KC AstroEvents 2001
Nov
2001
October
2001 |
AstroNews |
KC AstroEvents 2001
Nov
2001
October
2001 |
AstroNews |
November
2001
Shooting Stars |
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 It's
that time of year again. The Leonid meteor shower this year was the event
of a lifetime.
WE'VE NEVER seen anything like it in our lifetime... and
we may never
It happened between 2 and 3 AM this Sunday morning here
on the West
The Leonids brought skywatchers in North America their most dramatic meteor "storm" in 35 years. Those specks of dust entered Earth's atmosphere with speeds approaching 160,000 miles per hour, lighting up the sky as they burned up. Now some of you may ask what happened 35 years ago. Well back in 1966 residents in the western United States saw a storm of shooting stars estimated to rain down at a rate of 100,000 per hour during a brief peak! VIEWING TIPS:
LAST BIT OF ADVICE:
Oh, lets not forget our friends in East Asia, Australia, and Oceania. A spectacular show awaits them about 8 hours later on the night of November 18/19! Some astronomers predict it will be even better than in North America. And what about Europe and South America? Well they will be bathed in sunlight during the peak. So only the "normal background rate" of 10-15 meteors per hour will be visible. LEONID LINKS:
Best View of the Leonid Shower: Leonid
Leonid Storm
LeonidsLive.com - Science news and live
webcasts
Sky & Telescope's Meteor Page
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October 20012001 Mars Odyssey!NASA broke its recent Red Planet losing streak (0-2) with the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft.The $300 million orbiter reached Mars in October after a journey of 286 million miles (460 million km). It was launched from Cape Canaveral on April 7th, 2001. Mars Odyssey will search for water, map surface minerals and measure radiation levels -- observations that could provide clues about possible extraterrestrial life as well as check for possible hazards for future colonists. Odyssey will join the Mars Global Surveyor, which has been circling Mars since 1997, snapping hundreds of thousands of high resolution pictures. |
2001 Mars
Odyssey
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June 21, 2001Solar EclipseA total solar eclipse occured in southern and central Africa on June 21, 2001. Not visible at all from the United States, this first total solar eclipse of the new millennium was brought live from Zambia to the world by San Francisco's Exploratorium, via satellite and high-speed Internet connections.An Exploratorium team on the ground in Zambia captured video images of the eclipse using specially equipped telescopes. Eclipse: June 21, 6:12 am PDT Live@The Exploratorium Event from Zambia
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April 2001Solar Sail TestThe Planetary Society are sponsor Cosmos Studios is going to launch a SOLAR SAIL!This is a privately funded effort by The Planetary Society in cooperation with Russian space groups. A test flight conducted in a Volna-launched, suborbital flight was scheduled for late April. But an accident occurred during a pre-launch checkout. This damaged the spacecraft that was to deploy a test solar sail on April 26. The test flight will be rescheduled once the extent of repairs and re-assembly are determined. "This is what tests are for — although we never want accidents," said project director Louis Friedman. "It may well turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the solar sail's orbital flight, which we still have scheduled for the end of this year." Cosmos 1 Solar Sail:
The actual launch will be sometime in 2002.
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Cosmos
1 Solar Sail
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April 28, 2001Astronomy Day 2001Astronomy Day is April 28th! Every year on this day thousands of skywatchers worldwide will be "Bringing Astronomy to the People." Space fans showing the public how fun astronomy is!And the celebration has been expanded into ASTRONOMY WEEK. Mark the last week of April on your calendar for the annual celebration of Astronomy Week. Your chance to see the stars! Find a local club or planetarium hosting an Astronomy Day celebration! Check the Sky & Telescope's international Astronomical Directory. |
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March 2001Bye bye MIR!The Mir space station orbited Earth more than 85,000 times, but in March 2001 its historic 15-year mission came to an end.Mir was forced into the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean. Following the crash of the Mir space station in the south Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Chile want international codes of practice drawn up to govern dumping of such space junk in the future. The three countries are at risk because they inhabit the edges of a vast oceanic area informally known as the "graveyard." The area between New Zealand and Chile has been used for years to drop space junk. Existing treaties cover space junk under secondary rules,
such as those governing disposal of hazardous waste and protection of marine
environments. But the three countries want more explicit rules targeted
Mir’s destruction took place in textbook fashion, causing little unease. But it did underscore that the three nations are in the firing line. |
Mir Space Station Site |
January 9, 2001Total Lunar EclipseFolks in ASIA, AFRICA, AND EUROPE got a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE on January 9, 2001.This is the last one until May 2003! |
http://www.skypub.com/sights/eclipses/lunar/0101totallunar.html |
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