Weird Astronomy (eBook)

David A.J. Seargent holds an MA and PhD, both in Philosophy, from the University of Newcastle NSW, where he formerly worked as a tutor in Philosophy for the Department of Community Programmes/Workers’ Educational Association external education programme. He is also a keen amateur astronomer, and is known for his observations of comets, one of which he discovered in 1978. Together with his wife Meg, David lives at The Entrance, north of Sydney on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. He is the author of two astronomy books: Comets: Vagabonds of Space (Doubleday, 1982), and The Greatest Comets in History: Broom Stars & Celestial Scimitars (Springer, 2008). Currently he is the author of a regular column in Australian Sky & Telescope magazine.

Preface 8
About the Author 10
Acknowledgements 12
Contents 14
1.Our Weird Moon 15
Once Upon a Canterbury Evening 15
Weired Lights, Mists, Eruptions … and Lightning! 20
The Alphonsus “Eruption” and the Pink Cobra’s Head 26
“Protuberances”, Bridges, and Other Lunar Oddities 33
Unidentified Floating Objects: Bodies Seen Transiting the Moon 37
The First Weather Satellite 41
Lunar Eclipse Oddities 47
The Moon: Our Lifesaver? 50
2.Odd but Interesting Events Near the Sun 54
Transit Tales: Regular and Weird 54
Venus 54
They Missed the Transit but Found the Bird! 59
Mercury 62
Some Transit Trivia 69
The Little World that Wasn’t There 71
But Is There Room for Mini Vulcans? 81
Bright Lights in the Sunshine 82
3.Planetary Weirdness 88
Mysterious Mars 88
Those Notorious Martian Canals! 90
Mars Calling? 95
Patches, “Varnish,” and Gillevinia Straata? 101
Letters, Faces, Ruined Cities, and Transparent Worms: What Will They Find Next on Mars? 108
The Spiders of Mars 115
Well, Then, Is There Really Life on Mars? 118
Weird Venus 127
Canals on Venus? 128
The Strange Glow of the Venusian Night 131
A Satellite of Venus? 134
The Venus Strain? 136
Which Is the Really Weird World: Venus or Earth? 139
Another Black Eye for Jupiter! 142
4.Weird Meteors 147
Fiery Darts in the Sky 147
Double or Parallel Meteors 154
Erratic Meteors 155
Black Meteors 159
Nebulous Meteors 160
Crackling, Popping, and Hissing Meteors 162
5.Strange Stars and Star-Like Objects 174
The Aries Flasher 174
ABBA I 178
Dr. Hafner’s Blinking Star 180
Ejnar Hertzsprung’s Enigma 183
The Spooky Star of Halloween 188
The Weird Flare of 2006 192
Those Popular Pleiades 195
The Red Sirius Mystery 203
Jumping Jupiter (or Maybe, Jumping Vega?) 207
6.Moving Mysteries and Wandering Stars 209
Henry Harrison’s Puzzle 209
Franz’s Fuzzy 214
Wilk’s Fast-Moving Mystery 215
A Bright Streak in the Cordoba Sky! 217
Edie’s Enigma 219
John Dove’s Mobile Mystery 219
The Wandering Star of Hofrath Huth 220
Bullseye for 2008 TC_3! 224
7.Facts, Fallacies, Unusual Observations, and Other Miscellaneous Gleanings 230
Difficult and Unusual Observations 230
Storm Observing 230
Moons of Jupiter 231
Some Interesting Pre-Discovery Observations 234
Daylight Observing 235
Visibility of Faint Stars 241
…And a “Bright” Quasar! 242
Very Thin Crescent Moons 244
Rogue Tales and Observations 249
The Strange Stories of Gelatinous Meteorites 249
Red Is the Rain that Falls on Kerala 252
Strange Structures Found in Meteorites 254
Dr. Waltemath’s Many Moons 262
Strike a Light, Another Potassium Flare! 265
Two Meteoric Mysteries 266
The Tunguska Enigma 266
The Fireworks of St. Cyril 274
Serendipitous Discoveries 276
What Was the “Christmas Star”? 281
Appendix A 292
Appendix B 293
Appendix C 297
Appendix D 301
Subject Index 302
Name Index 308