ANCIENT THINGS: Strange, but true. Looking into the eyes of a sturgeon conjures up a feeling of great age and primeval waters. What? No sturgeon handy? Instead, try looking at tonight's full Moon, named the "Sturgeon Moon" by Native Americans of the Great Lakes after the primitive fish they once caught in abundance at this time of year. The Sturgeon Moon has all the age without the fishy smell. And don't forget.... THE ECLIPSE--UNDERWAY NOW: If it's dark where you live, go outside and look. A partial eclipse of the Moon is underway. Otherwise, check these live webcasts: from the Netherlands; from Norway; from the Canary Islands; from Iran. "The partial eclipse was a wonderful sight in the early morning sky of Bright, Australia," reports Rob Kaufman. "This shot of the setting eclipse was taken with a Canon 400D, 1 sec at ISO 400, F/5.6, 200mm." NEAR-MISS GREEN FLASH: On August 12th, Herfried Eisler of Amsterdam was photographing the sunset when an airplane intervened. "A band of blue-green light appeared just above the airplane's cabin," he says. "It was very pretty." What caused the colors? Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "Look through a simple magnifying class and you will see objects fringed with color. Likewise, our atmosphere acts as a giant lens, and when the sun is low, the atmosphere gives it a green or blue upper rim. Usually these colorful rims are too narrow to see by eye. Here, however, the colors have been slightly spread by miraging and its just possible that the airflow over the airplane has helped. I would class this sun distortion as a 'near miss green flash.'" 2008 Perseid Meteor Gallery [Previous Perseids: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 2001] |