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Everything Old is New Again

By Cosmic Strings In Cosmic Strings

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are in 2021.  After a very strange and sometimes difficult 2020, it’s nice to have the chance to start again.  The situation may be the same, but maybe we can approach it with a new outlook now.  Sometimes, you just need to reset and start again.

We’re kind of hoping to do that with our STARturday Night LIVE program this month.  We still plan to be live on Facebook on January 9 at 7:30pm, but with luck, we’ll have something new and special to show you!  It will take some work, though, and both technology and the often unpredictable Virginia weather will have to cooperate in order for us to do it.  Never fear, however, should either technology or weather fail us, we’ll still be coming at you from the Virginia Living Museum to talk about what you can find in the sky this month.  So please join us!

If you’ve kept up on your astronomy news, you might be wondering about seeing some Quadrantid meteors tonight.  Well…I wish you good luck.  The Quadrantids are a very consistent annual meteor shower, but they consist of mostly faint meteors and not a whole lot of the really bright bolides that are easy to see.  And unfortunately, the Moon will be interfering with your ability to see the faint meteors as it will be shining fairly bright during the best hours for meteor watching.  So…maybe not so much for the Quadrantids this year.  But if you’re feeling like you need to try, head outside around 2am for your best chance.  We’re on the tail end of the shower now, so the meteor count will be pretty low, but you might get lucky!  The meteors come from the direction of the constellation Bootes the Herdsman, which will be rising in the East around 2am, so direct your gaze towards the top of the sky for your best chance to see a shooting star.  Here’s hoping you catch one!

So plan on catching up with me again on Saturday.  I’m looking forward to it!

Carpe Noctem!

Kelly