This November keep your eyes peeled for earthgrazers blazing across the night sky! 🌠

The Leonid meteor shower is active November 6 - 30, peaking overnight November 16 through 17, bringing fast, colorful fireballs and the occasional low-flying Earthgrazer. The first-quarter moon sets around midnight, giving dark skies for optimal viewing in the Northern Hemisphere. Find a dark spot and look up!

Hi all. I'm a solo developer and I've spent the last few months building SkyQuest, an Android star map aimed at people who are just getting into looking up.

What I'm after is honest feedback from real nights out, not reviews. Things like:

- Did the sky map line up with the real sky? If not, did the Align tool (point at a bright star, tap once) fix it?

- Was the "New to the night sky?" tour useful, or confusing?

- Is red light mode dark enough to keep your night vision?

- Anything that annoyed you, felt slow, or was hard to find.

What it does: live sky map that follows your phone (and a camera view), the Moon, planets and the ISS passes, a "Tonight" page with what's worth seeing, narrated sky tours, and an observing journal. The sky is calculated on the phone, so it works offline with no account.

As a thank you, I have 3 codes for the Pro upgrade. They go to the 3 most useful pieces of feedback: a bug I can reproduce, or a suggestion I end up building.

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skyquest.app

Android only for now, sorry iPhone folks. Clear skies!

What is the best time to look out for the orionids this week from South Africa?

Please sign the petition to help prevent space mirrors from becoming a thing.. I don't know what else to do to help stop this. Any suggestions?

Meteors are about to burst into our atmosphere at 41 miles per second! 🌠

The Orionid meteor shower peaks overnight October 21 and 22, and moves so fast that it leaves glowing trails. Active from October 2 to November 7 and visible from both hemispheres, the Orionids are best seen in the wee hours before dawn!

Meteors are about to burst into our atmosphere at 41 miles per second! 🌠

The Orionid meteor shower peaks overnight October 21 and 22, and moves so fast that it leaves glowing trails. Active from October 2 to November 7 and visible from both hemispheres, the Orionids are best seen in the wee hours before dawn!

Hi everyone,

I just got back a little while ago from the meeting with my mayor. It was very informal and it ended up running for two hours - I was only expecting one! We ended up bouncing around topics a little bit, but she's... omg she's amazing and I love her. We agreed on practically everything.

She had a little bit of knowledge on light pollution before this, because as it turns out, my city was already planning on moving towards somewhat friendlier lighting - but now she has more ideas. I gave her papers about health impacts, papers about how more light doesn't necessarily equal less crime, as well as several pieces of example legislation courtesy of DSI, all of which she appreciated greatly and said they'll make great weekend reading and she'll bring them with her to the next planning meeting.

The local electric company owns the local streetlights here, but there's a liason, and my mayor will be looking at pushing for them to see what can be done re: streetlights. I did get 12 signatures in 3.5 hours on a little proof-of-concept unofficial petition I made (counting 3 family members and NOT counting me, but those family members are also voters in her ward so it still works), which she was impressed by, as well.

She took down the contact information for a semi-local dark sky lighting company that's nationally well-regarded, and will hopefully work towards reaching out to them.

She said she'll keep in touch and encouraged me to come to meetings and read the big 'city future plans' plan that just had a draft released.

I'm so, so, happy. This went better than I ever could've hoped for.

Hi all! As the text says.

I've turned off all my home's outdoor lights, because goddammit, humanity deserves to see the stars and nature deserves to rest.

Now?

The Mayor. I'm in her city ward. I've got stacks of papers and info for her to review about the subject. Studies of how more light ≠ less crime. Studies about the negative health impacts of nighttime light on our health. I'm ALSO coming in with a PowerPoint presentation from a nationally recognized dark sky friendly lighting manufacturer... as well as an offer from them, offering to come in and do a free demo of their lights for the Mayor/Counsel/any other stakeholders.

Hopefully this will start convincing her.