Leonid Meteor Shower - Photo Courtesy of NASA

The end of the year this year looks to be a great time for sky watching. There are two meteor showers coming up and they both look to be rather large. Better yet, the moon will be new for both of these showers’ peaks, meaning there will be the lowest possible light interference for watching the meteor shower (well, interference that you can’t control by leaving the city). You can see more details here: http://skytour.homestead.com/met2009.html#anchor_12

From November 14 – 21, the Leonid meteor shower will be occurring. Its peak is on Nov 17th at 4 PM (so watch it that night).

December 13 & 14 will feature the Geminid meteor shower, with its peak on Dec. 14, 12 AM.

Curious about the names for these meteor showers? Well, even though meteors can appear in any part of the sky, they all seem to originate from one point in the sky (called the radiant point). The shower is named for the star closest to that radiant point. For a decent visual about the radiant point, look here: http://www.theurbansky.com/2009%20Meteor%20Shower.html

Ever wonder what color the Universe is? Well, wonder no more. Credit goes to Karl Glazebrook & Ivan Baldry for measuring the Average Color of the Universe in 2002. Its hexidecimal RGB code is #FFF8E7 and its name is “Cosmic Latte.”

So why, if the Universe is really that color, do we see a mostly black sky at night? This is something known as Olbers’ Paradox. One solution to the paradox says that not all of the light in the Universe has reached us yet. Another says that because the Universe is expanding, the Doppler effect (as it applies to light/relativity) shifts most of that Universal Light out of our visual spectrum. Look here for a full explanation: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/scienceques2002/20030328.htm