nd/23rd. Also get a good visual explaination of winter solstice, the sun's ingress into Capricorn, the tropical zodiac, and the height of the sun durring the various seasons.



Have a blessed holiday season filled with love, laughter, and the warmth of family and good friends. Cheers to a great 2012!

Julene