Freaky Weather conditions
Awsome and yet scary.
In the video above, a near miss for a truck @ 4m28s and what looks like a cab strike for a car transporter @ 5m32s
Last year’s Perseid Meteors, of which some “explode”. Not technically Fireballs though.
THIS is what I think of as a “Fireball” - a larger meteor, usually bigger than a house… Big enough to create distructive shock waves felt on the ground when they explode in mid-air…
Dipping into the Herocolubus website recently it seems the great astronomer,Carlos Ferrada is mooting a 14 million mile passby of planet x (Herocolubus) fairly soon with possible disturbances in the Mediterranean region of Spain 
This chaps many other predictions have proven eerily accurate over the decades.I did read of a geographic anomaly on one of the Canary islands with a large land mass so weakened that if it crumbled to the sea,could send a tsunami straight to New York at 300mph as momentum builds.Adios Big Apple basically 
fuse:
When I stare into star filled sky I can not help my mind wondering and think about how far and how did it all come about …who made god …who made the bloke who made god who made the bloke or woman who made god…
Lifes a mystery,try the best to learn it’s best teachers works and when it’s checkout time,maybe that’s when the realities are revealed to all.Not hip about Karmic returns ■■■■■■■■.You could potentially incarnate as a paedo or politician.One things for sure,this paradise planet we inhabit is essentially a crime scene,if it had evolved along Cherokee or Hopi indian ways,it would have been a way better place imho.
Something I’ve seen of late driving NorthWEST up the M40 through Buckinghamshire…
Between the Beaconsfield Services and the top of Stokenchurch Hill further up the M40, I’ve noticed a lot of pairs of birds of Prey, not easy to distinguish whilst driving and all - but worth your passengers if any, to take a closer look at should you be driving by…
Leighton Buzzard
I think most of the ones I’ve seen are Red Kites on this stretch of road, with the ones down by Fleet Services on the M3 I mentioned a few weeks back - more likely to be Common Buzzards.
I’m not much of an ornithologist, but here’s a useful link in ID-ing these birds…
I saw one today that I’m wondering if it was an Eagle or not…
Are Eagles making a comeback in this country?
Suspiciously like one of the sea eagles that have been reared on the Isle Of Wight some time ago.They’ve been venturing hither and yon,Yorkshire,■■■■■■■ etc but a couple have headed back to HQ, having developed a taste for the boundless supplies of Mullet available to them in the Solent.Can’t wait to see one,they’re gargantuan apparently.Pound for pound though, i rate the Kites in the handsome stakes. 
Mars, Moon - Together July 10th.
Venus, Aldeberan (Alpha Tauri) - July 10th - before sunrise.
JUPITER - Opposition 13-14th July - All night, due south at 1am.
VENUS - with Waning Crescent (“Old Moon”) on July 15th before sunrise.
SATURN - Opposition 20th July - All night, due south at 1am
MARS - Opposition 27th July - all night, due south at 1am
“Opposition” for the Layman’s benefit - is when the Earth catches up an outer planet on the inside track, putting Earth between the planet at opposition, and the sun.
That’s three in a row, coming right up, starting from next week.
Also, when at opposition, the Earth and planet are at closest distance from each other, which makes them appear at maximum brightness, easily brigher than stars, in the case of Jupiter and Mars - Brighter than Sirius.
Venus - is the brightest planet of all, (also visible in the dawn sky like the star of bethlehem at present) - the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon.
You won’t need a telescope to spot ANY of these planets mentioned here, but a telescope will show them in better detail,
you’ll be able to see the red and maybe the polar caps of Mars,
…The bands, and upto 4 Gallilean moons of Jupiter…
Rings of Saturn, and maybe the largest moon Titan…
and the Crescent of Venus, making it look like a small moon in the far distance compared to our own.
As for any “Astrological” meaning to all of this, I’ll just leave you with the lyrics of 5th dimension…
…So at least we now have a connection with 1969 and the “Summer of Lurrv” as the Far Left like to call their rioter’s “Demonstrations”… 
(Taken Lightly…)
"When you moooon at the seventh house,
…and Jupiter collides with Mars…
…There’s ■■■■■■■■ guiding the planets,
…And Blood - will soak the stars."
Good job I’m on a weeks holidays . Caught the comet over the last two nights between 01.00 and 04.00
beefy4605:
Good job I’m on a weeks holidays . Caught the comet over the last two nights between 01.00 and 04.00
Ahh. These pictures are of Comet NEOWISE rather than Comet Swan, which has rather faded away by this point.
Thing is, - it TOO is near the star Capella in the morning twilight, so it would be easy to mistake one for the other. My instructions for finding Swan on the first page some weeks ago - are now good for finding Neowise in almost the same part of the sky, although it is drifting in a different direction from Swan. Closest approach is July 23rd, so Neowise - might brighten up a bit more as yet…
https://theskylive.com/c2020f3-info
this article puts Comet Neowise @ magnitude +1.6 which makes it about as bright as the stars in the Plough, which the comet will pass underneath in “dipper” mode.
This position actually means if you have a view of a FLAT northern Horizon at around Midnight-01:00hrs - you should be able to see this comet just above the due north horizon…
It would be Circumpolar in that it doesn’t rise and set, far enough North to just twirl around the Pole Star.
Magnitude +1.6 means “Naked eye visibility” already in effect.
I’ve had cloudy skies here for the past few days, so have not seen it yet…
North West at Dusk, Due North during the Witching hour, North East at Dawn - Very low to the Horizon, throughout the month - but best seen on the moonless nights coming up in the next week, providing it is a clear sky of course.
I read recently that the cosmos is practically a junk yard,with millions of debris pieces hurling around at 17,000 mph,mostly from defunct satellites.There’s even a NASA astronauts gauntlet floating about from a circa 1960s mission that he apparently ‘misplaced’’ I wonder how much of that debris makes it’s way earthwards,mistaken as a meteor?..I did witness a colossal,thingy,over Staffordshire way mid nineties.Once seen never forgotten.Project-Bluebeam anyone?
manalishi:
I read recently that the cosmos is practically a junk yard,with millions of debris pieces hurling around at 17,000 mph,mostly from defunct satellites.There’s even a NASA astronauts gauntlet floating about from a circa 1960s mission that he apparently ‘misplaced’’
“Fireballs” those meteors that range in size from a fist to a car - are fairly common. They are easier to see, as they take a few seconds to cross the entire sky, compared to a “blink-and-you-miss-it” appearance for regular meteors, that have burned out, totally vapourized in the high atmosphere in less than a second.
On the subjects of “Meteors” and “Meteorites”, as a general rule of thumb, the vast majority of “random space projectiles” are moving at around 10miles per second when they hit the atmosphere, the friction in slowing down suddenly from air resistances - being the thing that causes such objects to burn up.
Most of these projectiles range in size from a breadcrumb to a golf ball in size. These form 99% of all meteors seen streaking across our skies at different times of the years as the “regular” meteor showers.
They are the remains of long-since broken up comets these “small pieces”. There’s just not enough material of them to make it through the Atmosphere to leave anything solid on the ground as a “Meteorite”. They are entirely vapourized at an altitude far exceeding any aircraft down below them, so don’t present a danger to such aircraft. If they did we would see Airport Lockdowns when every regular meteor shower happens - if you think about it…
Less often, you get some spectacular meteors in the forms of “storms” such as the Leonids in mid-november every year… Most of the time, you might see upto 100 per hour on “shower night”. BUT every 33 years or so, the Earth’s Orbit takes it right through the nucleus of this orbiting material, and we end up with a “storm” instead of a “regular shower”. The last time I saw the Leonids do this was November 1998, so I guess the next one will be due around 2031. “Day of the Triffids” quality we’re talking about here btw.
Once “space debris” is upto the size of a boulder to around the size of a house - we’re talking about “fireball” re-entry, and enough material survives to strike the ground as a “Meteorite”. These objects are usually rich in Iron and Nickel.
Once any material remains to actually impact the Earth’s surface, then it is inevitable that there will be some collateral damage to the surrounding region, even if that damage is limited to broken windows, knocked-down trees, etc.
The really large ones, a mile or more across - hit the ground hard enough to cause a cataclysm in the surrounding environment.
Tunguska, Russia 1908 was probably the last one recorded of THIS magnitude.
The world is however littered with such “event evidence” over geological time.
Neowise - now clearly a naked eye Comet like Hale Bopp was back in 1997
Still close to bright star Capella, which doesn’t quite hit the horizon further up north in the country…
Find the Twilight, find Capella, and you should be able to see this comet underneath the plough/big dipper for the next few nights…
Plenty of birds of prey driving up the A40 or M40 through Buckinghamshire, especially between Marlow and Stokenchurch.
I can’t say I’ve seen this one yet, but the wing tips look kinda familliar…
This bird is far too scruffy for me to have not noticed it in the past though, so it must have been a red kite or common buzzard (From Leighton) I’ve been seeing…
I wonder what has caused the imbalance to such a takeover of these larger birds?
Red Kites appear to be as common as Red Foxes now, and I’m starting to see more and more dead ones at the roadside to boot…
(M40 Stokenchurch area)
Comet Neowise Update:
Having passed it’s closest to Earth a couple of days ago, it is a bit higher up than the horizon now.
Here’s where to look for it in the coming week, before it fades away again…
Three naked eye planets due south, fuzzy naked eye comet under the plough right now… Enjoy.
https://www.beckstromobservatory.com/whats-up-in-tonights-sky-2/
Last Call for Comet Neowise.
It looks like part of the Great Bear constellation, and I can’t see the tail without binoculars.
Nowhere near as impressive as Hale Bopp back in 1997, nor even the time exposure pictures of this same Neowise comet, where “time exposure” brings out the colours and tail better.
