Monday, December 10, 2007

A Bit More About Watching the Geminids

I ran a section last week about watching the Geminids "meteor" shower. Over the weekend I ran into a number of other good links. One of the better ones from Stardate.org was only available as a Google cached page, but had the advisory:

Treat meteor watching like you would the 4th of July fireworks. Pack comfortable chairs, bug spray, food and drinks, blankets, plus a red-filtered flashlight for reading maps and charts without ruining your night vision. Binoculars are not necessary. Your eyes will do just fine.

I'm not sure about the bug spray, but a comfortable lawn chair, hot cocoa or coffee, blankets, and the red-filtered light are great advice. What you don't need is a telescope or binoculars, as the page says. Meteor showers are a wide-view kind of thing.

Some other nice writeups on the shower and viewing directions are at:

• AgelessMind Blog
• Space.com's Viewer's Guide to Geminid Meteor Shower
• Earth & Sky
• Sky & Telescope's The Geminids: An Exception to the Rule
• msnbc.com Best meteor shower nears its peak

Atlantis (STS-122) Launch Delayed Again

The launch of the space shuttle Atlantis (STS-122) has been delayed again. The mission page currently lists the launch "No earlier than Jan. 2, 2008." Problems with faulty fuel tank sensors was listed as the cause.

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