Josef “Jeff” Sipek

Lunar Eclipse

Sweet! Now, if only I could get away from civilization at that time…

NASA’s info

More info is on NASA’s site.

Luna(tic)

Today, I was in my room, when my sister pointed out that the rising moon was rather big. I grabbed my camera with a 70-300mm zoom, and snapped this:

The Moon!

Not too bad considering I was at 300mm, f/5.6, and 1/2000 second shutter (aperture priority with spot metering).

Edit: I should add that I took the photo around 5pm, and the fast shutter has made the sky which was rather light seem near black.

Good Bye Pluto

So, Pluto isn’t a planet anymore!

Perseid Meteor Shower - Summary

So, we (Rob and I) drove to the beach right by the university. And stared at the sky for few hours. We saw a number of meteors — I’d categorize them into 3 groups:

  • Good — a nice streak
  • Great — very nice, long, bright streak
  • Awesome — long, bright streak, with a flash of light followed by more streak

I saw many of the “good” ones, about 10-15 of “great” ones, and 1 awesome one. The awesome one was across most of the sky, and toward the end it broke up (giving off that flash of light). Meteor showers are really great.

Perseid Meteor Shower

This weekend, there will be a meteor shower — the Perseid meteor shower. Meteor showers are called after the constallation from which they seem to originate. This “origin” is only an illusion of course. The perseid meteor shower is called after the constallation Perseus. Unfortunately, the moon will be nearly full and that will make the meteors less visible. It, however, should still be fun.

So, go outside on the 12th after sunset and look up and watch the stars fall :)

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