Happy Canada Day!

Tonight's the Night!

Earth has entered the debris from comet Swift-Tuttle, meaning the annual Perseid meteor shower - the best shower of the year - is upon us. August 12th (tonight) is the peak night of the shower where observers (best to be outside of the city if possible) could witness between 60 - 100 Perseids per hour. Friday and Saturday should offer good opportunities for viewing as well.

Also in the sky tonight (at sundown) will be Venus, Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon in a tight conjunction in the western sky - AND if you stay up late into Friday morning there are two International Space Station passes over Edmonton to watch. The first flyby happens at 3:54am (look SSE) and the second at 5:26am (look WSW). The ISS is quite bright and will take about 2 minutes to cross the sky.

Tonight has a lot of promise if the skies stay clear. I suggest getting out of the city - Elk Island would be perfect but there is no need to go so far.

Other things to do - Listen to the meteors on radar, check out pictures from people more talented than I and watch NASA's Fireball Cam.

Enjoy!

Looks Like Morning in Your Eyes

Good Morning Edmonton!

I woke Duncan up at about 5:00am on Sunday so we could go watch the sunrise over Edmonton together. Although I seldom see it (as I am a night owl rather than a morning person) I love this time of a summer day.

This is one of many photographs I took as the sun rose but I haven't had a chance to process the others yet. When I do they will be up on my Flickr.