The Westronomy Blog

During 2023, I was able to get out on 12 different occasions to observe and count meteors. This is better than most years, and I attribute that to increased effort as well as some fortunate weather. The Moon didn't impact as many shower peaks in 2023 as in most years, so that was favorable. The good weather didn't always land on the exact peak date of the shower, so several of my sessions were away from the peak but while the shower was producing noticeable activity. The showers on my Major Meteor Showers of 2023 outlook that I didn't pursue were the Quadrantids and the Eta Aquariids, both wiped out by bright moonlight. As I'm working on my 2024 outlook and plans, I figured I would relive this past year. I submitted my observations to the International Meteor Organization when conditions permitted, and it turns out that I spent just shy of 34 hours counting meteors (and/or waiting for meteors to count 😀). I logged 1463 meteors during these sessions. I spent more time...

  A bright Geminid from the evening of December 14, 2023 This is still in DRAFT status. Check back soon if links or formatting are wonky. -WS Jump to Quadrantids , Lyrids , Eta Aquariids , Southern Delta Aquariids , PERSEIDS , Orionids , Leonids , Geminids It seems that fewer amateur astronomers are actively watching meteors/meteor showers these days. Meanwhile, there is still a lot of public interest, some from folks in rural areas who have a longstanding but casual relationship to the night sky and like to watch the Perseids or Geminids, and some from people who have never seen a meteor shower before but have seen something about an upcoming meteor shower in their news feed. My aim with this meteor shower outlook each year is to pinpoint the best times (if any) to watch the major meteor showers, and also to provide pointers about what to look for and how to increase the number of meteors you see and hopefully the satisfaction you receive from being out under the stars watching fo...

Chiloquin, OR Early morning was promising: 8:02am through a solar filter After an hour of nothing: 9:15am, filtered only by clouds from here until 10:08am 9:17:16am 9:17:30am - Predicted beginning of annularity 9:17:32am 9:17:38am 9:17:56am 9:17:56am: The color remix 9:18:37am: A pseudo-total eclipse 9:19:58am: "Ring of Fire" in subtle color 9:19:58am: "Ring of Fire" with saturation and contrast dialed up 9:20:38am 9:45am 10:08am with no clouds through a solar filter

M101  is a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major near the handle of the Big Dipper. It is relatively bright and nearby as galaxies go, but we see it face-on so its surface brightness is low. When I first tracked down M101 with my little 60mm refractor many years ago, my description in my observing log was "the closest thing to nothing that I've ever seen." Nowadays, I can point my even littler 8x42 binoculars up to the right spot and I see M101 with no issues from a dark sky site. Chalk that up to the power of experience--bright deep-sky objects don't look very bright when you start out on your visual astronomy journey, but take some time to learn to see. For the past 20 years, I've had a 10" Dob which gathers a lot more light than my binoculars and small scope. Compared to just detecting M101 with the smaller instruments, it allows me to see detail in the spiral arms, although without the contrast or extreme reach of well-done astrophotography/astro-imaging. I've ...

One month since my last aurora adventure, the Northern Lights struck again, and once again I was dodging clouds and an uncertain duration of auroral activity. I went to Howard Bay on the west side of Upper Klamath Lake, and only wish that I had ignored the clouds and twilight and gotten there a little bit sooner. First quick shot, 9:11pm 9:40pm: I liked this framing with the Big and Little Dippers Bright curtain at 10:15pm 12:23am: The peak of the "last act"

For the first time in almost 8 years, I saw a significant display of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). It was a bit of a slog, though. I had looked at Spaceweather.com in the morning and seen the possibility for some auroral activity over the next day, but forgot about it during work and even after work as I ate supper and watched the end of a basketball game. Most of the time, these aurora forecasts either fizzle, or the auroras aren't visible as far south as Southern Oregon, or the storm is over by the time night falls here. Or it's cloudy. The weather during the afternoon was a full-on blizzard at times. During evening twilight, I made a grocery run and noticed it had cleared off. Venus and the Moon were in a pleasing formation, with Jupiter far below. But I didn't remember to check on the aurora. Both of the late tournament games went down to the wire, and it wasn't until after those ended that I thought about checking in on the space weather again. When I did...