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OrioNOTS (Orionids) Meteor showers tend to happen regularly every year, over a period of time; days, weeks or even longer. Published times are usually listed for the few nights when the showers will be most visible, i.e. a lot of meteors per hour. Sometimes, the showers’ viewing times vary, they start a little early or a little late, but mostly they start and end right on their predicted time schedules. I was hoping to see the (October) Orionids earlier than during this year's peak viewing time. The showers best viewing times were supposed to happen during moon up in the sky time. Pointed in the right direction, this is a thirty seconds long exposure, long enough to bring out the foreground and have some star trailing. After an hour or so of viewing, lots of star trails, and one airplane, but no meteors. They were stubbornly insisting on staying on schedule, they had a show to put on. But no shows locally, alas. This is the culprit, making meteor viewing very, very difficult that night. Moonrise, at 71% illumination. This puppy is bright enough to cast shadows and hide meteors.

Whoa! Pony! Slow down horse! Located in the Pegasus Constellation is the Pegasus Cluster, a beautiful group of fresh blue-hot stars mixed in with older cooler warm-red stars. (Messier Object M15). This is the equivalent of seven minutes of exposure. According to the legends, Pegasus popped out of Medusa's neck after Medusa had the dire misfortune of encountering Perseus who was in a very bad mood that day they met. Mayhem ensued and Medusa lost that round. Time passed on and after some other adventures, Pegasus ventured up to Olympus and later retired to hanging out in the stars. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-15 https://astro-observer.com/messier/M15 https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/pegasus-constellation/ https://nineplanets.org/pegasus/ Giddy Up Pony!

September 17, 2024. It was supposed to be a Full Moon, a Super Moon, Harvest Moon with a little off the top. It was almost an Obscured By Clouds Moon ... Locally, the clouds cleared just in time to see the partial eclipse: https://www.space.com/lunar-eclipse-september-harvest-moon-supermoon-what-to-expect