Religion and Ethics Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Bubbles on August 12, 2015, 11:07:37 AM
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Tonight!
Provided the clouds get out the way : >:(
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33850710
No moon either, so it's meant to be better.
The difficulty is escaping the glare of the city lights.
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I hoped to see them last night as the sky was clear, but was unlucky. I have seen them, from time to time, in other years, though.
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I hoped to see them last night as the sky was clear, but was unlucky. I have seen them, from time to time, in other years, though.
That's because they are visible tonight not last night 😉
Really?
..from your link, if you care to read it.....
;) :D
The Perseid shower is active each year from around 17 July to 24 August, although for most of that period only a few meteors an hour are visible.
.....and.....
Some skywatchers have already glimpsed - and photographed - Perseid meteors during the nights preceding the shower's peak.
Chris Boundey spent Monday night at Dunstanburgh Castle in Northumberland, UK. "The meteors seemed to be coming thick and fast overhead," he told the BBC in an email.
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I hoped to see them last night as the sky was clear, but was unlucky. I have seen them, from time to time, in other years, though.
That's because they are visible tonight not last night 😉
Wales is meant to be a good place to see them, best time is Thursday morning between 1am and 4am.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/33878964
Wales is not a good place to see them tonight apparently as it will be cloudy, unfortunately.
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Got some amazing sightings from upstairs looking out over the fields. My eldest was crying because they were so beautiful.
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I saw 6 over the course of 30 mins, one large one leaving a trail.
Looking up to the stars is always a source of wonder; a starting point for both science and religion, a starry sky being a thing of beauty and yet also in a sense they are the factories where you and I were made.
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Mmm .. yes, the beginnings of woo ... and science :)
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Good display last night, including one leaving a vapour trail, and made even more interesting by seeing the ISS passing at roughly the same time.
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Good display last night, including one leaving a vapour trail, and made even more interesting by seeing the ISS passing at roughly the same time.
Yes, we saw that too. :)
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I saw 6 over the course of 30 mins, one large one leaving a trail.
Looking up to the stars is always a source of wonder; a starting point for both science and religion, a starry sky being a thing of beauty and yet also in a sense they are the factories where you and I were made.
There is something obscurely comforting about knowing we are made from the stars, and knowing we'll be remade into something else.
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I saw 6 over the course of 30 mins, one large one leaving a trail.
Looking up to the stars is always a source of wonder; a starting point for both science and religion, a starry sky being a thing of beauty and yet also in a sense they are the factories where you and I were made.
There is something obscurely comforting about knowing we are made from the stars, and knowing we'll be remade into something else.
Yes, I think so too. Perhaps it's that it's a reminder that we're not, as so many foolishly like to think, somehow above or apart from the fabric of the cosmos but an inherent and inextricable part of it.
Of course, whether you want to consider yourself as being made of stardust or spent nuclear fuel is a matter of temperament ;)
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I saw 6 over the course of 30 mins, one large one leaving a trail.
Looking up to the stars is always a source of wonder; a starting point for both science and religion, a starry sky being a thing of beauty and yet also in a sense they are the factories where you and I were made.
There is something obscurely comforting about knowing we are made from the stars, and knowing we'll be remade into something else.
Yes, I agree, Rhi. I suppose it's a feeling that we are all part of this universe, just stardust reconstituted. Perhaps it has to do with a feeling of our own importance combined with that of our own insignificance. :)
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I saw 6 over the course of 30 mins, one large one leaving a trail.
Looking up to the stars is always a source of wonder; a starting point for both science and religion, a starry sky being a thing of beauty and yet also in a sense they are the factories where you and I were made.
There is something obscurely comforting about knowing we are made from the stars, and knowing we'll be remade into something else.
Yes, I agree, Rhi. I suppose it's a feeling that we are all part of this universe, just stardust reconstituted. Perhaps it has to do with a feeling of our own importance combined with that of our own insignificance. :)
That's it exactly. I like being reminded of the insignificance of it all, every bit of it, yet also like the reminder that we are all the building blocks of what is to come. :)
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I saw 6 over the course of 30 mins, one large one leaving a trail.
Looking up to the stars is always a source of wonder; a starting point for both science and religion, a starry sky being a thing of beauty and yet also in a sense they are the factories where you and I were made.
There is something obscurely comforting about knowing we are made from the stars, and knowing we'll be remade into something else.
Yes, I agree, Rhi. I suppose it's a feeling that we are all part of this universe, just stardust reconstituted. Perhaps it has to do with a feeling of our own importance combined with that of our own insignificance. :)
That's it exactly. I like being reminded of the insignificance of it all, every bit of it, yet also like the reminder that we are all the building blocks of what is to come. :)
Meteors are just bits of dust, pebbles and rocks burning up. What's the big deal?
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That we are composed of some of the same stuff as they are out in the wild depths of deep space. That's mind-blowing to me - why not to you? I suppose you find New Testament David Blaine-esque conjuring tricks more believable and impressive, is that it?
And they look damned cool too :)
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That we are composed of some of the same stuff as they are out in the wild depths of deep space. That's mind-blowing to me - why not to you? I suppose you find New Testament David Blaine-esque conjuring tricks more believable and impressive, is that it?
Have to make a religious thing out of a simple point of view, totally unrelated to religion, eh. And you wonder why I call you obsessive.
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As a point of view goes it's a pretty parochial, limited, parish-pump one though isn't it? I know we can't all be interested in the same stuff but not to be amazed by this is inconceivable to me.
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As a point of view goes it's a pretty parochial, limited, parish-pump one though isn't it? I know we can't all be interested in the same stuff but not to be amazed by this is inconceivable to me.
Don't be so ridiculous. Astronomy was a hobby of mine for many years, and I don't see the Perseids as more than a fairly innocuous astronomical detail. You are hugely over-stating their importance, as a spectacle and as an astronomical occurrence. Just the usual attempt to start an argument about nothing in particular.
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I saw 6 over the course of 30 mins, one large one leaving a trail.
Looking up to the stars is always a source of wonder; a starting point for both science and religion, a starry sky being a thing of beauty and yet also in a sense they are the factories where you and I were made.
There is something obscurely comforting about knowing we are made from the stars, and knowing we'll be remade into something else.
Yes, I agree, Rhi. I suppose it's a feeling that we are all part of this universe, just stardust reconstituted. Perhaps it has to do with a feeling of our own importance combined with that of our own insignificance. :)
That's it exactly. I like being reminded of the insignificance of it all, every bit of it, yet also like the reminder that we are all the building blocks of what is to come. :)
Meteors are just bits of dust, pebbles and rocks burning up. What's the big deal?
I don't get that at all.
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I saw 6 over the course of 30 mins, one large one leaving a trail.
Looking up to the stars is always a source of wonder; a starting point for both science and religion, a starry sky being a thing of beauty and yet also in a sense they are the factories where you and I were made.
There is something obscurely comforting about knowing we are made from the stars, and knowing we'll be remade into something else.
Yes, I agree, Rhi. I suppose it's a feeling that we are all part of this universe, just stardust reconstituted. Perhaps it has to do with a feeling of our own importance combined with that of our own insignificance. :)
That's it exactly. I like being reminded of the insignificance of it all, every bit of it, yet also like the reminder that we are all the building blocks of what is to come. :)
Meteors are just bits of dust, pebbles and rocks burning up. What's the big deal?
I don't get that at all.
It's what they are, isn't it.
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Yes, but it doesn't make them any less amazing.
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Yes, but it doesn't make them any less amazing.
Bits of dust and rock burning up. An occurrence which is happening every day of the year. Not that amazing.
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It's sad that someone who claims to have studied astronomy as a hobby seems to have so little connection to the universe, but each to their own.
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When one is bored of the Perseids.....
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It's sad that someone who claims to have studied astronomy as a hobby seems to have so little connection to the universe, but each to their own.
I don't "claim" it, as though there is doubt - nasty little insinuation there, and so typical of you. Not finding burning pebbles as not having a "connection with the universe" is juvenile. There are many amazing things to see in the night sky, every single night; and things which are infinitely more absorbing.. But you wouldn't know that.
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When one is bored of the Perseids.....
Indeed. I still find the sun mind-blowing, the moon, clouds - clouds, how many people look up and marvel at how staggeringly, beautifully amazing they are? But no, I guess they are just a everyday meteorological occurrence.
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If you're a cloud nut like me I heartily recommend The Cloud Spotter's Handbook by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. Smashing book, that :)
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Yes, I've heard of that. Lucky me, living in East Anglia - big skies. :)
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If you're a cloud nut like me I heartily recommend The Cloud Spotter's Handbook by Gavin Pretor-Pinney. Smashing book, that :)
You're a "cloud nut?" Well, I suppose tha's at least partly accurate! :)
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Yes, I've heard of that. Lucky me, living in East Anglia - big skies. :)
Lucky you living in East Anglia full stop :)
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Yes, I've heard of that. Lucky me, living in East Anglia - big skies. :)
Lucky you living in East Anglia full stop :)
Yep, although perfection would be closer to the coast.
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Any particular bit? I'm so enamoured of the area that I even fell in love a bit with Walcott (of all places) on a cold, grey, blustery day. (I do love a good wild elemental day like that though, and being by the sea is best of all).
Even cheap 'n' cheerful Sea Palling has a special place in my affections, if you can believe that. Great holiday, though - happy times. The chap who used to own Stow windmill (he's since sold up, I believe) used to have a great big fat black and white cat just like mine at the time, that used to sit on the counter of the shop. Apart from nearly drowning myself in Hickling Broad, good times.
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Sea Palling is my kids' heaven on earth. :) I really like it, I love its total lack of pretension and way it seems to have just evolved - all those little sheds and caravans that people live in behind the dunes. If you walk through the church yard and cross the road and then go right along the beach you get to Waxham which is totally different - it has a seal colony and this year we saw a common lizard in the dunes. Like you we all enjoy the elements - I never get why people complain about the grey skies of Norfolk - and there's nothing beats walking from Waxham back to Palling in blasting rain to finish up with coffee and fresh doughnuts in Charlie's.
I like the north coast too - Brancaster, Holkham etc - and the wildlife watching at Cley and Blakeney. But it's getting a bit chi-chi - Burnham Market is unbearable. Once the last not to small person is at university I'm most likely selling up and heading up that way - somewhere on the same stretch of coast as Palling, or maybe inland a bit, somewhere like Martham. To be able to walk on the beach every day would just be heaven.