Up in the night sky

A model approach for Charlestown?

Leading dark sky protection organization endorses model for sport field lighting. Are you paying attention, Ruth?

I want to tell you about a special school on Canada’s rugged east coast: Université Sainte-Anne.  As a student there, you must sign a pledge that you’ll only speak French. The school is equally serious about protecting the night as it’s located within a Starlight Reserve.  Please help institutions like this one succeed. The university aimed to build a football pitch to give its whole community a safe place to stay active, even in winter when daylight is scarce. With support from people like you, that athletic field became the first DarkSky Approved Outdoor Sports Lighting project outside the U.S. “Seeing students, staff and community members use this facility at night and knowing that we’re preserving the surrounding dark sky at the same time makes me proud,” says University President Kenneth Deveau. This project can be a model for communities worldwide. Will you keep that momentum going with a gift to DarkSky International today? With gratitude,  Ruskin Hartley CEO & Executive Director P.S. With global light pollution increasing 10% each year, there’s no time to wait.

Int'l Space Station to make a 7-minute pass over Charlestown tonight

Hopefully, you'll get to see it

By Will Collette

Seven minutes. That's how long it takes to travel our night sky from end to end if you're flying in the International Space Station (ISS). 

That passage will begin at 5:10 PM at 10 degrees above the horizon in the west-northwest an hour after sundown. The ISS will rise to 61 degrees or about 2/3's up the sky and continue onwards until it disappears at 5:17 at 10 degrees about the horizon in the southeast.

Hopefully, you'll have a chance to see it. The National Weather Service forecast is not great, despite today's sunshine, calling for some clouding up and perhaps a little spritz of snow. But maybe we'll get lucky.

Last night there were a number of reports of other sightings in our night sky on the Nextdoor blog for our area. At around 5:50 PM, low on the horizon, a string of Elon Musk's Starlink satellites paraded across the sky. 

Astronomers hate the disruption caused by Musk's satellite swarm on scientific observation, but as we've all come to learn, Musk scarcely gives a f**k.

"Melissa D" posted this snap → taken by her son showing Musk's cosmic choo-choo overhead. 

Here is the text of the e-mail I received from NASA last night to notify me of the chance for a sighting:

Time: Tue Dec 03 5:10 PM, Visible: 7 min, Max Height: 61°, Appears: 10° above WNW, Disappears: 10° above SE

NASA, the National Weather Service and NOAA have an uncertain fate once Donald Trump takes office. They will undoubtedly face serious cuts. 

Under Trump's Project 2025, NOAA and the National Weather Service may be abolished, no doubt replaced by Trump going on TV and drawing the weather on a map with his Sharpie®. 

Elon Musk has no love for NASA, except for their contracts. Maybe he'll buy it...Trump would certainly give him a good price.

CCA tries to distract Charlestown voters with shiny things

Don’t fall for this old trick

By Will Collette

To hear the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) tell it, if not for them, Charlestown would be lit up like a car dealership in Cranston. Unless they are returned to power, Charlestown will be lit up like convicts caught in the prison yard attempting a jail break. Without them in charge, Charlestown will look like the Las Vegas strip.

If you read their literature, this election is all about Charlestown’s dark sky. It’s not about the CCA’s financial screw-ups and mismanagement. Or about continuous tax increases during their ten years of power. Or their succession of shady land deals – over-priced properties, bogus appraisals, insider deals. It’s not about their decision to cover up their conduct by denying access to public records and denying non-CCA members to speak at Council meetings.

No, none of those issues matter at all. Just look at the shiny objects that the CCA wants you to think are a menace to you and all that you love.

My oh my, I am so sick of these people.

To learn more about the CCA's sleezy land deals, read The Politics of Charlestown Open Space.

Look, I grew up wanting to be an astronomer, at least until I found out it required a math aptitude I just don’t have. But I love sky-watching and appreciate the rare ability we have in Charlestown to see so much more of the night sky than our urban neighbors. We've run more than 400 articles in Progressive Charlestown on astronomy.

According to the CCA's campaign filing reports, these slick,
3-page flyers cost $3000+ to print and mail on a phony issue

But if you were to ask me to rank dark skies among the needs of residents, it would be on the list but not in first place by a long shot. As a voter, I’d put a higher ranking on good town management, clean water, affordable housing for seniors and workers, transportation alternatives, sound land management and honesty.

But apparently CCA leader and Town Council candidate Ruth Platner (possibly former Planning Commissar) wants this election to be all about dark skies. It sure beats talking about CCA financial foul-ups. Oh, look at the not-shiny thing!

For detail on just how badly the CCA messed up on finances and taxes, read Charlestown finances and taxes – Your choice on November 5 then read RI Auditor General finds new CRU leadership in Charlestown improved town finances to see how our current CRU Council leadership has turned things around. It also explains why the CCA is so eager to distract you with a bogus issue.

It’s worth revisiting how we got to this point. When Tom Ferrio and I started Progressive Charlestown, we found the CCA gave us lots to write about. In addition to shady land deals, Platner’s dark sky obsession figured prominently in the early years of the CCA’s rule.

For several years, Platner kept trying to figure out how to write a town ordinance to ban outside lighting, especially for sports and recreation, or at least force people to comply with using only shielded, downward facing outdoor lights.

In her early attempts, she tried to make it retroactive to cover every light in town but was told that wasn’t legal. She tried to make it compulsory on everyone, but that sparked a huge backlash.

She tried to regulate lighting as minutely as she has in such things as Charlestown’s anti-wind power ordinance or their newly released “Design Standards” that dictate down to the smallest detail what can or can’t be done with buildings in Charlestown. At one point, she went for a plan that would require you to install new dark sky-friendly light fixtures anytime you changed a lightbulb. 

Some CCA Planning Commission members had even more radical ideas, such as blacking out the town, noting that we get the best dark skies during extended power outages.

It was everyone’s worst nightmare of regulatory overreach.

Watching it was sad, but also funny. It was a battle that never needed to be fought and that’s still true today.

At the time, I suggested a better approach would be to conduct public education to pursue assisted voluntary compliance. The town could help promote dark sky lighting through property tax credits to offset the cost of retrofitting. It could also arrange a bulk purchasing plan to make it easier and cheaper to buy such things as hoods for outdoor floodlights.

But no, the CCA and Ruth don’t trust you to make good decisions.

After long and arduous failed attempts and endless public hearings, Ruthie finally got a watered down, unenforceable dark sky ordinance passed. In my opinion, she got less than she would have through the voluntary approach I recommended.

But that’s not all. It wouldn’t be a CCA campaign without an imaginary crisis, in this case “The Battle for Ninigret Park.” Like today’s phony CCA dark sky panic, it involved an approaching Armageddon sparked by the idea of after-dark activities in Ninigret Park.

To read more about the CCA’s habit of creating phony threats, read Fear and Loathing in Charlestown Politics.

This crisis featured a phony dossier – referred to as "Document #2" - held but never revealed by former CCA President and Town Council member Dan Slattery. According to Slattery, any attempt to install lights in Ninigret Park would trigger the federal government to take back the Park. And he had the proof right there in Document #2.

The town was in an uproar for months and it took an appearance by regional US Interior Department office Elyse LaForest to establish that (a) Charlestown owns Ninigret Park, (b) no, the Interior Department had no plans to take back the Park and (c) under the federal program that transferred decommissioned military land to local governments, there were almost no instances of land reverting back to the feds.

In those rare instances, it was usually because the local government asked the feds to take the land back.

After an investigation by the RI Attorney General, Dan Slattery admitted that there wasn’t actually anything in “Document #2, his Ninigret dossier.

There were casualties in the Battle for Ninigret Park, of course, since the CCA needed blood. Town Administrator Bill DiLibero and Parks and Rec Director Jay Primiano lost their jobs.

So here we go again, another election and another bizarre CCA conspiracy theory.

Like I said, I am so sick of these people and the way they behave. After all this, how dare they ask for your vote.

The Charlestown Citizens Alliance is lying - AGAIN - about Ninigret Park

Reject the CCA’s 39 Million Dollar Lie

Charlestown Residents United (CRU)

Contrary to what the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) would like you to believe, this Town Council is NOT spending $39 million in Ninigret Park.
❌ We are NOT building a stadium.
❌ We are NOT ruining the dark sky.
❌ We are NOT running a negative campaign or spreading false information.

The Town is required to update the Master Plan, which was last updated in 2008. 

We are overdue by six years in fulfilling this obligation. 

And let’s be clear — NOTHING can get built in Ninigret Park unless the voters approve the funding.

Just because something is in the Plan does NOT mean it will be built.

For example:
• The 1994 Plan included a "bandshell" that was never built.
• Both the 1994 and 2008 Plans had football fields, which were also never built.

On the other hand, something not in the Plan could still be built if approved. Take the multi-purpose trail near the playground and senior/community center — that wasn't in the Master Plan, but it was built.

Let’s be clear: This is CCA fearmongering.

NOTHING can be built without voter approval for funding.

Once again:
❌ This Town Council is NOT spending $39 million in Ninigret Park.
❌ We are NOT building a stadium.
❌ We are NOT ruining the dark sky.

Early voting, mail-in ballots start this week amid confusing ballots for Charlestown voters

Mixed up Council listings and 11 Charter revision questions make it hard to make informed choices

By Will Collette

If you are a Charlestown voter, you face a daunting challenge of figuring out how to make intelligent decisions in the face of a ballot that doesn’t really tell you what you need to know.

Two sections of the ballot are especially cumbersome: (1) the Town Council race and (2) the 11 proposed revisions to the Charlestown Town Charter. Today, we’ll deal with the Council.

The Town Council

Who’s who among the ten candidates for Town Council? The 10 are evenly split between five Charlestown Residents United (CRU) candidates and five Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) candidates.

Several factors make your choice harder. First, you won’t see the CRU or CCA labels on any of the candidates. The CRU and CCA are both PACs with radically different visions for Charlestown.

After losing power in 2022, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) broke its longstanding promise to run its candidates strictly as independents. All their newcomers are running either as Republicans or Democrats even though none of them have any actual connection to either party’s town committee.

Neither the Republican nor Democratic Town Committees made candidate endorsements in time to affect ballot placement, leaving the individual placement to a lottery.

In other words, a mishmash. Sometimes well-placed campaign signs can help with such confusion. This year, I’m afraid both the CRU and CCA wasted their money. Their signs are similar in appearance and crowded-with lists of names that are almost unreadable to passing motorists.

The mailers are somewhat more helpful because at least you can see the names of the officially endorsed candidates though the effect is diminished by the excruciating amount of detail crammed into each mailer.

In Charlestown, party labels (i.e. D versus R) matter less than CRU versus CCA. There are sharp differences on important issues between the two political committees that should guide your choice.

The Big Issues

Let’s review.

The tax rates from 2011 to 2023 show a steady rise
under the CCA. Source: Charlestown Tax Assessor.

Taxes. Everyone’s favorite. The Charlestown Citizens Alliance (CCA) claims to be the party of low taxes. Their record shows the contrary. Under ten years of CCA rule, Charlestown’s tax rate grew steadily and the actual tax paid by households increased as the CCA siphoned off town money to make shady land deals, allowed town municipal costs to climb to the highest in the state, and strangled small business growth.

In the two years since Charlestown Residents United (CRU) ousted the CCA from power, the tax rate is down. So is the actual tax residents have had to pay.

NOTE: To get much more detailed analysis of Charlestown taxes, financial management and the differences between the CRU and the CCA on these subjects, CLICK HERE. I include links backing up each detail as well as to the state Auditor General who supported my assertations that the CCA messed up the money and the CRU has been effectively fixing it. 

Town Financial Management. This was the major factor that led to the CCA’s defeat in 2022. They messed up the money. They misplaced $3 million for almost two years, ran up a huge deficit, and, instead of fixing the problems, they spent the past two years denying the problems existed, blaming the messenger and mourning the departure of the individual town officials most responsible for the problems.

According to the Rhode Island Auditor General, the CRU wiped out the CCA deficit, reduced town debt by 25%, reduced expenses by $1.5 million, increased town savings by 17% and improved pension funding. These are hard, documented facts showing a remarkable turnaround in town finances under the CRU’s leadership.

Charlestown Economy. The CCA covers its fanatical devotion to expanding open space by claiming this is good for tourism and, by extension, the town economy. They’re fine with Charlestown perking up on Memorial Day and then dying on Labor Day.

No matter how tasty, burgers are not
the key to Charlestown's prosperity

While tourism does boost seasonal businesses, it forces Charlestown to pay for a bloated infrastructure designed to handle a summer population that triples the town’s size. What jobs are created are low wage with no benefits and held by folks who can’t afford to live here. That’s really all the CCA’s got on the economy. If you don’t believe me, check the town Comprehensive Plan, hand-crafted by CCA leader Ruth Platner.

The CCA still uses Planning and Zoning to torture small businesses. Because of CCA restrictions, Route One still remains our Boulevard of Broken Dreams with its array of empty businesses.

For a preview of what a new CCA term of power would do to small business, check out their new “Design Standards.” If the CCA regains power, these micro-managed minutiae will become law and further destroy small business. The CRU by contrast, blocked Planning Commissar Ruth Platner (now a Town Council candidate) from making these “standards” an ordinance.

The Environment. The CCA claims supremacy on all matters environmental, but do their claims pan out? They claim they are responsible for Charlestown’s dark sky, yet they diddled for years on a draconian but unenforceable anti-light ordinance when they could have gotten much better lighting compliance by helping businesses and residences convert to low-impact lighting.

They added some more open space even though more than 60% of Charlestown land is a protected from development. Many of the CCA’s land deals were with insiders, mainly CCA supporters, and nearly all at way over assessed value and even land that was already classified as open space. Despite their open space zeal, the CCA bitterly opposed, and tried to block Frank Glista from selling 20 acres to the state Water Resources Board as a protected water resource.

The CCA concocted multiple fake issues about Ninigret Park conflating plans to provide temporary portable lights at the field behind Town Hall to allow Peewee Football to go a couple more hours in the fall into a major crisis. The CCA forecast such lights would shut down the Frosty Drew Observatory and trigger the federal government to take back Ninigret Park. Utter nonsense.

For more examples of the way the CCA fakes some issues and generally pumps up issues beyond recognition, read “Fear and Loathing in Charlestown Politics” by clicking HERE.

The CCA has shown little interest in any other environmental issue other than open space. They routinely ignored hazardous waste problems, especially at Ninigret Park dating back to the decommissioned Ninigret Naval Air Field. They effectively banned all wind power, even small residential units. They botched the fight against the Copar Quarry and even allowed the mob-connected owners to acquire a second quarry in Charlestown.

They claim they are leaders in the climate change fight, even though they have done nothing, other than to claim credit. Real credit goes to our state Senator, Victoria Gu, and state Representative, Tina Spears, both Democrats, for getting legislative passed and funding for climate resilience.

Charlestown Residents United (CRU) in its two years in office has not caused the environmental disaster predicted by the CCA and, in fact, kept a steady, even hand on environmental matters and clearly states it intends to protect our rural community.

Housing. The CCA has opposed all forms of new housing. Period. They have been tolerant toward some building by rich people in their voter strongholds along the shoreline, but remain adamantly opposed to affordable housing, workforce housing, family housing or senior citizens housing.

Former CCA leader George Tremblay even claimed that building elderly housing will only attract rich senior citizen speculators who will buy affordable senior housing and then flip it as market-rate housing. He based this on a debunked story out of New York City.

The CCA’s primary weapon to block housing has been exclusionary zoning accompanied by nitpicking and delay to drive up costs. Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, now running for Town Council, was the master of exclusionary zoning. She covered her practices by claiming that families with children were a plague because they would cost taxpayers beaucoup cash when the kids attend Chariho, even concocting a mathematical formula to “prove” her thesis.

Charlestown Residents United (CRU) has not been able to overcome Platner’s roadblocks, though a lot hinges on the November election. The CRU’s stated position is to support affordable housing for Charlestown’s “workforce, seniors and adult children.” Getting this done will require the CRU to hold the Council majority and change the majority on the Planning Commission.

Secrecy and cover-ups, panic and alarm. Under the CCA, we saw one shady land deal after another, often overshadowed by fake alarms and outside threats, whether from the Tribe, Amtrak or “others.” Often the truth behind these deals and bogus alarms was uncovered by diligent investigation through the town’s public records.

Stonewall Stankiewicz

The CCA figured out they might get less grief if they had their stooge, ex-Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz “weaponize” the Access to Public Records Act,” RI’s open records law. Starting with “SPAgate,” Stanwiewicz slowed responses to records request to the maximum allowed by the law, used every exemption to withhold records, blacked out vast amounts of text in whatever records were finally released, and charged the maximum fees they could get away with.

The CCA says it is pledged to “provide open, honest, responsible leadership. Their track record says otherwise.

The candidates

Both the CRU and the CCA are running full slates of five candidates for Town Council. Both are a mix of Democrats and Republicans. The only two “independents” are hardline CCA people, the aforementioned Ruth Platner and her puppet, former town Council member Bonnita Van Slyke.

Four of the CRU slate – Deb Carney, Rippy Serra, Steve Stokes and Peter Slom – are already on the Council and have a commendable record as previously discussed. The fifth CRU candidate is well known Breachway Grill restauranteur Craig Marr.

Based on their records, characters and the strength of the CRU’s performance in its first term, they’ve got my vote.

I’ve already given you ample reasons why Ruth Platner is not qualified to serve on the Town Council. Her pal Bonnie Van Slyke holds all the same beliefs, but with an added deficit of consistently making goofy arguments that are filled with lies and nonsense.

I wrote an entire series labeled “Slyke of Hand” devoted to fact-checking and rebutting Van Slyke’s nonsense. CLICK HERE for the final installment.

About the remaining three CCA candidates, to paraphrase Donold Trump, some might be “very fine people,” but all I really know about them is that they were willing to run as CCA candidates while appearing on the ballot under their registered parties, despite having no actual ties to the local Democratic or Republican committees.

I can say this about them: if you run under the CCA label, you are not a free-thinking individual. You must toe the CCA party line, meaning strict obedience to Ruth Platner, or you will be punished.

The CCA set their Politburo style right from the start by purging their first elected Town Council. They won a clear majority but turned on their own people. Why? The CCA Councilors supported wind power development in Charlestown largely because at that time, the CCA was pro-wind, especially their leader Tom Gentz.

But after the Sachem Passage Association made a political deal with Gentz’s partner in crime Dan Slattery to do a 180-degree turn to oppose wind power in the form of the Whalerock wind development, the CCA Council majority couldn’t keep up with the shift. The CCA excommunicated them.

In its second run for power, the CCA ran a brand new slate, led by former wind-supporter but now opponent Tom Gentz and Dan Slattery and ousted all but two of the former CCA apostates.

On those rare occasions when a CCA Council member has failed to obey Platner, they usually come to the next meeting to push for an opposite position. For example, CCA’s Susan Cooper initially voted her common sense to end anti-Indian Joe Larisa’s contract, but at the next meeting, after a trip to the woodshed, Cooper pushed a “Motion to Reconsider” to reverse her own vote and rehire Larisa.

The CCA truly seems to still believe in absolute obedience. When I named names in reporting on the CCA’s financial screw-ups, Van Slyke took to the letters to the editor column of the Westerly Sun to blast me for defaming the reputations of ex-Budget Commission chair Dick Sartor and ex-Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz. By telling the truth.

Van Slyke actually said “One would hope that the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee might put an end to the telling of whoppers such as this one spouted by someone who is a CDTC member.”

That may be the way the CCA operates, but that’s not how it works in a democracy. And that’s the last reason I offer for voting to keep the Charlestown Residents United (CRU) majority.

October’s Spectacular Comet Lights Up the Night Sky

Skywatching Magic: 

By NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

October skywatchers are in for a treat with the possible appearance of the brightest comet of the year, C/2023 A3, best observed from October 14th. Meanwhile, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter offer a celestial spectacle all month. Don’t miss the moon’s dance with the planets, especially its pairing with Mars and Jupiter.

What are some skywatching highlights in October 2024?

A potentially bright comet (C/2023 A3) to look for after mid-month, good opportunities to spy the ocean world NASA’s launching to, and the monthly dance of four planets with the Moon.

Comets: Unpredictable, But Irresistible

A new comet is passing through the inner solar system! Time will tell if it’s the brightest of the year, once it appears in twilight after about October 14.

Skywatching Highlights

• All month – Planet visibility report: Look for Venus low in the west just after sunset; Saturn can be seen toward the southeast as soon as it gets dark; Mars rises around midnight; and Jupiter rises in the first half of the night (rising earlier as the month goes on).
• October 2 – New moon
• October 11 – Europa is easily observable to one side of Jupiter by itself this morning using binoculars.
• October 14-31 – Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) becomes visible low in the west following sunset. If the comet’s tail is well-illuminated by sunlight, it could be visible to the unaided eye. The first week and a half (October 14-24) is the best time to observe, using binoculars or a small telescope.
• October 13-14 – After dark both nights, look for the nearly full Moon with Saturn toward the southeast.
• October 17 – Full moon
• October 20 – The Moon rises near Jupiter, with the giant planet looking extremely bright. You should be able to find them low in the east after around 10 pm.
• October 23-24 – Early risers will be able to spot Mars together with the Moon, high overhead in the south both mornings.
• October 25 – Europa is easily observable to one side of Jupiter by itself this morning using binoculars.

Comet C2023-A3, or Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, was pictured about 99.4 million miles away from Earth by NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick using long-duration photography on a camera programmed for high sensitivity aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Illuminating the Northeast U.S. – Stunning Nighttime View From Space

This is from the ISS watching us

By WILFREDO GARCÍA LÓPEZ, NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY 

Annotated photo of the northeastern United States captured on January 17, 2024, by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

This photograph, captured by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) while orbiting over Newfoundland, Canada, offers a captivating perspective of the northeastern United States. 

The photo highlights the stark contrast between sprawling urban lights and the darkness of rural landscapes and water bodies, such as the Nipmuck and Natchaug state forests and Long Island Sound.

Several of the largest U.S. cities are visible, including New York, Washington, and Philadelphia. These well-lit cities, along with Boston, Long Island, and the lighted roads that connect them, reflect patterns of urbanization extending to the coastline. Scientists have shown that population density correlates with the brightness of urban landscapes in nighttime imagery.

As the Sun dips below the curvature of Earth, the varying layers of the atmosphere appear as different hues in this oblique photograph of Earth’s limb. The troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, appears red and yellow. 

The stratosphere, the layer above, displays tones of light blue that gradually fade until reaching the upper atmosphere. The planet Saturn shines as a small white speckle visible along the upper-right edge of the photo.

Astronaut photograph ISS070-E-76065 was acquired on January 17, 2024, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 200 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. 

The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 70 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. 

The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

VIDEO: Space Station will make another 6-minute Charlestown fly-over

International Space Station flies over Charlestown tonight at 9:55 PM
By Will Collette

 

 To see this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhmdyQdu96M

It's been a few weeks since we've had an ISS overflight and favorable conditions. Though I get the NASA notices, I don't post them unless the sky is clear.

Tonight, with "mostly clear" sky, we have a five minute overflight starting at 9:55.

That's quite late and reflects how close we are to the summer solstice, the day with the most daylight hours. The ISS is visible only due to reflected sunlight which is why the fly-overs usually happen shortly after sundown.

It will appear 10 degrees above the northwestern horizon at precisely 9:55, will rise to a maximum elevation of 61 degrees, and disappear in the eastern horizon.

The National Weather Service forecast for Charlestown tonight is for "mostly clear" and around a 54 degree temp.

It's a lovely sight, quiet and majestic, and a reminder of the role science plays in our lives. 

You can get on NASA's e-mail list to receive notice of ISS overflights (CLICK HERE). 

Here is the official notice I received: 

Time: Fri May 24 9:55 PM, Visible: 5 min, Max Height: 61°, Appears: 10° above NW, Disappears: 33° above E 

Firefly populations at risk due to climate change, urban development

Another climate crisis casualty?

Penn State University

Catching fireflies is an iconic summer experience for many people living in North America, but the flickering beetles are on the decline. New research has identified factors that may be contributing to declining populations.

The study, which is available online now and will be published in the June 15 issue of Science of the Total Environment, suggests that fireflies are sensitive to various environmental factors, from short-term weather conditions to longer climatic trends.

The team — including researchers from Penn State, the University of Kentucky, Bucknell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service — used advanced artificial intelligence-based machine learning techniques to analyze more than 24,000 surveys conducted through the citizen science initiative Firefly Watch, now called Firefly Atlas, to arrive at their conclusions.

Another ISS overflight tonight

Seven minute overflight starts at 5:34 PM
By Will Collette

The International Space Station (ISS) will be flying over Charlestown tonight in a pass that will last seven minutes and will go practically from one horizon to the other.

We've had a number of ISS overflights in recent weeks, but just about all on cloudy or overcast nights. But tonight, viewing conditions are ideal, though cold.

Starting at 5:34 PM, the ISS will suddenly appear in the sky at 10 degrees above the horizon in the west-northwest. It will rise to 60 degrees at maximum height with a total running time of seven minutes which is just about the maximum time the ISS is ever visible overhead.

Time: Sat Feb 03 5:34 PM, Visible: 7 min, Max Height: 60°, Appears: 10° above WNW, Disappears: 10° above SE 

It will end its journey by disappearing at 10 degrees above the horizon in the southeast. I always find it to be beautifully serene as it makes its silent pass.

Given the astrophysics, seven minutes is pretty much the longest possible time for a pass over Charlestown.

The weather forecast for today is clear all day and night. Ideal viewing weather.

Here are the overflight details from NASA:

Time: Sat Feb 03 5:34 PM, Visible: 7 min, Max Height: 60°, Appears: 10° above WNW, Disappears: 10° above SE 

VIDEO: ISS flies over Charlestown tonight

International Space Station (ISS) makes SEVEN minute pass tonight 
By Will Collette

See this video on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nShmgRiAKFU

Usually, the longest International Space Station overflight lasts 6 minutes, roughly the distance the ISS takes to cross from one horizon to the opposite end of the sky.

Tonight, NASA has it posted for seven minutes - I've never seen one longer. It will start at 7:23 PM sharp in the west-southwest and will make its way to the northeast where it will disappear. Along the way it will rise to 65 degrees above the horizon at its maximum height.

By the ISS arrival time, our sunny sky might pick up a few clouds. The National Weather Service forecasts clouds and a chance of showers later on, hopefully after the ISS has come and gone. Seven minutes of flight time - the maximum length - covers almost the entire dome of the sky so the ISS should be visible much of those seven minutes for your viewing pleasure.

Tonight's overflight will follow this schedule and path, according to NASA:

Time: Sun Sep 17 7:23 PM, Visible: 7 min, Max Height: 65°, Appears: 10° above WSW, Disappears: 10° above NE 

You can take it to the bank that the ISS will do exactly what NASA says it will.

You can enroll for free membership in NASA's list for emails on overflights of the International Space Station. You can sign up to get those e-mails here.

The silent majesty of its movements never get old, at least to me.

About the only human space "exploration" left is the International Space Station.

While we wait for humanity to once again reach for the stars, we get to see the ISS serenely cross our skies on occasion when timing, their orbital path and the weather cooperate.

The station will be visible right at the designated start time and will arc over the sky until it reaches the point NASA designates where it will seem to vanish.

This is science, folks, so the times are exact.

We can generally see the ISS shortly after sunset and also shortly before dawn when the sun's rays hit it just right.

VIDEO: International Space Station will make a 5 minute pass over Charlestown tonight

Forecast is for mostly clear sky
By Will Collette

See this directly on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRaZgSVnsNs

The International Space Station will make a 6-minute encore pass over Charlestown tonight starting at 9:02. Now that the muggy weather has broken, the National Weather Service forecasts (click here) skies will be mostly clear. 

The International Space Station (ISS) has long been a symbol of the US and Russia as well as astronauts from around the world to work together in peace. They observe the earth, do scientific experiments and live in harmony, more or less, for months at a time.

During the early months of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, the head of the Russian space agency saber-rattled threats of stranding US astronauts, detaching Russian modules, blocking supplies and even crashing the ISS into a major city of some unfriendly country that dissed Vladimir Putin. 

But that guy hasn't been heard from in a while. Maybe he had an accident with an open window.

Nonetheless, at 9:02 PM tonight, the ISS will appear at only 10 degrees above the west-northwest horizon and head southeast, reaching a maximum of 53 degrees above. It will then continue its 6-minute path, its trajectory slowly lowering until it reaches 16 degrees over the southeast horizon. Then it will simply disappear. 

You can check the schedule yourself by CLICKING HERE.

Here is the notice I received from NASA: 

Time: Sun Jul 30 9:02 PM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 53°, Appears: 10° above WNW, Disappears: 16° above SE

The station can rival Mars or Jupiter in brightness.

Combined with its eerie silent, swift passage, the ISS makes for great sky viewing.

Again, you can check out the timetable for station overflights by clicking here for each day's overflight of our area. 

You have the option to sign up for e-mail alerts that give you at least 12 hours' advance warning of overflights.

International Space Station flies over Charlestown tonite at 9:52

ISS will make 6-minute-long journey across C-Town sky tonight
By Will Collette



The International Space Station (ISS) has been making a number of overflights of Charlestown over the past couple of weeks, but I only report on those where both the duration of the flight and the weather mesh. No point in reporting an event you are not likely to see.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for clear skies, so chances are good for a viewing of the International Space Station as it flies over Charlestown at 9:02 tonight. They are forecasting thunderstorms for later in the night.

It will be a six-minute run, just shy of the maximum amount of time it takes for the ISS to go from one end of the horizon to the other.

The space station will appear as if out of nowhere at 9:02 PM sharp in the northwest at 10 degrees over the horizon.

Time: Fri Jul 28 9:02 PM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 55°, Appears: 10° above NW, Disappears: 14° above ESE 

It will rise to 55 degrees and track to the east southeast where it will disappear at a low 14 degrees above the horizon as it loses the sun's reflected light.

International Space Station does an encore tonight PLUS (maybe) METEORS!

ISS comes over tonight for second 7-minute run in a row

By Will Collette

This is a short version - typically the ISS covers the whole dome of the sky. With good binoculars or a telescope you can see features on the vessel

As I reported yesterday, a seven-minute overflight of the International Space Station is about the longest it gets since it goes from horizon to horizon. 

It's not unusual to get overflights on consecutive nights, but two back-to-back seven-minute flights don't happen very often.  Tonight's National Weather Service forecast is for "partly cloudy" skies with a low temp of 51 degrees.

The reliable ISS which will show up tonight at 8:37 PM at 10 degrees off the southwestern horizon to start a 7-minute journey to the northeast where it will disappear at 10 degrees above the horizon. At its maximum height of 89 degrees, it will seem almost directly overhead.

NASA maintains an e-mail list that gives you same-day notification of overflights over your hometown. This is the message I received from them this morning:

Time: Mon May 15 8:37 PM, Visible: 7 min, Max Height: 89°, Appears: 10° above SW, Disappears: 10° above NE