Predict “Shooting Stars” and Other Phenomena

    Many people are excited by the sky, especially at night. Whether a person would rather make shapes out clouds, or patterns out of stars, the sky amazes everyone. One of the most famous phenomena involving the night sky is the shooting star. Almost everybody will see a shooting star during their lifetime, yet the likelihood of seeing one while randomly looking at the sky is very low. Who really has the time to just stare at the sky anyway? Luckily, thanks to modern satellites and extremely smart people, it is very simple to see a shooting star without watching the sky for hours. In fact, with a handy-dandy calculator on the site www.Heavens-Above.com, a person can find see just when a “shooting star” will happen near them. But before I get to that, I want to mention something about location.

    Have you ever noticed that when you are in a city there is a dim haze that prevents you from seeing the stars at night? This interference makes it impossible to find shooting stars in the big cities, although what most people do not know is that suburbs produce interference as well. If you go outside at night and stare at the sky, you will probably see stars. There are many stars visible to the naked eye, although there are many hidden as well due to the light pollution.

On a clear night a person can see the galaxy.

If a person travels to Aroostook County where there are hardly any buildings and lights, they may be surprised by what they see. On a clear night it is possible to see both our galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy, a rare sight in any town. Light pollution is so bad in big cities like New York and Hong Kong that it is impossible to see any stars. The map of light pollution can be found at www.lightpollution.it. Besides seeing the galaxy, there is one other phenomena that location causes for individuals watching the night sky.

    The Northern Lights have amazed people for millennium. Ever since people have lived in the North they have experienced the Aurora Borealis. The Aurora normally happens in the high latitudes near the North Pole, although there is less activity at the top of the globe. The majority of the time, people see them around the North magnetic Pole not the North geographic Pole, meaning that since the magnetic pole is in Canada, North America has a higher chance to see the Northern Lights. The sun has an 11-year cycle and at the peak of the cycle there is the most Aurora activity. During these times as well as during solar storms, the Lights can be seen as far South as Tennessee. Again, these can only be seen on clear nights where there is little light pollution. But these are somewhat unpredictable, “shooting stars” can be predicted much more accurately.

     I keep writing “shooting stars” in quotes because they are not really stars, but satellites instead. A company sent 66 iridium satellites into orbit from 1993 to 1998. These satellites have reflective surfaces and the mirrors occasionally twist in such a way that they reflect sunlight back to Earth in a process known as a iridium flare or glint. These flares can be bright enough to be seen during the day, yet they only last for a second or two, causing the appearance of a shooting star. The heavens above website can calculate not only when these flares will happen, but where and how bright as well. Once at the website you can click on change your observing location and you can use the map to pick your location. After confirming the information, find the iridium flares link. This link brings you to a page that will tell you when the “shooting stars” will appear, how bright they will be, and where they will show up in the sky. The lower the number of brightness is better and a number of -4 or lower is usually visible on a clear night. This information is completely useless unless you can find a way to use it to make money. If you try the software a couple of times and successfully find an iridium flare, you could bet your friends 50 dollars you will see a shooting star in the next 30 seconds.