Astronomy

The other night I stayed up till midnight stargazing.  Nothing out of the ordinary happened.  I didn't see shooting stars, mysterious orbs, (or UFOs).  Suddenly I'm hearing in the news that there's an asteroid headed out way, Pitbull 2014RC.  You can bet you're bottom dollar I'm going to be stargazing tonight and tomorrow night.  How fortunate for me that I don't work tomorrow.

I am somewhat pessimistic that I'll see Pitbull 2014RC, but I think I'd regret not trying.  I spent $10 on a clip-on mosquito repellant and the instructions on the package say it's good for 12 hours of usage, but once it is activated, I have about a week to use it.  I activated it this last time I stayed up late which was about a week ago.  If I don't use it tonight, I might as well just throw it out now.

The news said that the asteroid would be closest to earth when New Zealand is facing it, but what with all the controversy with media manipulation, I wouldn't doubt they're either wording their explanation in such a way so as not to cause panic where it really might impact the earth, or the news reporters just don't know the finer details about gravity and how the asteroids path might make a turn for the worst and impact us here in North America.

Damn!  I still think about the fireball I saw a month or two ago.  I guess an astroid would be easy to focus on with a telescope if one knows where to point it because it doesn't travel as fast as a meteor.  I keep wanting to join some kind of astronomy club for assistance in understanding astronomy.  I don't know what an asteroid might look like thru a telescope, but one thing is certain:  the fact that astronomers only discovered this Pitbull 2014RC just a week ago tells me I might get lucky even though my only range of sky is a thin slit in the north.  I hope I'm not subjected to any Project Blue Beam tonight (or tomorrow).  I keep you all posted.