October 20-21: Orionids Meteor
Shower. Wake up super early or stay up really late between Oct 20-24, head
outside with a thermos full of good stuff and look up into the night sky for
what will hopefully be 20 meteors and hour. Get outside the city and suburbs,
beyond light pollution, to take in the show.
November 13: A total solar
eclipse will take place on 13–14 November 2012 (UT), Australia and New Zealand
local date 14th November, with a magnitude of 1.0500, occurring only 12 hours
before perigee, with greatest eclipse totality lasting just over 4 minutes. A
solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby
totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A
total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the
Sun, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs
in a narrow path across the surface of the Earth, while a partial solar eclipse
will be visible over a region thousands of kilometres wide.
November 17-18: Leonids Meteor
Shower. If you thought the Orionids were cool, the Leonids will blow your socks
off with their 40 meteors an hour. Again, a dark location is important, as
you'll have to find the Leo constellation first to pinpoint the sky location
for the meteor shower. Having travelled to see the Leonids before, we can say
that yeah, they're awesome.
November 28: Penumbral Lunar
Eclipse. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of Europe, eastern Africa,
Asia, Australia, the Pacific Ocean, and North America. So...everybody party!
December 3: Jupiter at
Opposition. The giant planet will be at its closest approach to Earth and its
face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. Again, a telescope is recommended if
you'd like to do more than point at a vague point in the sky.
December 13-14: Geminids Meteor
Shower. Getting even better than the Leonids, the Geminids streak by with up to
60 meteors an hour. If you can stand the December cold under a dark sky, locate
the Gemini constellation to watch the show after midnight.
