Look! Up in the sky!

From Spaceweather:

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN: Scientists and sky watchers are converging on the northeast coast of Australia, near the Great Barrier Reef, for a total eclipse of the sun on Nov. 13/14. For researchers, the brief minutes of totality open a window into some of the deepest mysteries of solar physics. [full story]

TAURID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is passing through a stream of gravelly debris from Comet Encke, source of the annual Taurid meteor shower. Because the debris stream is not very congested, Taurid meteor rates are usually low, around 5 per hour. The special thing about Taurids is that they tend to be fireballs.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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2 Comments

  1. Dr. Edward Peters says:

    I like the astronomical notes that appear here offered amid the theological controversies of the day. It is important for us to stay in touch with universals, even natural ones, and no one can look at the clear night sky and not sense God. When we were last house hunting, my wife was crazy about the place in Saline but, while I was open to it, before signing on the dotted line, I said, “If I can see the Milky Way, however faintly, from the backyard, we’ll buy it.” Well, I drove out to it that night, and giving my eyes a few minutes to adjust, there she was, that ancient Milky Way, not luminous, I grant, but not invisibly faint either. So, we bought the place.

  2. Will D. says:

    Thank you for mentioning this, Father. I went out last night at about 19:30 Mountain time and saw one terrific meteor: it was brighter than Venus, and trailed sparks across about 20° of the sky before it burned itself out. It was extraordinarily beautiful.
    This morning, I was going to look at some astronomy sites and see if there was a shower expected, and I saw this post.

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