Shady Acre Observatory

The Great Meteor Storm of 1833 (APOD: 2024 Dec 10)
Image Credit: Engraving: Adolf Vollmy; Original Art: Karl Jauslin
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap241210.html

Explanation: It was a night of 100,000 meteors. The Great Meteor Storm of 1833 was perhaps the most impressive meteor event in recent history. Best visible over eastern North America during the pre-dawn hours of November 13, many people -- including a young Abraham Lincoln -- were woken up to see the sky erupt in streaks and flashes. Hundreds of thousands of meteors blazed across the sky, seemingly pouring out of the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The featured image is a digitization of a wood engraving which itself was based on a painting from a first-person account. We know today that the Great Meteor Storm of 1833 was caused by the Earth moving through a dense part of the dust trail expelled from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Earth moves through this dust stream every November during the Leonid meteor shower. Later this week you might get a slight taste of the intensity of that 1833 meteor storm by witnessing the annual Geminid meteor shower.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leonids-1833.jpg

Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=241210

The Earth and the Moon viewed from Mercury's orbit. This image was acquired by the MESSENGER Mercury Dual Imaging System Wide Angle Camera on 6 May 2010, about ten months before the spacecraft entered orbit around Mercury. At the time, the Earth–Moon system was 183 million km away. Credit: NASA/JHU APL/CIW

Paiting by Johann Gustav Lange, Germanian artist

Comet Leonard in the frigid Canadian night. Spectacular photo!

Credit

This photograph shows us the other side of the Moon, which we usually do not see.
It was captured by the Chinese Chang'e 5-T1 spacecraft 🛰️

BREAKING NEWS: COMET C/2023 A3 TSUCHINSHAN-ATLAS AT PERIHELION, SEE IT LIVE, ONLINE, WITH US!

Dear Friends

today, 27 Sept., around 17:55 UTC, the long-awaited comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will reach its perihelion, that is its minimum distance from the Sun: it will be at 58.5 million of kilometers from our star.

On this very important day, which opens to the hopefully remarkable show of this comet early next month, the Virtual Telescope Project will try to share the real-time view of the comet with the community worldwide, online, thanks to its robotic telescopes in Manciano, in the Tuscan Maremma, under the darkest skies of the Italian peninsula.

This live feed is scheduled just a few hours after perihelion: the streaming will start on 28 Sept., at 04:00 UTC, when the comet will rise at dawn above the Italian horizon.

Details are available at the link in the comments.

This is just the first live feed from us covering this outstanding comet, more will be added (we already scheduled one more on 9 Oct., when the comet is expected to peak in brightness).

Join us in a few hours from the comfort of your home!

I think 🤔 that's a pretty painting 🎨.

German painter Johann Gustav Lange (1811-1887)
Full Moon over Winter Lanscape