Is anybody here into astronomy? I've been an amateur astronomer for 15 years. There's going to be a pretty good meteor show tonight. If you live in a city you will only be able to see the really bright ones because bright artificial lights drown them out. Of course if it's cloudy you're out of luck no matter where you live. Hopefully somebody besides me will get to check out the show.

Saw one earlier, then the clouds came over:(.

It's still light out here in western Pennsylvania but that's not going to last long. Do you know how many hours ahead you are from Eastern Standard Time?

It's still light out here in western Pennsylvania but that's not going to last long. Do you know how many hours ahead you are from Eastern Standard Time?

I'd say 5 hours. It's even more cloudy now, so I doubt I'll see anymore.

I have tomorrow off and I've been planning all day to stay up to watch. I conked out too early last night. Not too much light pollution out here so unless we have clouds roll in, should be some good viewing. I haven't seen a good meteor shower since the meteor shower camping party I organized some 8 or 9 years ago.

I bet you're talking about the meteor storm on Nov 16 2001. I say "storm" and not shower because it was the show of a lifetime. After seeing that one, anything else is boring by comparison. Last night's shower didn't produce as many meteors as I was hoping but I got my telescope out and looked at star clusters and galaxies just for fun. The problem with looking at other things with a telescope is you occasionally miss an extra bright meteor while you're preoccupied. Tonight will also have more meteors than a normal night but if folks didn't get out last night they missed the majority of them.

Well I missed the shower, but did hear someone at work talking about it. They are fun/interesting to watch. Am not big into astronomy myself, though do keep up with when there is a full moon. A week before the full moon is when the kids at work start acting up the most so I do tend to take note when the full moon is, especially when having a hard day at work.

Roger, I don't know if you saw, but we had a solar eclipse over parts of Europe earlier this evening. It was best viewed from Spain, but we were meant to have pretty good views here. Sadly, although it got quite dark around 7pm, I had cloud cover where I live.

I liked the trailer for a later news show on TV last night. They were going to be interviewing Queen guitarist Brian May, who also has a PhD in astrophysics, about the eclipse, and said he'd be telling you why for this time only you shouldn't "Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see". I'm sure it was only going to be a warning about looking at the sun, but I liked the lyrics tie-in. In case you don't recognize the words, it's the third line of this:

 

Thanks Hoss, yes I did see coverage of it. CNN did a live special. Here it was cloudy but occasionally a window would open up. The Sun was only 5 percent blocked here in NW Pennsylvania so it wasn't anything spectacular....but still cool anyways. 

Brian May was very active with Astronomy magazine but hasn't done much in it lately. 

On 8/12/2026 at 5:37 PM, RogerDuke said:

Thanks Hoss, yes I did see coverage of it. CNN did a live special. Here it was cloudy but occasionally a window would open up. The Sun was only 5 percent blocked here in NW Pennsylvania so it wasn't anything spectacular....but still cool anyways. 

Brian May was very active with Astronomy magazine but hasn't done much in it lately. 

I think he has a PHD in English.....( ? ) It wouldn't surprise me to find out he was in Mensa.

1 hour ago, Hobie Hartkins said:

It wouldn't surprise me to find out he was in Mensa.

Are you talking about Cletus Hogg? 

4 minutes ago, RogerDuke said:

Are you talking about Cletus Hogg? 

Ha! Ha! No! Brian May, the top pic in the middle of the picture. He was Queen's lead guitarist.   

Of course, now that Brian May has his PhD in astrophysics, he can conclusively prove that fat bottomed girls make the rocking world go 'round! 

37 minutes ago, HossC said:

Of course, now that Brian May has his PhD in astrophysics, he can conclusively prove that fat bottomed girls make the rocking world go 'round! 

I'm married to one!! LOL!