GEMINDS METEORS SHOWERS

After the most disappointmernt of Leonids Meteor Shower-2006 -show, we all must gear up to watch GEMINDS METEORS SHOWERS on 14/12/06 midnight.

During an average hour, the Geminids can produce a hundred or so meteors (or “shooting” stars). Most impressive, however, is that Geminids can be quite bright and multicolored, with many leaving smoke trails behind them or even casting a shadow.

Even though the Geminids appear everywhere in the sky, trace them backward and they all seem to radiate from a point in the constellation Gemini. This “radiant” lies just west of the bright star Castor. During mid-December, you will see Castor and Gemini rise above the east-northeastern horizon during the early evening hours.

This year's Geminid shower peaks before dawn next Thursday and is not hampered by bright moonlight. To view it, absolutely no equipment is needed; just get away from bright city lights, lie back on a sleeping bag or lawn chair, and scan the entire sky. Binoculars may come in handy in case a fireball should leave behind a bright, lingering smoke trail.
And don't forget to dress warmly.

All the best.

Planetary triple play on deck Sunday

Stargazers will get a rare triple planetary treat this weekend with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars appearing to nestle together in the predawn skies. About 45 minutes before dawn on Sunday those three planets will be so close that the average person's thumb can obscure all three from view.

They will be almost as close together on Saturday and Monday, but Sunday they will be within one degree of each other in the sky. Three planets haven't been that close since 1925, and it won't happen again until 2053, he said.

"Jupiter will be very bright and it will look like it has two bright lights next to it, and they won't twinkle because they're planets,"

The planets are actually hundreds of millions of miles apart, but the way the planets orbit the sun make it appear they are neighbors in the east-southeastern skies. They'll be visible in most parts of the world —

Leonids Meteor Shower-2006

Leonids Meteor Shower-2006 - what a quite disappointment.

It was expected a great Leonids Meteor Shower this year on 19/11/06 early in the morning from 3.00 to 6.00 a.m even though actual peak period was around 5.00 p.m.

The cause of this year’s possible meteor storm was Comet Tempel-Tuttle, a comet with an Earth-crossing orbit that returns every 33 years. Over the years Tempel-Tuttle has left behind a debris trail over the entire course of its orbit, and every year on November 17 (this year on Nov.19) Earth crosses through the debris trail, resulting in the normally mild Leonids meteor shower.

While astronomers predict only a minimal blast of dust debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle this year, we thought it may be a spectacular event after 33 years.

On the night of November 18 and 19 we were all geared up in Pune to watch the skies for one of the most spectacular events visible from earth none other than a blazing deluge of fiery metrors known as a meteor storm. As at their peak most meteor showers result in one or two meteors per minute, it's really interesting to watch.

However notning happened on 18/11/06 night. Not a single meteor. Can you believe, on 19/11/06, we watched hardly 20-25 meteors during 2.30 a.m. to 5.30 a.m. Out of which noting was significant meteor, not a single meteor to remember. We kept on waiting awake till 2.00 in my home, then went and settled on terriace for the curtain to finally go up. Only console was general sky observation. On the top of that few of the meteors were from the nereby region and not from Leonids. On the top of that the dust and smog settled on horizan added fuel to our frustation along with insects and mosquito bites. We were supposed to go to some fort or hills nearby with complete darkness around to enjoy beauty of the shower, but on the last moment decided agaist it and I am glad for the same. It would have been sheer disappointment.

Few years back (was that much before my marriage and when I was free bird ?) , my friend and me had gone for night cross country walk from Indapur on Bombay ( not Mumbai, during those good old days) - Goa highway to Tale only to observe meteor shower, and let me tell you that it was really splendid show by the mother nature. W were so exhasted counting the meteors finally we give away and stopped counting.

One cannot predict mother nature. Can we ?

Anousheh Ansari

Anousheh Ansari - First Female Private Space Explorer & Space Ambassador

http://www.anoushehansari.com/

Dear Anuosheh,

We are all proud of you. You have created History.

As a child, Anousheh Ansari begged her mother to let her sleep on the balcony of their home near Tehran, Iran. She would gaze into the velvety darkness, drift off to sleep and visit the stars. Most childhood dreams disappear when the sun rises on adulthood and people are blinded by responsibilities, time and money. But it didn't happen that way for Mrs. Ansari, a 39-year-old Plano businesswoman, who could not speak English when she immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager. In 2000, she sold her family's telecommunications business for $750 million.

As early as today, she is the world's first female space tourist.

Mrs. Ansari has been training at Houston's Johnson Space Center and in Russia as a backup civilian astronaut to Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto, who paid $20 million for a 10-day round trip to the International Space Station on Sept. 14. ."

In 2000, after three U.S. patents, they turned a $50,000 initial investment into the stratospheric sale of their company. The money allowed the Ansaris to finance their dream.
The Plano family contributed more than $2 million toward the Ansari X Prize Competition, which financed the first civilian rocket plane to puncture the world's atmosphere, in 2004.
That contest awarded $10 million to the developers of the first privately developed reusable spaceship. Legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan, who was backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, won the prize in October 2004 after two successful suborbital launches from the floor of the Mojave Desert.

"This was our dream; it's always been our dream," Mrs. Ansari said in an October 2004 Dallas Morning News story. "If you can live your dream, why not?"

http://www.anoushehansari.com/


First Female Private Space Explorer & Space Ambassador

Anousheh Ansari, has been officially named to the Soyuz TMA-9 primary crew. The first female spaceflight participant will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 18, 2006 en route to the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Expedition 14 crew members: NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.“By reaching this dream I’ve had since childhood, I hope to tangibly demonstrate to young people all over the world that there is no limit to what they can accomplish,” said Anousheh Ansari, chairman and co-founder of Prodea Systems, Inc.

To visit her blog link is

http://spaceblog.xprize.org/

Pluto is demoted to dwarf planet

This blog was wriiten by me on some other site. I am reproducing it here.

After years of wrangling and a week of bitter debate, astronomers voted on a sweeping reclassification of the solar system. In what many of them described as a triumph of science over sentiment, Pluto was demoted to the status of a “dwarf planet.” In the new solar system, there are eight planets, at least three dwarf planets and tens of thousands of so-called “smaller solar system bodies,” like comets and asteroids.

Oh No. What will happen to our Navagraha Shanti rituals ? We will have to change it now to Astagraha Shanti ! ! My god we may even have to rewrite our horoscopes. Now we will even have to change our Navagraha RingsWe along with our astrologers should have represenented the case at the meeting of the International Astronomical in Prague to include Rahu and Ketu as Planents. We have missed golden oppurtunity.