If I were a religious man, I’d be worried about all the ‘signs in the skies’ we’ve had this year. Vatican lightening, fireballs all over the place, a star of David alignment, and a possible visible comet (closest approach is scheduled for Christmas incidentally; if she makes naked-eye visibility and becomes ‘comet of the century’, as some hacks suggest, there’ll be a ‘star’ blazing across the sky on baby Jesus’ birthday. Imagine the Christians and the armageddonists letting that one slide). There’s another ‘sign’ scheduled for Sunday, although I won’t be able to see it for myself.
Quite a rare total solar eclipse will be able to be seen from some of the Americas and most of Africa. It’s the only total this year, and it’s the last one of 2013. It’s also a ‘hybrid’ (annular and total), and they account for less than 5% of all eclipses. The best place to be would be in the Middle-East, at sunset. Watch the newspapers on Monday for a dramatic front-page picture of a crescent-shaped (one of the oldest examples of human symbology, although now mainly associated with Islam) sun setting over a mosque/synagogue in Damascus/Jerusalem (depending on editorial bias).
The rest of the month is looking good too – There’s the peak of the Taurids (which we’ve been passing through since October 12th) from Monday to Friday next week, and then the spectacular Leonids (16th- 17th). ISON, if we’re lucky, will continue to brighten between now and perihelion on the 28th; not to mention Encke and Lovejoy knocking about. The meteors are nothing to worry about, of course, they are annual events and most particles are not much more than dust (some of the bigger Leonids have a half gram mass though), but it’s always nice to get out into the countryside and see some ‘shooting stars’ eh?
Astronomy is a great hobby to have you know. There’s always an ‘important once-in-a-lifetime celestial event’ taking place that requires me to be out of the glare of the city lights for a day or two. But even better than that is the fact that if one’s mrs can’t get time off work, you can still go alone because of the once-in-a-lifetime factor. And as long as you take your telescope, she’ll think you are sitting alone on a beach or up a mountain somewhere being sensible instead of getting hammered in a local bar.
It is her birthday in a couple of weeks, so I told her I would treat her to a couple of nights in a nice hotel on a white-sand beach small island somewhere. It worked, but she can’t get time off and this time, because of the birthday business, I don’t even have the luxury of going alone.
