Post by Webmonkey on Oct 9, 2015 10:50:32 GMT -8
Meteor shower, supermoon, and more: Skies Over Bellevue, October 2015 edition
October 1st, 2015 | In Skies Over Bellevue, Eastside news | 10 Comments
By Benitha Foldsen - Special to Bellevue Blog
An unexpected Meteor Shower peaked in the pre-dawn hours of October 1st, so let’s focus on the best local spots we watched for them. My favorite spots in Bellevue have changed a little since I first started suggesting places within the city for viewing the sky. Your first consideration needs to be whether your location of choice is open to the public at night. Most Bellevue parks close at 11:30 pm, unless otherwise marked. So that made stargazing difficult.
Within the city:
Star parties have been held at nearby Kelsey Creek Park in Bellevue, at Stampede Pass, Tiger Mountain, the Cougar Mountain Nike site and Hans Jensen Park, though most of these suffer from too many tall trees these days. Many of the members attend the three-day Annual Table Mountain Star Party in Eastern Washington held in late July or early August. Currently, star parties are held at the Lake Hills Greenbelt Park - Phantom Lake site about every other month. This shower was bright enough to be seen directly over the city of Bellevue however, most notably from Bellevue Park.

As a diverse group, mostly from within the Eastside area of Seattle, members range from professional educators to aerospace engineers; from amateur observers to freelance photographers. If you have any interest in astronomy or space, we heartily welcome you, to join us, and share in the excitement of discovery, and wonder of exploring, our amazing universe.
METEOR SHOWER VIEWING BASICS
Who: Star watchers of the Eastside.
What: “Shooting stars”. In actuality, shooting stars are superheated air in front of speeding pieces of dust and sand as they impact the Earth’s atmosphere. These pieces of dust were likely left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle, a ‘late stream’ of debris from the Perseus shooting stars that normally only hit the atmosphere in late August, but may have been delayed because of heavier elements in their make-up and hit our atmosphere at about 37 miles per second.
Why: It’s pretty. And amazing. These are tiny pieces of dust 70 miles away from you and you can see them.
Where: We viewed them on the eastside with as much sky as possible. This is where We didn’t take our telescope or binoculars, just our eyes.
When: In the wee hours of the 1st, 12 am-4 am, as the Earth went hurtling into the stream of particles.
Before I go, a quick check in on what else we saw:
HEY, WHAT’S THAT?
I’ve been noticing Saturn lately, in the South. You’ll also see the Summer Triangle directly overhead.
If you have binoculars or a telescope, use this time to look up h and χ Persei (pronounced “aitch and kai Per-see-eye”), also known as the Double Cluster. It’s a surprising little cluster in the right part of the sky that you’ll be looking at during the late Perseids anyway.
THE MOON
Full Moon (also a Supermoon): The full moon rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and is visible all night. This was a rare occasion, both a super moon and these late Perseids all at once. What a night!
October 1st, 2015 | In Skies Over Bellevue, Eastside news | 10 Comments
By Benitha Foldsen - Special to Bellevue Blog
An unexpected Meteor Shower peaked in the pre-dawn hours of October 1st, so let’s focus on the best local spots we watched for them. My favorite spots in Bellevue have changed a little since I first started suggesting places within the city for viewing the sky. Your first consideration needs to be whether your location of choice is open to the public at night. Most Bellevue parks close at 11:30 pm, unless otherwise marked. So that made stargazing difficult.
Within the city:
Star parties have been held at nearby Kelsey Creek Park in Bellevue, at Stampede Pass, Tiger Mountain, the Cougar Mountain Nike site and Hans Jensen Park, though most of these suffer from too many tall trees these days. Many of the members attend the three-day Annual Table Mountain Star Party in Eastern Washington held in late July or early August. Currently, star parties are held at the Lake Hills Greenbelt Park - Phantom Lake site about every other month. This shower was bright enough to be seen directly over the city of Bellevue however, most notably from Bellevue Park.

As a diverse group, mostly from within the Eastside area of Seattle, members range from professional educators to aerospace engineers; from amateur observers to freelance photographers. If you have any interest in astronomy or space, we heartily welcome you, to join us, and share in the excitement of discovery, and wonder of exploring, our amazing universe.
METEOR SHOWER VIEWING BASICS
Who: Star watchers of the Eastside.
What: “Shooting stars”. In actuality, shooting stars are superheated air in front of speeding pieces of dust and sand as they impact the Earth’s atmosphere. These pieces of dust were likely left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle, a ‘late stream’ of debris from the Perseus shooting stars that normally only hit the atmosphere in late August, but may have been delayed because of heavier elements in their make-up and hit our atmosphere at about 37 miles per second.
Why: It’s pretty. And amazing. These are tiny pieces of dust 70 miles away from you and you can see them.
Where: We viewed them on the eastside with as much sky as possible. This is where We didn’t take our telescope or binoculars, just our eyes.
When: In the wee hours of the 1st, 12 am-4 am, as the Earth went hurtling into the stream of particles.
Before I go, a quick check in on what else we saw:
HEY, WHAT’S THAT?
I’ve been noticing Saturn lately, in the South. You’ll also see the Summer Triangle directly overhead.
If you have binoculars or a telescope, use this time to look up h and χ Persei (pronounced “aitch and kai Per-see-eye”), also known as the Double Cluster. It’s a surprising little cluster in the right part of the sky that you’ll be looking at during the late Perseids anyway.
THE MOON
Full Moon (also a Supermoon): The full moon rises at sunset, sets at sunrise, and is visible all night. This was a rare occasion, both a super moon and these late Perseids all at once. What a night!