Weird Astronomy: Tales of Unusual, Bizarre, and Other Hard to Explain Observations (Astronomers' Universe)

You go out for a night's observing and look up at the sky. There are all the usual suspects--a splattering of stars, the Moon, Venus, maybe Mercury and Mars. Perhaps you can identify some of the constellations. If you are using binoculars or a small telescope, you can see many wonders not revealed to the naked eye but still well known to telescope users for centuries. But what if you look up and see something completely new, something unexplainable. Do your eyes deceive you? Are you really seeing what you think you are seeing? What should you do? In this fascinating account of the many oddball things people - from novice astronomers to certified experts - have observed over the years, you will be introduced to a number of unusual - and sometimes still unexplainable - phenomena occurring in our usually familiar and reassuring skies. What exactly did they see? What discoveries followed these unusual sightings? What remains unexplained? In addition to the accounts, you will find scattered throughout the book a number of suggested astronomy projects that you can do yourself. The projects range from very basic to a bit more challenging, but all are fun and all are very instructive about unusual sightings. Be sure to try them! Title Page 1 Weird Astronomy 3 Preface 7 About the Author 9 Acknowledgements 11 Contents 13 1. Our Weird Moon 14 Once Upon a Canterbury Evening 14 Weired Lights, Mists, Eruptions ... and Lightning! 19 The Alphonsus “Eruption” and the Pink Cobra’s Head 25 “Protuberances”, Bridges, and Other Lunar Oddities 32 Unidentified Floating Objects: Bodies Seen Transiting the Moon 36 The First Weather Satellite 40 Lunar Eclipse Oddities 46 The Moon: Our Lifesaver? 49 2. Odd but Interesting Events Near the Sun 53 Transit Tales: Regular and Weird 53 Venus 53 They Missed the Transit but Found the Bird! 58 Mercury 61 Some Transit Trivia 68 The Little World that Wasn’t There 70 But Is There Room for Mini Vulcans? 80 Bright Lights in the Sunshine 81 3. Planetary Weirdness 87 Mysterious Mars 87 Those Notorious Martian Canals! 89 Mars Calling? 94 Patches, “Varnish,” and Gillevinia Straata? 100 Letters, Faces, Ruined Cities, and Transparent Worms: What Will They Find Next on Mars? 107 The Spiders of Mars 114 Well, Then, Is There Really Life on Mars? 117 Weird Venus 126 Canals on Venus? 127 The Strange Glow of the Venusian Night 130 A Satellite of Venus? 133 The Venus Strain? 135 Which Is the Really Weird World: Venus or Earth? 138 Another Black Eye for Jupiter! 141 4. Weird Meteors 146 Fiery Darts in the Sky 146 Double or Parallel Meteors 153 Erratic Meteors 154 Black Meteors 158 Nebulous Meteors 159 Crackling, Popping, and Hissing Meteors 161 5. Strange Stars and Star-Like Objects 173 The Aries Flasher 173 ABBA I 177 Dr. Hafner’s Blinking Star 179 Ejnar Hertzsprung’s Enigma 182 The Spooky Star of Halloween 187 The Weird Flare of 2006 191 Those Popular Pleiades 194 The Red Sirius Mystery 202 Jumping Jupiter (or Maybe, Jumping Vega?) 206 6. Moving Mysteries and Wandering Stars 208 Henry Harrison’s Puzzle 208 Franz’s Fuzzy 213 Wilk’s Fast-Moving Mystery 214 A Bright Streak in the Cordoba Sky! 216 Edie’s Enigma 218 John Dove’s Mobile Mystery 218 The Wandering Star of Hofrath Huth 219 Bullseye for 2008 TC_3! 223 7. Facts, Fallacies, Unusual Observations, and Other Miscellaneous Gleanings 229 Difficult and Unusual Observations 229 Storm Observing 229 Moons of Jupiter 230 Some Interesting Pre-Discovery Observations 233 Daylight Observing 234 Visibility of Faint Stars 240 ...And a “Bright” Quasar! 241 Very Thin Crescent Moons 243 Rogue Tales and Observations 248 The Strange Stories of Gelatinous Meteorites 248 Red Is the Rain that Falls on Kerala 251 Strange Structures Found in Meteorites 253 Dr. Waltemath’s Many Moons 261 Strike a Light, Another Potassium Flare! 264 Two Meteoric Mysteries 265 The Tunguska Enigma 265 The Fireworks of St. Cyril 273 Serendipitous Discoveries 275 What Was the “Christmas Star”? 280 Appendix A 291 Appendix B 292 Appendix C 296 Appendix D 300 Subject Index 301 Name Index 307 Weird Astronomy appeals to all who are interested in unusual celestial phenomena, whether they be amateur or professional astronomers or science buffs who just enjoy reading of odd coincidences, unexplained observations, and reports from space probes that "don’t quite fit." This book relates a variety of "unusual" astronomical observations – unusual in the sense of refusing to fit easily into accepted thinking, or unusual in the observation having been made under difficult or extreme circumstances. Although some of the topics covered are instances of "bad astronomy," most are not. Some of the observations recorded here have actually turned out to be important scientific breakthroughs. Included are some amusing anecdotes (such as the incident involving "potassium flares" in ordinary stars and the story of Abba 1, the solar system’s own flare star!), but the book’s purpose is not to ridicule those who report anomalous observations, nor is it to challenge scientific orthodoxy. It is more to demonstrate how what's "weird" often turns out to be far more significant than observations of what we expect to see. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Our Weird Moon....Pages 1-39 Odd but Interesting Events Near the Sun....Pages 41-74 Planetary Weirdness....Pages 75-133 Weird Meteors....Pages 135-161 Strange Stars and Star-Like Objects....Pages 163-197 Moving Mysteries and Wandering Stars....Pages 199-219 Facts, Fallacies, Unusual Observations, and Other Miscellaneous Gleanings....Pages 221-282 Back Matter....Pages 283-304 You go out for a nights observing and look up at the sky. There are all the usual suspects a splattering of stars, the Moon, Venus, maybe Mercury and Mars Perhaps you can identity some of the constellations. If you are using binoculars of a small telescope, you can see many wonders not revealed to the naked eve but still well known to telescope users for centuries In addition to the accounts, you will find scattered throughout the book a number of suggested astronomy protects that you can do yourself. The protects range from very basic to a bit more challenging, but all are fun and all are very instructive about unusual sightings. Be sure to try them. --Résumé de l'éditeur In addition to the accounts, you will find scattered throughout the book a number of suggested astronomy protects that you can do yourself. The protects range from very basic to a bit more challenging, but all are fun and all are very instructive about unusual sightings. Be sure to try them. --Book Jacket