On July 20, 2019, our local ABC news station (KVUE) came by to interview me for the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. I really enjoyed discussing meteorites and sharing some of my collection with the audience. I thought Hank Cavagnaro did a great job of properly presenting meteorites for the audience.
Category: SkyFall Blog
Meteor Showers: Yearly Schedule and Radiant
| Meteor Shower Name | Start and End Date (Peaks Vary by Year) | Typical Meteors/Hour | Radiant Constellation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quadrantids | January 1 to 6 | 60 | Boötes, near the Big Dipper | Blue meteors with fine trains. Likely associated with Comet C/1490 Y1. |
| Lyrids | April 16 to 25 | 10 -15 | Lyra | Bright fast meteors, some with trains. Associated with Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, the oldest recorded meteor shower still visible today and first recorded in 687 BCE. |
| Eta Aquariids | Apr 24 to May 20 | 35 | Aquarius near the star Eta Aquarii | Low in sky. Associated with Comet Halley. |
| Delta Aquariids | July 12 to August 23 | 20 | Aquarius near the star Delta Aquarii | Steady stream of meteors over several days. Likely associated with Comet 96P/Machholz. |
| Alpha Capricornids (no link) | July 15 to August 25 | 5 | Capricorn | Yellow slow fireballs. Associated with Comet 169P/NEAT. |
| Perseids | July 23 to August 20 | 75 | Perseus | Many bright fast meteors with trains. Associated with Comet Swift-Tuttle (1737, 1862, 1992). |
| Draconids | October 2 to 16 | 10 | Draco | Less active meteor shower. Associated with Comet 21/P Giacobini-Zimmer |
| Orionids | October 16 to 27 | 25 | Orion | Fast with fine trains. Associated with Comet Halley (Comet 1P/Halley). |
| Taurids | September 10 to December 10 | 10 | Taurus | Very slow meteors. Taurids are two separate showers including a Southern and Northern component. Associated with Comet 2P/Encke, a remnant of a larger comet that disintegrated the last 20,000 to 30,000 years. Note, some resources refer to the Northern Taurids as being associated with the asteroid 2004 TG10, that also shares the same parent body as Comet 2P/Encke. The Beta Taurid meteor stream is the suspected source of the massive and devastating June 1908 Tunguska airburst. |
| Leonids | November 15 to 20 | 30-300 | Leo | Fast bright meteors with fine trains. Associated with Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The 1833 storm was particularly spectacular, with an estimated 100,000 meteors per hour. |
| Geminids | December 7 to16 | 75 | Gemini, near the star Castor | Plenty of bright meteors, few trains. Associated with Asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Only major meteor shower not associated with a comet. |
| Ursids | December 7 to 25 | 5 | Ursa Minor, near the Beta Ursae Minoris (Kochab) | Sparse shower. Associated with Comet 8P/Tuttle. |
Much of the information listed above was gathered from the Royals Museum Greenwich website. To check on specific dates for peak observation times, please click the links above.
Anthony Bourdain’s Meteorite Chef Knife Sells for $231,250
I remember hearing the sad news in June of 2018 that Anthony Bourdain, famous chef, book author, TV personality and overall down-to-earth super cool dude, had taken his own life. Crystal (my wife) and I happened to be in Colmar, France where he died shortly after the announcement as we were attending the Ensisheim MeteoriteWork in progress. A solid natural object reaching a planet’s surface from interplanetary space. Solid portion of a meteoroid that survives its fall to Earth, or some other body. Meteorites are classified as stony meteorites, iron meteorites, and stony-iron meteorites. These groups are further divided according to their mineralogy and Click on Term to Read More show and though we did not visit the site, we did feel a sense of loss at the passing of one of the few real people in reality TV. Like many fans, we really enjoyed watching Anthony’s adventures on TV and I remembered watching in fascination the show (see below) where certified blade-master, Bob Kramer, made Tony’s now famous meteorite chef knife. So, when I saw a press release in early October 2019 that this specific knife would go up for auction, I was really excited. iGavel Auctions had predicted it would sell for anywhere between $4,000 and $6,000, and I figured I had a chance. Once bidding opened, the price quickly rose to around $22,000, and my dreams fell equally fast. The bids stayed at that level for most of October, The bidding got stuck at around $22K and I guessed it might go up as high as $30,000.
Out of the more than 200 listings in the auction, Bourdain’s chef knife netted the highest bid of $185,000. After adding in the 25% buyer’s premium of $46,250, the total price came to a whopping $231,250!
All Known Bodies in Our Solar System Larger than 322 km in Diameter
Click on the image and then use magnify. Then, by scrolling sideways the user gets an excellent perspective of the relative size of the 88 known objects (from 2007) in our solar systemThe Sun and set of objects orbiting around it including planets and their moons and rings, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. larger than 322 kn (200 miles) in diameter.
Five (5) Moons of the Dwarf Planet Pluto
Image shows a sliver of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, and all four of Pluto’s small moons, as resolved by New Horizons spacecraft. Charon has a diameter of 751 miles (1,212 kilometers). Nix & Hydra have comparable sizes, approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) across in their longest dimension above. Kerberos and Styx are much smaller and have comparable sizes, roughly 6-7 miles (10-12 kilometers) across in their longest dimension. All four small moons have highly elongated shapes, a characteristic thought to be typical of small bodies in the Kuiper BeltRegion in the outer solar system beyond Neptune's orbit that contains billions of small, icy planetesimals from the original protoplanetary disc that failed to coalesce into planets. The Kuiper Belt extends from Neptune's orbit at 30 AU to ~55 AU. It is ~20x wider and 20-200x more massive than the Click on Term to Read More.