Don't forget to checkout the meteor shower tonight!

[Kerbonautical]

As someone who wished they had the spare money to throw down on a decent telescope, how do you guys know so much about what the object in the sky your seeing actually is? I always thought to the human eye a planet it almost indistinguishable in the night sky but if there's something I'm missing I would love to know!

[cesarcurado]

Actually Saturn is right next to the moon. Venus will be between the sun and the moon.

You might still have a chance of seeing meteors, but I don't know how much. While they appear to come from the constellation Perseus, it covers a range.

You sure?

My teacher says otherwise...

It looked like this, "It" was under the moon and a bit to the left

I'll search around to see if it will be visible from here

[numerobis]

Everything I know I learned when I went to star parties back in the day ('99-'01). I lived near SF at the time, so I would go up to Mt Tam. Most places have a number of enthusiasts, so look for star parties in your area!

The best part is that you get to use big telescopes that someone else bought

[Bunsen]

As someone who wished they had the spare money to throw down on a decent telescope, how do you guys know so much about what the object in the sky your seeing actually is? I always thought to the human eye a planet it almost indistinguishable in the night sky but if there's something I'm missing I would love to know!

Look at a map. I usually use the sky chart generator on heavens-above.com (tell it where you are and what time you want the chart to show, and it gives you something like this), but I'm sure there are a hundred other websites or apps that would accomplish the same thing. You'll get to know your way around the sky after a while.

[Kerbonautical]

Everything I know I learned when I went to star parties back in the day ('99-'01). I lived near SF at the time, so I would go up to Mt Tam. Most places have a number of enthusiasts, so look for star parties in your area!

The best part is that you get to use big telescopes that someone else bought

This is something that I need to check out then. Just spent half an hour out the front of my house and that's the first time in my life that I've seen a meteor, or the Milky Way in all its glory. Safe to say mind=blown. Also the shower is pretty active right now and there's about one a minute. It's coming from pretty much all angles of the sky though, and I'm almost certain sure even a few lining up with the horizon as we're seeing extremely bright flashes of white coming from there.

Got nudged back in by a fox looking for it's crying cub (a few feet away) and probably won't be going out there again for a while, but wow, 24 years and going strong but I've never seen so much in the night sky before.

Thanks you everyone at the KSP forums, if you hadn't posted about the meteor shower I would have just missed one of the most amazing sights of my life!

[Ralathon]

This is something that I need to check out then. Just spent half an hour out the front of my house and that's the first time in my life that I've seen a meteor, or the Milky Way in all its glory. Safe to say mind=blown. Also the shower is pretty active right now and there's about one a minute. It's coming from pretty much all angles of the sky though, and I'm almost certain sure even a few lining up with the horizon as we're seeing extremely bright flashes of white coming from there.

Got nudged back in by a fox looking for it's crying cub (a few feet away) and probably won't be going out there again for a while, but wow, 24 years and going strong but I've never seen so much in the night sky before.

Thanks you everyone at the KSP forums, if you hadn't posted about the meteor shower I would have just missed one of the most amazing sights of my life!

Always fun to see someone else get into astronomy. Wait till you have the chance to see Saturn's rings or Jupiter through a nice big telescope. Or even just the milky way with a pair of binoculars.

Another interesting event for the naked eye coming up soonish is the comet ISON. It's a sungrazing comet that'll reach periapsis in late November. If it survives (a big if) it has a chance to become as bright as the full moon, to the point that it is visible during the day. So with some luck we'll have a nice view throughout December.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

At times like this I hate Lancashire and it's clouds (which have the additional disadvantage of reflecting all the light from Manchester). I've only seen one so far. Also, my neck hurts.

[techonce]

You are right probably Venus. I pulled up my star chart program, but I still had it set for my location (Detroit Area) not Brazil. The only other possibility would be Spica, but probably not.

Heavens Above is a wonderful resource.

[techonce]

My first telescope as an adult was a 3" reflector from Orion. I upgraded to a 6" dobsonian mount a few years ago. You can get a 3" for around 100 USD. Actually Orion sells a small 4.5" tabletop reflector for around $60 I think.

[regex]

Seems Eugene isn't too bright to watch. Backyard viewing is the best.

[lammatt]

sad thing we are hving a typhoon these few days here in Hong Kong

no stargazing

[Brotoro]

Went out for an hour around 9:30 PM... Saw three Perseids in an hour.

Went out again at Midnight... saw four bright ones in ten minutes... OK! So I go out my camera and took pictures of the same area of the sky for an hour (30-second exposures). I saw several more bright Perseids during the first half of that hour...but only one lame one was captured in my camera's field of view:

[katateochi]

I saw quite a few last night at about 3am. Clouds had finally cleared a bit and the universe put on a very nice show.

Problem for me is now if I spend any time looking up at the stars I get this powerful urge to go and play KSP so it was about 4am by the time I made it to bed last night!

[rasheed]

Hmmm, i wonder if its visible from Georgetown, Guyana. Over here i don't see much stars, let alone the showers

[Khrissetti]

My girlfriend, friend and I took the car out of Birmingham (UK) up to the Lickey Hills with a picnic and a flask of tea about 10pm. the view of the city lights was enough of a reason to go,but the shower kicked off about half-ten with a spectacular fireball and lasted until about midnight when the clouds put a stop to stargazing. It looked like it could clear up again but I had work in the morning.

I have to get me a telescope.