"and totality phase are safe to view without the solar filters used during the partial phases. By then, less than 0.001% of the Sun's photosphere is visible. Observers in the path of totality of a solar eclipse see first a gradual covering of the Sun by the lunar silhouette for over an hour, followed by the diamond ring effect (visible without filters) as the last bit of photosphere disappears. As the burst of light from the ring fades, Bailey's beads appear as the last bits of the bright photosphere shine through valleys aligned at the edge of the Moon. As"
"one of the most remote in recorded history. It was visible over much of the southern Pacific Ocean, touching several atolls in French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Easter Island, and Argentina's Patagonian plains. Fred Espenak, a NASA astrophysicist, said: In French Polynesia, the eclipse was seen with 98 percent totality. During that time, the diamond ring effect and the Baily's beads occurred. It ended at sunset over the southern tips of Argentina and Chile in South America, including the town of El Calafate. The Sun's altitude was only 1° during the 2 minute 47 second total phase, but Argentino Lake"
"depending on how much of the Sun's disk is obscured, some darkening may be noticeable. If three-quarters or more of the sun is obscured, then an effect can be observed by which the daylight appears to be dim, as if the sky were overcast, yet objects still cast sharp shadows. When the shrinking visible part of the photosphere becomes very small, Baily's beads will occur. These are caused by the sunlight still being able to reach the Earth through lunar valleys. Totality then begins with the diamond ring effect, the last bright flash of sunlight. It is safe to observe"
"comet had been predicted to cross in September 1872. This was the date when Earth intersected the comet's trajectory. These meteors became known as the Andromedids or ""Bielids"" and it seems apparent that they were produced by the breakup of the comet. The meteors were seen again on subsequent occasions for the rest of the 19th century, but have now faded away, probably due to gravitational disruption of the main filaments. There were, however, inconclusive observations during the 1865 and 1872 returns. Charles Talmage, using ephemerides provided by John Russell Hind, claimed to have briefly observed a nebulous object in"
"from north, east, west and south"", with ""great masses or broad bands to the east and west"". The most unusual phenomenon of the auroral storm, witnessed from Europe at approximately 6 p.m. on November 17, was described in detail in various ways, including as a ""beam"", ""spindle"", ""definite body"" with a ""Zeppelin""-like shape and pale green colour, passing from horizon to horizon above the moon. The phenomenon, which transited the sky in approximately seventy-five seconds, was witnessed and documented by the amateur scientist and astronomer, John Rand Capron, at Guildown, Surrey. Capron made a drawing of what he referred to"
"that as all accounts were positioned along a great circle arc, the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth. John A. O'Keefe, who conducted several studies of the event, proposed that the meteors should be referred to as the ""Cyrillids"", in reference to the feast day of Cyril of Alexandria (February 9 in the Roman Catholic calendar from 1882–1969). The evening of February 9 was cloudy across much of the densely populated northeast United States, meaning that some 30 million potential observers were for the most part unaware of the phenomenon. Nevertheless, more than a hundred"
"temporary observer at the Ben Nevis weather station. Inspired by the impressive sight, he decided to build a device for creating clouds in the laboratory, so that he could make a synthetic, small-scale glory. His work led directly to the cloud chamber, a device for detecting ionizing radiation for which he and Arthur Compton received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927. In China, the phenomenon is called Buddha's light (or halo). It is often observed on cloud-shrouded high mountains, such as Huangshan and Mount Emei. Records of the phenomenon at Mount Emei date back to A.D. 63. The colorful"
"object that could be seen from Earth with the naked eye. It occurred about 7.5 billion years ago (roughly equal to half the time since the Big Bang), taking the light that long to reach Earth. It was suggested by Larry Sessions, a science writer for ""Sky and Telescope"" magazine blogging on earthsky.org, that the burst be named ""The Clarke Event"". ""American Atheist Magazine ""wrote of the idea: ""It would be a fitting tribute to a man who contributed so much, and helped lift our eyes and our minds to a cosmos once thought to be province only of gods."""
"Baade's Window Baade's Window is an area of the sky with relatively low amounts of interstellar ""dust"" along the line of sight from the Earth. This area is considered an observational ""window"" as the normally obscured Galactic Center of the Milky Way is visible in this direction. It is named for astronomer Walter Baade who first recognized its significance. This area corresponds to one of the brightest visible patches of the Milky Way. Walter Baade observed the stars in this area in the mid-1940s using the Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory in California while searching for the center of"
"Aurora of November 17, 1882 The Aurora of November 17, 1882 was a geomagnetic storm and associated aurora event, widely reported in the media of the time. It occurred during an extended period of strong geomagnetic activity in solar cycle 12. The event is particularly remembered in connection with an unusual phenomenon, an ""auroral beam"", which was observed from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich by astronomer Edward Walter Maunder and by John Rand Capron from Guildown, Surrey. The magnetic storm that caused the brilliant auroral display of November 1882 was reported in ""The New York Times"" and other newspapers as having"
"Mayall's Object Mayall's Object (also classified under the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 148) is the result of two colliding galaxies located 500 million light years away within the constellation of Ursa Major. It was discovered by American astronomer Nicholas U. Mayall of the Lick Observatory on 13 March 1940, using the Crossley reflector. When first discovered, Mayall's Object was described as a peculiar nebula, shaped like a question mark. Originally theorized to represent a galaxy reacting with the intergalactic medium, it is now thought to represent the collision of two galaxies, resulting in a new object consisting of"
"1566 celestial phenomenon over Basel The 1566 celestial phenomenon over Basel was a series of mass sightings of celestial phenomena above Basel, Switzerland. The Basel pamphlet of 1566 describes unusual sunrises and sunsets. Celestial phenomena were said to have ""fought"" together in the form of numerous red and black balls in the sky before the rising sun. The report is discussed among historians and meteorologists. The phenomenon has been interpreted by some ufologists to be a sky battle between unidentified flying objects. The leaflet written by historian Samuel Coccius reported it as a religious event. The Basel pamphlet of 1566"
"to attract an unprecedented amount of attention to the total eclipse of 8 July 1842, observed by Baily himself at Pavia. In other work, he completed and discussed H. Foster's pendulum experiments, deducing from them an ellipticity for the earth of 1/289.48 (Memoirs R. Astr. Soc. vii.). This value was corrected for the length of the seconds-pendulum by introducing a neglected element of reduction, and was used, in 1843, in the reconstruction of the standards of length. His laborious operations for determining the mean density of the earth, carried out by Henry Cavendish's method (1838–1842), yielded the authoritative value of"
"higher number indicating a fainter object—was 20.3 ± 0.3 in the U-band (the ultraviolet region of the spectrum) and 21.2 ± 0.1 in the R-band (the red region of the spectrum). The afterglow reached its peak luminosity in both bands approximately 2 days after the burst was first detected—19.6 ± 0.3 in the U-band at 02:13 UTC on May 11, and 19.8 ± 0.2 in the R-band at 20:55 UTC on May 10. James E. Rhoads, an astronomer at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, analyzed the burst and determined that it was not strongly beamed. Further analysis by Frail and"
"is not the only one of its kind. In the 15th and 16th centuries, many leaflets wrote of ""miracles"" and ""sky spectacles"". The event is reported to have taken place in Basel, Switzerland in 1566. According to Samuel Coccius, on 27-28 July and 7 August, many local witnesses in Basel reported seeing three celestial phenomena. The first is described as an unusual sunrise, the second as a total eclipse of the moon with a red sun rising, and the third like a cloud of black spheres in front of the sun. The text of the broadsheet can be translated as"
"magnetic phenomena. Aurora of November 17, 1882 The Aurora of November 17, 1882 was a geomagnetic storm and associated aurora event, widely reported in the media of the time. It occurred during an extended period of strong geomagnetic activity in solar cycle 12. The event is particularly remembered in connection with an unusual phenomenon, an ""auroral beam"", which was observed from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich by astronomer Edward Walter Maunder and by John Rand Capron from Guildown, Surrey. The magnetic storm that caused the brilliant auroral display of November 1882 was reported in ""The New York Times"" and other newspapers"
"eye and is theoretically visible at all latitudes north of 60° S. During evening from August to October, it will be high in the sky as seen from the northern midlatitudes. The binary system described above has an optical visual companion, discovered by William Herschel on July 21, 1781. Designated as ""ADS 94 B"" in the Aitken Double Star Catalogue, it is a G-type star with an apparent visual magnitude of approximately 10.8. Although by coincidence it appears near to the other two stars in the sky, it's much more distant from Earth; the parallax observed by Gaia place this"
"is a central member of the Shapley Supercluster. Pavo is the radiant of two annual meteor showers: the Delta Pavonids and August Pavonids. Appearing from 21 March to 8 April and generally peaking around 5 and 6 April, Delta Pavonids are thought to be associated with Comet Grigg-Mellish. The shower was discovered by Michael Buhagiar from Perth, Australia, who observed meteors on six occasions between 1969 and 1980. The August Pavonids peak around August 31 and are thought to be associated with the Halley-type Comet Levy (P/1991 L3). Pavo (constellation) Pavo is a constellation in the southern sky whose name"
"giving the following description of the event: 1566 celestial phenomenon over Basel The 1566 celestial phenomenon over Basel was a series of mass sightings of celestial phenomena above Basel, Switzerland. The Basel pamphlet of 1566 describes unusual sunrises and sunsets. Celestial phenomena were said to have ""fought"" together in the form of numerous red and black balls in the sky before the rising sun. The report is discussed among historians and meteorologists. The phenomenon has been interpreted by some ufologists to be a sky battle between unidentified flying objects. The leaflet written by historian Samuel Coccius reported it as a"
"unexplained annual cyclical motion. Shortly after Molyneux's death, Bradley realised that this was caused by what is now known as the aberration of light. The basis on which Bradley distinguished the annual motion actually observed from the expected motion due to parallax, was that its annual timetable was different. Calculation showed that if there had been any appreciable motion due to parallax, then the star should have reached its most southerly apparent position in December, and its most northerly apparent position in June. What Bradley found instead was an apparent motion that reached its most southerly point in March, and"
"unaided eye. Then, for most of December, the comet was lost in the glare of the Sun. Upon recovery, it became apparent that the comet was brightening very fast, reaching naked-eye visibility in early January 2007. It was visible to northern hemisphere observers, in Sagittarius and surrounding constellations, until about 13 January. Perihelion was 12 January at a distance of 0.17 AU. This was close enough to the Sun to be observed by the space-based Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The comet entered SOHO's LASCO C3 camera's field of view on 12 January, and was viewable on the web in"
"It was possible to observe it in areas outside of cities with the help of binoculars. Further, the comet appeared brightest when it was almost invisible from the northern hemisphere in March and April. Halley's approach was first detected by astronomers David Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson on 16 October 1982 using the 5.1 m Hale telescope at Mount Palomar and a CCD camera. The first person to visually observe the comet on its 1986 return was amateur astronomer Stephen James O'Meara on 24 January 1985. O'Meara used a home-built 24-inch telescope on top of Mauna Kea to detect the"
"have named it the ""Little Red Spot"" or ""Red, Jr."" As of June 5, 2006, the Great Red Spot and Oval BA appeared to be approaching convergence. The storms pass each other about every two years but the passings of 2002 and 2004 were of little significance. Amy Simon-Miller, of the Goddard Space Flight Center, predicted the storms would have their closest passing on July 4, 2006. She worked with Imke de Pater and Phil Marcus of UC Berkeley, and a team of professional astronomers since April 2006 to study the storms using the Hubble Space Telescope; on July 20,"
"one knows the exact position in which to look. Historically, the zenith of naked-eye astronomy was the work of Tycho Brahe (1546–1601). He built an extensive observatory to make precise measurements of the heavens without any instruments for magnification. In 1610, Galileo Galilei pointed a telescope towards the sky. He immediately discovered the moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus, among other things. Meteor showers are better observed by naked eye than with binoculars. Such showers include the Perseids (10–12 August) and the December Geminids. Some 100 satellites per night, the International Space Station and the Milky Way are"
"X/1872 X1 X/1872 X1, occasionally referred to as ""Pogson's Comet"", was a probable cometary astronomical object seen from Madras (now Chennai) on December 3 and 4, 1872, by astronomer N. R. Pogson. Pogson believed the object to be the lost Comet Biela, but subsequent orbital calculations have suggested that this was unlikely. Neither Biela's Comet nor Pogson's object have been recovered since, and the episode remains one of the most puzzling in solar system astronomy. Pogson's observations were triggered by a great meteor shower (later known as the Andromedids) seen on November 27, 1872: its radiant was observed to be"
"circumstances to produce it, but nothing like the odds of an interstellar visitation. Another sighting by Tombaugh a year or two later while at a White Sands observatory was of an object of −6 magnitude, four times brighter than Venus at its brightest, going from the zenith to the southern horizon in about 3 seconds. The object executed the same maneuvers as in Tombaugh's first sighting. Tombaugh later reported having seen three of the mysterious green fireballs, which suddenly appeared over New Mexico in late 1948 and continued at least through the early 1950s. A researcher on Project Twinkle reported"
"Fellow of the Royal Society. A crater on Mars was named in his honour. A lunar crater and an asteroid was also named after him. His name is also recalled as the meteorological term Bouguer's halo (also known as Ulloa's halo, after Antonio de Ulloa, a Spanish member of his South American expedition) which an observer may see infrequently in fog when sun breaks through (for example, on a mountain) and looks down-sun—effectively a ""Fog bow"" (as opposed to a ""rain-bow""). ""An infrequently observed meteorological phenomenon; a faint white, circular arc or complete ring of light that has a radius"
"a shower of sky rockets ... Another such outburst, and the oldest known, the shower on March 23.7, 687 BC (proleptic Julian calendar) was recorded in ""Zuo Zhuan"", which describes the shower as ""On the 4th month in the summer in the year of xīn-mǎo (of year 7 of King Zhuang of Lu), at night, (the sky is so bright that some) fixed stars become invisible (because of the meteor shower); at midnight, stars fell like rain."" (夏四月辛卯 夜 恆星不見 夜中 星隕如雨) In the Australian Aboriginal astronomy of the Boorong tribe, the Lyrids represent the scratchings of the Mallee fowl"
"the naked eye. In September it passed into Ursa Major. For much of its apparition it occupied a unique position (among great comets) in the sky and was particularly well placed for Northern Hemisphere viewers. It was nearest the Earth on October 10, 1858, and for much of October was a brilliant object with a long, scimitar-like dust tail and prominent gas tail. It remained a naked-eye object until November for Southern Hemisphere observers. The final observation was by William Mann, chief assistant at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, who detected it as a faint nebulosity on March"
"Arietids The Arietids are a strong meteor shower that lasts from May 22 to July 2 each year, and peaks on June 7. The Arietids, along with the Zeta Perseids, are the most intense daylight meteor showers of the year. The source of the shower is unknown, but scientists suspect that they come from the asteroid 1566 Icarus, although the orbit also corresponds similarly to 96P/Machholz. First discovered at Jodrell Bank Observatory in England during the summer of 1947, the showers are caused when the Earth passes through a dense portion of two interplanetary meteoroid streams, producing an average of"
"1783 Great Meteor The 1783 Great Meteor was an unusually bright bolide observed on 18 August 1783, from the British Isles at a time when such phenomena were not well understood. The meteor was the subject of much discussion in the ""Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society"" and was the subject of a detailed study by Charles Blagden. The event occurred between 21:15 and 21:30 on 18 August 1783, a clear, dry night. Analysis of observations has indicated that the meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere over the North Sea, before passing over the east coast of Scotland and England and"
"result. First observed in early February, 1843, it raced toward an incredibly close perihelion of less than 830,000 km on February 27, 1843; at this time it was observed in broad daylight roughly a degree away from the Sun. It passed closest to Earth on March 6, 1843, and was at its greatest brilliance the following day; unfortunately for observers north of the equator, at its peak it was best visible from the Southern Hemisphere. It was last observed on April 19, 1843. At that time this comet had passed closer to the Sun than any other known object. The"
"60 shooting stars each hour, that originate in the sky from the constellation Aries and the constellation Perseus. However, because both constellations are so close to the Sun when these showers reach their peak, the showers are difficult to view with the naked eye. Some of the early meteors are visible in the very early hours of the morning, usually an hour before dawn. The meteors strike Earth's atmosphere at speeds around 39 km/s. Arietids The Arietids are a strong meteor shower that lasts from May 22 to July 2 each year, and peaks on June 7. The Arietids, along"