It's "Shooting Star" Monday, MKF!

[darkmagicwillow]

I spent my weekend stargazing. I couldn't find the Big Pineapple, but I did find the Squashed W, the Big Teapot, and Stick Figure on Pogo Stick, all of which are real constellations if not under their common names. Every time I get out of the city and see the glory of the Milky Way in the dark sky, I wonder why I don't do this more often. Do any of the kittens out there stargaze and if they do, do they make up their own constellations? Has anyone actually found the Big Pineapple or the Little Pile O' Crackers?

I also saw lots of shooting stars with brilliant fiery trails this weekend in the desert as we're nearing the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. In the city, they'll be bright streaks of light but in dark skies, they're amazing. There'll be about 80 per hour at the peak Sunday and Monday nights at 10:30pm so if you want to make a wish, tonight's your chance.

[ChibiWillowR]

I really wish I could pick out the constellations but I'm so horrible at finding them. All i see is "bucha stars....buncha stars...buncha stars". But they are pretty stars, they are

~*~* Morgan *~*~

[SJ]

I've spent some time star gazing. Looked at the Moon,Mars and Jupiter through a telescope which was pretty cool.

[kukalaka]

I love it, but living in densely populated Germany it's very hard to get somewhere really dark

I'll never forget the way they looked in Death Valley: Very clear air + absolutely dark = extremely beautiful nighttime sky!

I can name and find 3 or 4 constellations and I've seen Andromeda through a telescope. Wow!

Haven't looked for Tara's yet.

Have a great week everyone!

[Rosenberg]

I usually go up to my brothers property in Northern Michigan to see the meteor showers; its very sparsely populated and the sky is clear and the stars vivid. My favorite constellation is two lesbians kissing. Its the one I always look for first.

[ninjitsugrrl]

Well, I do like to star gaze on occasion. I grew up on a farm and we had a large empty field that was completely free of trees, etc so it was the perfect place to take a blanket, lay down, and gaze up at the stars. But, I must confess that I have never been good at spotting any of the constellations. I think next time I'm home I'll try to find some of Tara's and maybe make up a few of my own!

[kukalaka]

Since it's the daily thread I'm gonna use my chance to lament now:

It's been pouring for hours here, our cellars are flooded (I think it's been 8 times in the past 2 weeks now) as is the street, so I can't use public transport right now, we don't have warm water and just were without electricity for several hours. Wish we'd already left for Croatia

OK, I'm done now

[Grimaldi]

i've gone star gazing a few times, but since i can't remember the names, i usually just look up at all of the stars and marvel at their beauty. i've tried Tara's method of naming the constellations, but all i come up with are lame names.

[mollyig]

I love to look at the stars. I often sit out in my back garden at night just gazing up. Neighbours think I'm odd - and not just because of that!

Its actually not raining here which is kind of surprising as we've had the wettest summer ever recorded in Ireland (and for a country where rain is the norm that's saying something).

[theatremouse]

i loove staring at the stars. used to go stargazing almost every night with a bf, dont do it so often now, but always want to. i've been meaning to look for the big pineappple, ahvent gone a tara's stars quest yet.

peace.

[La]

Stars are awesome. Whenever I'm out when the stars are starting to come out, I make a wish "starlight star bright first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight ..."

The moon is also really cool. The other night there was just this teeny tiny sliver in the sky. I love the moon.

[areslei]

I suck at finding constellations. Mostly I just look for each individual star that i've "given" my friends. I can't even find the dippers. It's harder for me to watch the stars in Pennsylvania, with all the trees, so I just moongaze. In Albuquerque, it's great. You just drive to the top of the mountain. My gf and I used to do that at least once a week when we lived there until one night a ranger came and we got a nice big spotlight in our eyes.

I used to do the "star light star bright" wishing until I moved. I really loved doing that.

[skittles]

[quote:696c61b7cc][b:696c61b7cc][i:696c61b7cc]Quote:[/i:696c61b7cc][/b:696c61b7cc]

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The moon is also really cool. The other night there was just this teeny tiny sliver in the sky. I love the moon.

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[/quote:696c61b7cc]
La, I love that sliver of a moon, too. I call it a Cheshire Moon, because it reminds me of the Cheshire Cat in "Alice."

The part where the cat disappears leaving only his grin. I love the quote, "I've often seen a cat without a smile, but not a smile without a cat." or something like that.

For my lab science requirement, I was able to take astronomy. I can't take biology or chemistry due to breathing & allergy problems (under control, but still in existence). I loved it & I share that love with my family.

I've got them able to easily find orion's belt & on a really clear night, can find the 7 sisters. Not bad!!

I love the night sky. It is so quiet & peaceful at night.

[darkmagicwillow]

La, the new moon was beautiful this weekend. It becomes visible around sunset this week but it sets before twilight is over so you have to catch it early in the night. The good thing about that is that there's not a lot of moonlight to outshine the shooting stars this year. You'll also see Venus around sunset near the new moon.

The Big Dipper's rises in the northwestern part of the sky this time of year. The Little Dipper is just above it, pouring its cup down into the larger cup of the Big Dipper. Oh, and if you look closely at the handle of the Big Dipper on a dark night, you can see that one of the stars is actually a binary star.

You have to stay up late in the summer to see Orion as it doesn't rise til about 4am. I can identify 8 or 9 constellations, but don't know how to find the 7 sisters or Two Lesbians Kissing for that matter. (-;

[tommo]

[quote:acea8ebd77][b:acea8ebd77][i:acea8ebd77]Quote:[/i:acea8ebd77][/b:acea8ebd77]

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[b:acea8ebd77] I call it a Cheshire Moon[/b:acea8ebd77]

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[/quote:acea8ebd77]

Which is odd, because I live in Cheshire. Everyone here smiles, just like the cat.

Oh, that's right. Except me.

[i:acea8ebd77] *Ruth, who definitely isn't smiling right now*[/i:acea8ebd77]

[Rally]

Ok, I guess I am just easily amused today, so I am reading the paper and this headline jumps out at me:

[b:8267b9ed27] Spike in viewers of sex-offender database[/b:8267b9ed27]

[BBOvenGuy]

Good morning!

Usually it's too smoggy to stargaze in LA. I remember doing a lot of it when I lived in Indiana, though. I think my personal highlight was when my teacher brought a telescope to our sixth grade campout night and we saw Jupiter and a couple of its moons.

I spent eight hours yesterday writing up summaries and reviews of the original pilots for [i:49fd186986] Firefly[/i:49fd186986] and [i:49fd186986] Birds of Prey[/i:49fd186986] (the WB's new female superhero series). Now I've discovered that I really need to get a brace for my left wrist. I've had one for my right wrist for over a year, but all the writing I've been doing has finally gotten my left one caught up. Ow.

Anyway, if you'd like to see the reviews, you can find them here:

www.geocities.com/bbovenguy/Firefly.html
www.geocities.com/bbovenguy/Birds.html

Oh, and did anyone watch last night's episode of [i:49fd186986] The Wire[/i:49fd186986]? How much did it suck that [b:49fd186986] they killed the lesbian!!![/b:49fd186986] I mean, I could see the dramatic logic to it - in fact, I saw the death coming about ten minutes in advance. It made dramatic sense for a female police officer to get killed, and the lesbian, Kima, was the only female police officer on the show. Of course, that leads me to ask just why [b:49fd186986] was[/b:49fd186986] Kima the only female police officer on the entire show, but that's a different issue. Either way, it still sucks.

[tommo]

My mother's just told me that, seeing as the sky is clear today, there's a chance we might see shooting stars tonight. I swear, I'll be expecting that slug to come and take away her insanity all night now.

[AlexisMQ]

If you are interested, you can go out tonight around 2 or 3am (course, that is west coast time) and see the perseids meteor shower. Last night (or this morning) and tonight are the heaviest times to see them, with about 10 or more visible an hour, but you should be able to see a them until the 18th. For more info, you can go here

Typical Monday here, lots of work to catch up on from the weekend and no time to do it in. Forgot that I had to teach a class tonight, gotta love Logistics... *laugh*

Have a great day kitties.

[darkmagicwillow]

BBOvenGuy, be careful about wrist braces. They're a paliative, not a solution. I had wrist problems for a long time and I still have to be careful, but I can do handstands in my yoga class now which would have been amazingly painful a couple of years ago. I found the best explanation of repetitive stress injuries and how to resolve them in the book [i:e9b9493825]It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome[/i:e9b9493825]. The Typing Injury FAQ is a great clearinghouse of information about them too.

[sikarja]

Not much of a stargazer, I can only find Otava, the Big Dipper, by myself. A friend once showed me Orion. Living in the city it's too bright at night to see the stars properly, but this one time when I was in the army we were training in the woods, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It's was probably one of the first sub-zero nights of that autumn and really clear skies and no clouds. I had watch duty by our cannons from 2am to 3am and I spent the whole time pretty much looking upwards. The stars were so amazingly bright and the whole sky was full of them, and I even saw a couple of shooting stars. I was freezing my ass off and smiling with my mouth open at the same time.

I love the Moon too, sometimes at night a thin cloud will go in front of the Moon so it's partially hidden but shows through the cloud, it's really beautiful. And at daytime when the Moon is sort of pale blue it can look captivating too.

n/p Project Hate - Hellucination

[Arwen]

I recently visited my dad at his trailer up North (I'm in Ontario), and the stargazing there is breath taking. I went out to lay on the end of a dock on the lake, and I actually thought about Tara and Willow doing the same thing if they were given the chance. Sigh, if I win a million dollars I'm buying a house boat to live on for sure!

Coincidentally, Michelle Branch's latest single release is Goodbye To You, which ends with the line "You're my shooting star". I think one of the only good choices Joss made last year was having Michelle Branch on performing. I LOVE her music.

[ZipityDoDa]

I like looking at the stars whenever I have a chance...I really want to see the meteor shower, but I'm really tired. It's only 6:20 pm and I want to go to bed. I went back to school today. Waaaa!

[Guinevere]

Here in west Texas we had a really great view of all the little tiny shooting stars. They looked so close, like they were landing on the mountains here. I stayed up all night. (Good thing too, or I might have fallen off the roof! ) I hope everyones wishes will come true!

Gwen

[momentum]

Mmm, yes, stars are pretty. Last night I laid on a slide in the park and looked at the stars. Well, at first it was cloudy but it eventually cleared up and the stars were so bright.

Speaking of shooting stars (sort of), MTV played the making of Michelle Branch's "Goodbye to You" video today. The last line of the song is "You're my shooting star..." which is effing cute. The girl herself is a cutie.

[AutumnT]

Those fans in here that might have been worried about TD - his MRI came back OK and they are not doing surgery again. They are certainly keeping an eye on the knee and treating it, but no real bad news at this point. I watched an interview with him tonight on the Bronco Huddle and he is remaining personally upbeat, but there is a lot of talk right now that if he has another big setback - if he can't get where he needs to be soon that he will retire.

[relativegirl]

And I would be one of those fans. Well that's certainly good news that it came back negative. And more than enough reason to go enjoy a frosty cold one.

Thanks for the update Autumn!

Living in LA, there are virtually no stars in sky. They all fell to the ground and got agents, managers, shrinks and personal trainers. Not nearly as interesting as the celestial variety.

[areslei]

thanks autumn.

[chelehel74]

Tell me about it - the other coast is just as dismissal in the star department.

Even out in my backyard in one of the boroughs I still can't see much but the next door neighbors new lamp post and the lights from the bridge.

Although at a wedding in upstate NY last week what a sight from a winery grape field!