Month: November 2020

Watch for ‘shooting stars’

 

Meteor Shower photo courtesy of NASA
Meteor Shower photo courtesy of NASA

Look up Nov. 16 about midnight.

The Leonids, the debris from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, will be shooting across the sky at about 15 meteors per hour. They will be traveling at about 44 miles per second.

You probably can catch sight of a few of these “shooting stars” because they are bright and light from the moon won’t be a factor. The moon will be in its waxing crescent phase and sets early evening.

These meteors are called Leonids because the radiant (point in the sky where the meteors seem to come from) is in the constellation Leo.

Also, put the Geminids on the calendar for a sky watch Dec. 13-1, 2020.

For more information visit Earthsky, TimeandDate and NASA.

 

 

Watch NASA mission conference and liftoff

 

First four person crew to International Space Station (NASA photo)
First four person crew to International Space Station (NASA photo)

NASA countdown to Space X’s Crew Dragon is happening now, Nov. 13, 2020

For the press conference with administrator Jim Bridenstine and officials from NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency go to NASA YouTube watch.

For the countdown on Nov. 14 Go to NASA You Tube FLA. Watch the first (this mission has many firsts) crew rotation flight by a U. S. Commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station.

This is the first four person-crew in a capsule and commercial flight. Crew members are NASA astronauts Michael Hopkin, the Crew Dragon commander, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Shannon Walker plus JAXA mission specialist astronaut Soichi Noguchi.

Liftoff is 7:49 p.m. EST from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39 A in Florida.

The mission will be six months. Other firsts include Walker as the first woman on a commercial orbital mission, Noguchi8 as the first international partner astronaught to fly on three types of orbital spacecraft.

For more information visit NASA.GOV/crew and NASA invites you to launch America.