Look Up: What's in the Sky This Week?
We were tempted to recycle last week's column for this week's, but instead we'll just give you a link and say: Geminids! They peak tonight! Of course it's rainy and gross outside, so the potential of actually seeing any has gotten much, much slimmer, but you can still follow along and see some great photos at #Meteorwatch (like this nice one). It's also supposed to be a little clearer tomorrow night, just one day off the peak. If you happen to be somewhere where the weather is better, you should see meteors enter the atmosphere at a rate of 1 to 2 per minute from 10 p.m. to dawn, so get a thermos of cocoa, a warm jacket, and enjoy the show.
Also, that launch we mentioned would happen last Friday, with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite? As launches are wont to do, it got delayed until tomorrow due to a minor technical issue. Tune in at 9:09 a.m. here, here or here. If you're wondering what exactly this camera will see when it turns its infrared-seeing eye to the universe, check out Chromoscope, which shows you the Milky Way and beyond in X-rays to radio waves, and provides a blog and video tour to tell you what we're seeing in those different wavelengths.
>> Join the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club tonight for their monthly meeting at George Mason University. Author Bob Zimmerman will talk about Apollo 8, the first mission where humans left Earth's orbit. 7 p.m.
>> If you're like this woman and can't conceive allowing your kids to bore you with their own interests, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum's regular Story Time probably isn't for you.
>> The International Year of Astronomy is coming to an end soon. Consider buying an inexpensive Galileoscope to see Jupiter and its four largest moons the way Galileo did 400 years ago, which helped him confirm Copernicus' theory of heliocentrism (and, thus, be tried by the Inquisition and spend the rest of his life under house arrest). Your risk of jail time for looking at the universe is much slimmer this days, so have at it!
>> Next Saturday, join the local NARHAMS Model Rocket Club for their monthly "Sport Launch" at Mt. Airy, Md., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rocketeers who stick their landings win a prize.
>> Got some astronomy pictures? Put them in our DCist Flickr pool. Got some amazing astronomy pictures that feature D.C.? Enter them in DCist Exposed!