The night sky



Looks like a wind up attempt to me. Come on a thread and insinuate that people are talking bollocks and being sucked in, without actually saying what. There are a few on here who do that a lot, try to lure people into defending what they have said without actually attacking it directly or offering an opinion themselves.

Perhaps I'm just misinterpreting what you said and this was a general comment unrelated to the discussion.
Not a wind up in the slightest, its just people take google as gospel, was not a dig at the op. You just seem to have glt your knickers in a twist for no reason
 
Whenever the sky is clear, I like to go into the garden, pick out a random star which can be seen with the naked eye and use Google to find out as much information as possible about it (usually after the wife's gone to bed and I've had a drink).

Tonight's random star was a very faint one within the constellation Cepheus. For anybody who doesn't know, the constellation is shaped like a house. The star I picked out is towards the bottom centre and is called HIP 107374 / HD 207198. This particular star is a blue/white luminous giant and is.. 2992.32 light years away... almost three THOUSAND light years away and we can still see it!

Absolutely mind boggling.

My first chat up line as kid was talking about the stars. In pleased I didn’t go into this much detail mind as she’d have probably fallen asleep ;)
 
All the winter months when we can see it, I look to check it is still there.

I have said to the wife that if it goes in the summer, I will immediately travel south to a point when we can see it
One thing I have learned from many years of star gazing is that the proportion of cloud cover is directly proportional to the level of interest and proportional to the square of the rarity of the event.

In the case of Betelgeuse, then it will probably emit cosmic rays which will initiate increased vapour nucleation in the upper atmosphere and lead to 100% cloud cover!
 
One thing I have learned from many years of star gazing is that the proportion of cloud cover is directly proportional to the level of interest and proportional to the square of the rarity of the event.

In the case of Betelgeuse, then it will probably emit cosmic rays which will initiate increased vapour nucleation in the upper atmosphere and lead to 100% cloud cover!
Apart from the lunar eclipse in January, I have had the same.

I always remember the transit of venus some years ago. We needed a clear view of the north east horizon, so headed to Whitstable beach (north kent coast) at around 4am. Over the course of the morning, other people appeared from cars as they noticed a few of us chatting. Some had driven down from london and picked it as the first point along that coast with a clear view. We all had a nice chat for a couple of hours, the cloud never broke then we headed home when we knew it was over. I think thee was around 30 people in the end. We agreed to meet again for the next one in 117 years.
 
It's an amazing clear sky tonight for looking at the stars. I've just witnessed two things I've never seen before. The first was a light which zoomed across the sky at incredible speed, much faster than the ISS. I'm guessing it was either an artificial satellite or piece of space debris in very low orbit.
The second was a flash near Vega which was just as luminous and lasted for a brief second, before disappearing - I'm confident that this was not an iridium flare and neither was an alien spaceship!
 
It's an amazing clear sky tonight for looking at the stars. I've just witnessed two things I've never seen before. The first was a light which zoomed across the sky at incredible speed, much faster than the ISS. I'm guessing it was either an artificial satellite or piece of space debris in very low orbit.
The second was a flash near Vega which was just as luminous and lasted for a brief second, before disappearing - I'm confident that this was not an iridium flare and neither was an alien spaceship!
Just driven up the M5 and once you’re out of the light pollution areas it’s a crystal clear sky out there.
 

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