The Lyrids Are Coming

The Lyrid Meteor Shower that is. The annual event will peak tonight... with highest meteor counts likely between midnight and first light. A waning crescent moon will rise around 4:00am. It won't be much of a negative impact on viewing. In fact... since the moon is actually going through the same cometary debris field... sharp-eyed observers armed with a telescope might actually see meteors striking the dark side of the moon!

Crazy Weather

It's been a while since my last post. To tell the truth... I've not been able to do a whole lot of observing. I got out and did my GLOBE observations. Under less than ideal skies, I recorded mag 5 skies from my home in Park City, UT. Not horrible mind you, but far from where they should be. I'll even throw in a comment that on an ideal night, skies would likely be closer to mag 6 than mag 5, but... still clearly showing signs of degradation from all the development that is taking place in the area.
Under very moist skies, we saw a beautiful arc around the moon the other night. I'm always amazed that this feature is just a touch wider than my widest angle lens. Figures, huh? Find a cool shot... and need to play games to get it just right. Oh, Well....
So.... what's the weather looking like? More of the same... cloudy, rain and/or snow. At least this batch is coinciding with the approaching full moon. I mean... if it has to be stormy... it might as well do so when the moon is big and bright.