APOD 4.6

This is, by far, the optimal location for any star-gazing session. This is one of the few remaining sweet, dark spots left in the United States: Death Valley, California. This particular image is a 360 degree shot taken two years ago in Racetrack Playa. Light pollution is prevalent in virtually all parts of the United States. The International Dark-Sky Association is working together with national park and preservation agencies to find a solution to light pollution. Unfortunatly, in face of more significant pollution changes, the problem of light pollution may take a backseat.

APOD 4.4

This strange phenomena was captured in this image, which combines infrared exposures from the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar in California and the the Keck-2 Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. MWC 922, a hot star system, is imbedded in the nebula. The cones, which incorporate at near right angles, may have been caused by the emission of cones of gas from stars in the late developmental stage. Astronomers hypothesize that the cones would actually appear as a ringlike structure if viewed from another viewing angle, similar to what was observed during the supernova back in 1987. The truh is that no one really knows why the structure appears this way.

Galaxy Info

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ast99/ast99351.htm
A scientist from the U.S. Department of Energy says radio observations are the best way to map out our galaxy.
http://www.astronomynotes.com/ismnotes/s4.htm
Provides a basic description of the interstellar medium and galactic structure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-scale_structure_of_the_cosmos
Outlines the basics of the structure of the Universe.
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/060915a.html
NASA's "Ask an astrophysicist," much like the link above.
http://www.astro.washington.edu/larson/Astro101/LecturesBennett/Galaxies/galaxies.html
Details the classifications of galaxies. Good link.
http://www.universetoday.com/2006/07/27/the-largest-structure-in-the-universe/
Discusses the largest structure in our universe yet discovered, which is over 200 million light-years across.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_Greatness
Short wikipedia article on the "end of greatness," where at approximately 100 mpc, structure appears more random.
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~mwhite/probes-lss.html
Lists past, ongoing, and future deep space surveys. Also provides information as to the structure of galaxies in the universe.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/molecular_cloud_000320.html
Explains the phenomena of gassy clouds in the aftermath of galactic collisions, notably Centaurus A.
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/current/collide_hilite.html
Explains the process of galaxy collision, using NGC 6745 as an example. Interesting.
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1997/34/image/a/
Quicktime movie presenting the collision of two galaxies, NGC 4038 and 4039

Moons and the Eiffel Tower

Ohmigod, they're like, more than one moons here, ohmigod! No, you idiot, those are just the different phases of the moon! These particular snaps are the phases of the moon during the lunar eclipse. The Eiffel Tower, the most visited building in the world, radiates brightly in the foreground. The moon is probably one of the most recognizable objects in the world, so it seems fitting they appear together. The last time any man was on the moon, however, was 35 years ago on the Apollo 17 mission.The image seems to be from an hdr camera.

Second Night of Spring

At around nine I decided to go out behind my house and look at the stars. Thanks to the tiny ranch behind my house, I was given an unobstructed view of the eastern sky. The other directions were problematic due to my neighbor's trees and, of course, my own house. Conditions were optimal for star gazing: cool, no mosquitos, zero clouds, fairly faint light pollution, relatively small pollen count. The waxing crescent moon and Venus radiated so brightly that I could barely make out Aries. I was really confused when I noticed that the moon was above Venus. They switched places! The fact that the vernal equinox occurred last night went totally over my head. But there it was. The now-spring sky disoriented my a bit. It has been a little while since my last observation, and everything seemed tilted downward somewhat, If you know what I mean. I could easily spot Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka and make out the rest of Orion, but it took me a while to completely visualize Taurus. Eventually, I put two and two together by finding the points of its horns and Aldebaran. Taurus' body was a bit faint though. From there I spotted the Pleides and Auriga. Then I observed Castor, Pollux,Sirius, and Canis Minor. Overall, despite my limited viewing range, I was content with my observation session. Good way to hail spring, I guess.

APOD 4.1

The rugged terrain of Neptune's moon Triton make it EXTREME. Just look at it. There's evidence of ice volcanos. That's the OPPOSITE of the volcanos found on earth. That's hardcore stuff right there. The picture was taken back in 1989, yet another completly awesome year, by on of the most epic satellites ever: Voyager 2. Voyager 2 is so extreme, it's actually in the process of leaving our solar system. Leaving it! It's continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to discover new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!
Willliam Lassell discovered Triton in October 1846 while trying to confirm his observation of rings around the planet Neptune. It turns out the rings were a product of his telescope's distortion, but not the planet. Ironically, Voyager 2 would discover a thin ring system around Neptune, but it would have been impossible for Lassel to observe.

Catch-Up

In the grand Pine View tradition, it's time to update my observations...at the last minute...

The first observation of the year I clearly recall was on January 5th, over near Lazin's house at the docks . It was warmer than we expected, but we were out in jackets. I can't quite recall the actual temperature. The light from the sorrounding houses around this small inlet was minimal and the sky was pretty clear. What was different about this particular observation session was the fact that we were cheating. Yes, I openly admit it: we cheated on an observation session. Lazin's dad had this new toy, i think it was called a Star Searcher, that identified constellations, stars, and other celestial object simply by pointing at the heavens. I was skeptical of the device at first, and we started the observations without it. Orion was overhead; Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka clearly visible, as usual. We identified Gemini, Lepus, and Canis Major with relative ease. I spotted the Pleides. We thought we spotted Perseus but, after finally consenting to using the toy, it turned out to be Auriga. From there, we found Perseus and Cassiopeia.

The next one came on the night before senior skip day. Quite a few of our class were gathered at the beach to celebrate (and that's all that will be said of that). Throughout the night, I noticed the sky had moved quite alot. Orion was overhead when I arrived at around eight. Hours later, the constellation had moved significantly closer to the ocean. Orion's belt shone brightly. I saw a meteor shoot through Gemini, right to the south of Castor (?,the left bright star). Lazin pointed out Saturn and Venus. The moon was showing in the North, but i forget what phase it was.

I almost forgot to watch the lunar eclipse last saturday. It was around 6:30, and it was in a full eclipse by the time i saw it.It was pretty impressive, and I was content since I forgot to see the Iridium flare yesterday.

And earlier tonight, I attempted to do the Magnitude estimation worksheet. I'm pretty sure I've butchered the sheet. It was somewhat clear, but the moon is at waning gibbous, and pretty bright. I wasn't able to see the beta eridani.

Well, that concludes my observations. My clcok reads 11:58, so I made it with two minutes to spare! Yes, I'm an idiot :D .

APOD 3.8

This is an artist's rendition of what one of two extrasolar planets may look like. Evidence found by the Spitzer Space Telescope indicates that planets in HD 209458b and HD 189733b. Specifiacally, Spitzer compared infrared shots of the planets as they eclipsed their stars with their normal infrared shots. No water vapor was detected in these planets, and the two planets were classified as "hot jupiter's;"that is, their roughly the size of Jupiter, but have orbits similar to Mercury's. These results, however, are preliminary. But the fact that these planets have atmospheres may just bring us a step closer to finding life elsewhere in our universe.

APOD 3.7

This is a magnificent shot from the constellation VELA of supernova remnants from over eleven thousand years ago. This image captures the filamentory material and shock. The shot spans over one hundred light years, and, from our perspective on Earth, appears twenty times larger than a full moon. The star is now in its pulsar phase which, according to wikipedia on 2/16/07 at 10:02 AM, are gay neutron stars that emit information in the form of radio waves. The star rotates at an amazing ten times a second. Did I mention the colors were pretty?

Planetary Nebulae Links

http://www.huginn.com/knuth/pne.html

http://astro.nineplanets.org/twn/types.html

http://fusedweb.pppl.gov/CPEP/Chart_Pages/5.Plasmas/Nebula/Planetary.html


http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~icke/html/VincentPN.html

http://heritage.stsci.edu/2000/28/pne.html

http://archive.stsci.edu/hst/mcpn/home.html

http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/space/stellardeath/stellardeath_2a.html




http://virtualcolony.com/sac/planetary.html

APOD 3.5

I posted APOD 3.2 and 3.4, since I had mistakenly saved them as drafts. Anyways, this awesome picture is of the FLAME nebula, in the constellation Orion. It's unique orange glow is due to the high concentration of hydrogen atoms glowing. The void in the middle of the nebula is a dust cloud that blocks the source of the clouds : a young star cluster. An infrared picture reveals the stars in all their glory. The largest of these is probably the source of the ultraviolet radiation that ionizes the hydrogen, thus creating the magnificent view we see here.

APOD 3.4

The astronomers over at the Paranal Observatory in Paranal, Chile have taken a series of awesome photos showing the Milky Way descending, or rather, the Earth rising. The telescopes in this observatory are known as the European Southern Observatory.

APOD 3.3

Comet McNaught is a sensation in the astronomical community. Of the past six APODs, five have been about McNaught. The comet, the brightest in decades, is reaching the climax of its EPIC performance. This shot here was taken over Krakow, Poland. The comet's performance is coming to a close in the northern hemisphere, but will continue to dazzle audiences in the southern hemisphere as McNaught moves higher and highger towards southern skies.

APOD 3.2

If you live in an area north of Florida, you'll be able to see the easily distinguishable Ursa Major, colloqiually known as the Big Dipper. And if you know the Big Dipper, you can find the Little Dipper and, more importantly, Polaris, the North Star. Unless your're a total noob. Here, we see how Mekar and Dubhe, the stars at the right extreme of the contsellation, line up and point almost directly to Polaris. If you're stuck or lost somewhere, you should be able to find it. Unless you're a noob. Or you live in the South.

APOD 3.1

Take a look at this. One star outshining an entire galaxy. This is a supernova, where, at the end of its life, one dying star shines brighter than the core of the spiral galaxy, composed of millions of other stars. Talk about going out with a bang. The description following this APOD is somewhat technical, and beyond my grasp. Basically, it deals with the majority of energy in the universe not being vested in stars, but in the actual void of space. How else could a single star outshine an entire galaxy? There seems to be much discord in the astronomical community as to the validity of this claim. The new (old) theory involves the use of a value designated as lambda, or a cosmological constant. The use of a mathematical concept sounds fine at first, but in use, it seems to muddle up things more. Cosmologists can accurately interpret data without the use of this constant.

So I wasnt able to make a decent observation on my trip. That meant I had to make one today. I was down near Casey Key and observed sunset there. A little while after sunset, a first quarter moon was at its zenith. A bright object, which im sure is Venus, was visible since the sun began to set and the sky began to darken. Right behind me, due east, was the easily recognizable constellation of Orion. Almost right in front of me was the Square of Pegasus. From here we were able to discern other constellations. we saw taurus, and i think we saw perseus, but the moon was too bright to be sure. conditions were almost perfect. besides the brightness of the moon, there was noticeable light pollution to the north in sarasota.

Update

So I´ve been here in Bolivia about a week, and I finally have some time to sit down at a computer to quickly update this blog at an internet cafe. The computers here, of course, are substandard (and the keyboards are all weird), so I´ll try to fix the previous apod entry as soon as I get home, which should be the 27th if all goes well. Anyways, here´s a quick recap of my observation attempts in the southern hemisphere thus far (I hope to fully record my trip somewhere else in the near future):

We arrived early friday. It was cloudy, contrary to intel i received from my mother. It was she who told me Bolivia would be perfect and sunny in our stay here. We arrived in the midst of a huge political rally here in Santa Cruz where a million of the 1,300,000 people in the city took to the streets. As a result, nearly everything was closed, internet cafes included. Not like I could make any observations anyway. The night sky was BLACK. No biggie, I though. That monday we would be leaving for La Paz, which is situated about 4 km high in the Bolivian Andes. My uncle was going to join us there, and he would bring his telescope with him. Sweet right? Sunday we got a call that there was an emergency, and my uncle would be in Brazil for the next few days. No telescope :( .
In the end, it didn´t matter. We arrived in La Paz Monday afternoon after an unexpected change in our plans only to find the mountain city completely covered in clouds. We decided to continue on to Copacabana, another small mountain town situated on beautiful Lake Titicaca (I just looked outside, and it started to rain again). We took a crowded bus there, a 3 hour trip on really dangereous mountain trails (i.e. steep drop, winding curves, no gaurdrails). It rained. It rained the duration of the voyage to Copacabana, with a brief sint of sunlight Wednesday afternoon. We went back to La Paz, where it was also raining, and took a plane back to Santa Cruz, where it was nighttime. And cloudy. Thus it has been since then, wet, cloudy summer days. It´s also very windy. I was hoping for a clear christmas night, but weather.com says to be prepared for severe thunderstorms the coming days. Great. Hopefully, it will be clear enough when we get back to sneak in another observation session. I´ll post a link here to a full account of my trip here because, despite the weather, it´s been real fun. I´ve got to go, times up, and we got to run through the rain to our apartment.

AMOD?

Well, I think this will work.

Launch in external player

In this stunning movie, we see how active the sun's surface is. Hot jets of gas shoot out, burning everything it touches. This movie was captured by Japan's Hinode satellite. The satellite was launched last September, and is a joint venture of the Japanese, American, and European Space Agencies.

AMOD?

Well, I think this will work.


In this stunning movie, we see how active the sun's surface is. Hot jets of gas shoot out, burning everything it touches. This movie was captured by Japan's Hinode satellite. The satellite was launched last September, and is a joint venture of the Japanese, American, and European Space Agencies.

APOD

This is the "Pelican Nebula," IC5070, in the Cygnus Nebula. Honestly, astronomers are way too imaginative. To me, this looks more like some sort of lopsided smiley face. This baby is about 2,000 light years away, and,in the night sky, is found just off the eastern coast of the North American nebula. Very peculiar in this nebula is the cosmic emission visible in this overexposed photo. It's rather huge. The photo itself spans some 30 light years. The original photos were showed much greater depth and resolution, but for practical purposes, the image was scaled down for the web (100 meg .TIFF to 1.5 meg .JPG). The Pelican Nebula is undergoing much change, as its star clusters continue to give birth to stars and evolve. On a few million years, this nebula won't even be recognizable.

APOD

This storm on the southern pole of Saturn, taken by the Cassini spacecraft, has been raging for billions of years at wind speeds twice those of the strongest category five hurricanes here on Earth. The Cassini used its Imaging Science Subsystem at a wide-angle lens to photograph this phenomona, which stretches more than 8,000 kilometers across, much larger than Earth's. It's unknown why the storm is stuck to the pole, but it's expected to stay put there for billions of years. To give you a scope of the scale of the picture, each pixel represents approximatley 17 kilometers. The image has an area of 302,400 pixels. Multiiply that by 17, and you get 5,140,800 kilometers if I did my math correctly. Wow.

Apod

This image, taken by Cassini, shows Janus, a potato-shaped moon of Saturn. Janus has a highly irregular orbit, and frequently trades places with another irregularly-shaped moon, Epimetheus. At its largest diameter, it's 190 kilometers across. Since only fairly large craters are visible to the Cassini, it's been hypothesized that a layer of fine duct covers the planet, hiding the smaller craters. This fine dust layer is believed to be on the moons Pandora and Telesto too.This particular photo was captured by Cassini in late September.

APOD

This is a spectacular image of the crescents of both the moon and Venus. This sight requires the use of a binocular telescope at the least to view, since it's too small for the naked eye alone. This image takes place right before an occultation, and Venus passed behind the moon, and reappeared an hour later.This picture was taken in Budapest, Hungary with a Nikon Coolpix 4300, which you can get at Amazon.com for just under $200. Venus is the brightest planet we can see in the solar system, and is only slightly smaller than the Earth. It has a dense atmoshere which fosters the hottest surface temperature of all the innner planets.

APOD 6

I think this is an amazing picture. I saw it on digg.com for the first time a few days ago. This picture, taken from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn, shows Saturn eclipsing the sun a a brilliant display. Both the nightime and daytime parts of the gas giant are visible, as are its rings.The picture itself, like the picture of moon from a few weeks ago, is color enhanced. The original photo can be seen here. The image itself is made from stitching together 165 photos taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera. Cassini was about 2.2 million miles away from the planet when it took the pictures. Also visible in the picture is the planet earth, a miniscule blue point just left of the main rings. Saturn's E-ring is also visible, created by the ice fountains from Encaladus, a moon.
The Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft is a joint venture of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency that reached Saturn in 2004.

It has come to my attention...

I was reviewing my blog in lieu of the deadline, and I noticed all the time stamps for the entries were way off (a blog entry at 5:55AM? I wish I were that committed!) So, instead of taking advantage of that, I decided to correct the time at a comfortable -5GMT. There, I didn't cheat.
I just noticed I didn't post anything about the group observation a few weeks ago. So here it is.
I arrived at the site, the service road outside the math building, at around 9:00PM, and all nearby lights were covered for the most part. The view was fantastic, almost as good as if we were in the country. The sorrounding area was mostly flat, and when facing the pond, all the stars were visible. I remember seeing a shooting star in the south eastern sky. I was able to identify many constellations almost as if they were on the star chart: Scorpius, Sagittarius, Ophiuchus are what I can remember off the top of my head, since they are the three I can almost instantly recognize.
During the course of the observation, we saw Jupiter slowly descend into the treeline. I remember Mr. Percival showing us a lot of stuff, such as the northern cross. He brought his telescope, to the enjoyment of everyone, and we saw some binary stars and I think two of Jupiter's moons. We also saw the complete Summer Triangle, which means I saw the constellations Aquila, Lyra, and Cygnus. Wait, Cygnus is the Northern Triangle. We also saw the North Star. Next time, I'll be sure to post a blog entry right after the observation session, which will hopefully be Thursday.

APOD

This spectacular photo of the moon is actually a a mosaic of 15 different images stitched together, and shows the true hues of the moon. The images were taken by an 8.2 megapixel camera hooked up to a 10 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Most pictures of the moon we see in books and magazines are desaturated ones, that is, pictures that have been completly converted to black and white. However, original photos display slight differences in the hues of the gray material of the moon's surface. Given that the moon is made of of a multitude of different materials, we can assume that the moon is much more colorful than we see it. By enhancing the color saturation in an image editing program, such as Photoshop, we can really see the differences in hues of the moon, as exemplified by this huge image. Photos like this are impossible to see, even with telescopes.

Double Post

Here's an observation I made an observation Friday morning. I woke up earlier than usual, and, noticing that it was still dark out, I decided to go outside really quick. The full moon what showing brightly, and had a slightly golden yellow hue to it. It was significantly larger than normal. It was about two fists (about twenty degrees declination, I think) over what I perceived to be the horizon, since there were houses and trees in the way. It was setting. Looking around, I spotted Ursa Minor, and located Polaris. I also spotted Cepheus, and I think I saw Draco. I went in a few minutes later, as the sky started to brighten.

APOD


Now for the second part of the post. This is an image from the Mars Opportunity rover of the largest crater yet to be visited by a rover, the Victoria Crater. The crater itself is about 730 meters wide, and is located in the Meridiani Planum, a Martian plain just two degrees south of the equator. The region is home to about 12 craters, the largest being the Airy Crater, which is a whopping 40 km in diameter. The Victoria crater is likely the last significant landmark the Opportunity will visit. The rover traveled 21 months to reach it, and the site will take about 1 year to analyze. The nearest prominent craters are 25 km away.
The Opportunity, or the Mars Exploration Rover - B, was the second of two rovers in NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, launched in 2003. The Opportunity landed on January 25, 2004, about three weeks after its sister Spirit (MER-A) made planetfall. The rover's operational duration has lasted ten times longer than expected, making it a valuable asset to NASA in its ongiong mission to mars. The official patch of this mission sports Duck Dodgers as the mascot.

Apod

This is s truly humbling image of earth from the satellite Cassini, currently orbiting Saturn. We can clearly see the rings of the gas giant, but we also notice a pale blue dot. That dot is earth. The Cassini Huygens satellite, probably one of the most ambitious endeavors by NASA. Cassini is loaded with high tech gear, making it very able to take various amounts of measurements and samples. Cassini reached Saturn almost three years ago in 2004. The Cassini satellite is actually comprised of two probes, the Cassini probe, with 12 instruments, and the Huygens, with six.
The image was possible because Saturn blocks the brightness of the sun, making the visible. The moon, as a slight elongation, is visible from the image. Earth's blue waters give it a slightly blue hue. Earth is home to over six billion. And over an octillian, or 8 followed by 27 zeros, Prochlorococcus, or plants.

Apod number 5

In its latest mission to the International Space Station, the Atlantis added pieces of the Integrated Truss structure, which will be the center of a segment of 11 trusses. The image was taken by the crew of the Atlantis right after they left the ISS. Construction of the ISS began in 1998, and will be completed in about 5 years.

Apod Entry 9/15/06

To the naked eye, this could be a foggy star. But M33 is actually a 50,000 lightyear diameter galaxy, Triangulum. Triangulum, part of the Local Group of galaxies in our universe that is home to our very own Milky Way, is the third largest of the group. In this wide field image, we can see areas of star formations as pink areas an newly created star regions as blue. Triangulus' variable star sizes make it a good "cosmic yardstick," or a calibration tool for galactic scales. Using DEBS, or detatched eclipsing binaries, groups such as the DIRECT project can make good estimates of distances of galaxies from the earth.

Star Trails

This pretty, surrealistic long exposire picture was taken from the Gemini South observatory in Cerro Pachon, Chile. The Gemini observatory is manned by an international partnership, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation. There are Gemini observatories in seven countries, including Chile, the UK, and the US.
This picture is an hour and forty minute exposure, and captures many star "trails," including the South Celestial Pole in the center, and the Megellanic Clouds near the middle of the circle. The circles form a path of the earth's daily rotation.

So there's this thing in the sky.

A little while back during the Perseid meteor shower, excited astronomer and APOD translator Laurent Laveder wanted to take some pictures of the phenomena from the beach in Tregguenec, in northwestern France. While he did not catchany brilliantly bright meteor,he did catch this. To the casual observer, it's a meteor. But Laveder correctly identified it as an Iridium flare from an orbiting satellite. The satellite appears extra bright due to the long exposure of his camera right after this appeared.

Spitzer's Orion

This is an infrared image of the constellation Orion. Orion, a stellar nursury some 1,500 light years away, is visible to the unaided eye under moderate view conditions. This image of Orion, taken from The Spitzer space telescope ,reveals cloud discs orbiting certain stars, raising the possibility that entire solar systems may be forming in Orion. Nebulae like Orion are like cities inhabited by stars. Astronomers predict that as many as 90% of stars in out galaxy are found in these swarming stellar cities.

DETHKLOKDETHKLOKDETHKLOK

Sometime after the rain and thunder stopped (for the most part) in my area, I decided to check out the stars. I went out back in my lanai around 10 o'clock (the front of my house is too well lit to see anything.)and started poking around. With my star map in hand, I set out to locate the weekly constellations, Sagittarius, Scorpio, and Corona Borealis. At first, I was overwhelmed, as I didn't know where to look. The storm had subsided in the area, and I think it was moving north west. Besides tiny, faint clouds and the occasional flash of lightning form the horizon, I think the sky was mostly clear. I spent about 20 minutes watching random parts of the sky, beginning northwards, then looking east and west. To me, they looked like random clusters and bunches of stars, making no real shape. I vainly tried to connect the dots into some vaguely familiar shape. Then I turned southwards, and I saw I comparativly dense packet of stars. My first impression of the pattern was that it resembled some dragon you see in the table mats of Chinese food restaurants. I looked at my star map, and concluded it wasnt Draco. Switching from looking to a piece of paper to the night sky was frustrating, since I either had no light, or, if i turned the lights on, too much. I decided to do my best and draw what I saw. I compared my drawings to the map, and saw immediatly that I was looking at Scorpius and Sagittarius. I also think I got the top of Corona Australis. I didn't realize that they would be so close together. I would have liked to have seen more, but my view was obstructed by my neighbor's plants and trees. I spent about a half hour out there. Call me stupid, but I couldn't find the moon. Also of interesting note, as I was drawing the stars, I saw a metoer, faint with a good sized tail, cut through Scorpius' tail and through Sagittarius's kettle.Over the weekend, or on my next observation, I definetly plan on going somewhere more open.

"Hey! I see one over there! It's moving really slowly and blinking!"

"Is it over there by those four stars?"
"Which four?"

Observations Part 1
it is currently early Sunday morning, 1:07 AM, at Jonathan Lazin's House. Paul, Lazin, and I first left to the docks by the house at around 11:20, but we didn't inititially know where in the sky to look. We were in the middle of Sarasota Bay, virtually surrounded by lights and buildings. We think it's about 85 degrees outside.The skies were mostly clear, with small packets of cloud scattered across the night sky. The moon shone prominently, and we predicted that this would be a problem with trying to spot the meteors. We began to think we saw flashes of light, but then Lazin and I saw a real meteor fly over our heads. Here I'll put a rough summary of whata we saw, where, when, and who saw it:
11:32PM- Me and Lazin see one overhead, and we recall it heading approximatley south.
11:36PM- Paul sees another one, but doesn't recall the direction.
At this point, we decide to go back to Lazin's house and observe the meteors from his roof. As soon as we get on top, Paul identifies the Persius constellation.
11:45PM- I see a brilliant flash of light heading south. I think it was a "fireball" Mr. P described to us Paul and Lazin were messing on Lazin's laptop and missed it.
At this point, we begin to write down the times, instead of trying to remember them.
12:08AM- Paul and I see one. Don't remember the direction.
12:21AM-Lazin sees one. Does not remember direction.
12:20AM-Lazin and Paul observe "UFOs," stars that move up, down, and sideways. I later see one of the alleged "drunk drivers of the sky," but we conclude that it may have been an illusion caused by the brightness of the moon.
12:23AM- The three of us see a meteor traveling northwest. We begin record the direction of the shooting stars at this point. We also note that this is the first shooting star we see that does not seem to originate from the general area of the Persius.
12:25AM- I spot one moving West.
12:27AM- Paul spots one moving west.
12:31AM- Lazin spots one moving southwest.
12:38AM- I spot one moving northeast. This one also does not originate from Persius.
12:40AM- Pual and I spot one moving northeast.
12:42AM- Lazin and Paul spot one moving northeast.
12:43AM- The three of us spot one moving south.
12:50AM- Paul spots one moving south.
Very soon after this, we realize the Percival told us the the meteor shower would start in earnest at 1:30. We decide we want a break from the heat and the bugs. We head inside, and will go back out in 20 minutes.

Meteor Shower Tonight

Hello. My name is Jizz Gomez. I am 17, and I am in Mr. Percival's 0 period class. I hail from my native country of Puerto Rico. I like rice. Every morning, I go out and milk cows. I also feed chickens. I want to pursue a career in lawn care or construction. I will be observing the Perseis meteor shower tonight.