LibertyBell

and the triplet of Mars Jupiter and Saturn later on at night! If you've got a very long zoom lens you can capture the structure of the ISS!

I certainly hope so.....do you think they are the source for this weird long loud hissing sound I hear during the day (and also sometimes at night?) I thought it was coming from outside, but sometimes it seems very nearby. I cant stand waterbugs, I thought they were limited to tropical climates. One time I was vacationing in Mexico and I woke up to something biting me on the neck and it was a flying waterbug (or cockroach as you said). It was HUGE. The thing I saw last night-- I thought it was a beetle because I was trying to smash it with my hand (with gloves on of course) but it kept getting away, and I've only known beetles in the insect world to have a shell hard enough to withstand the full weight of a human. Are you saying it can come up from a different drain?

right under the Big Dipper! excellent! Lee Goldberg just said July 14-19 just under the big dipper....I wonder why he didn't mention that it would be closest on July 23rd so should probably be easier to see by then.

so are vultures unfortunately. I've seen half a dozen of them in my trees, just sitting there, ominously, when I'm pruning my plants. Made a lot of noise to make them leave but they just keep coming back. This is the first year I've seen this happen.

weird....90 at JFK and 87 at NYC

It was in the news last night that Nassau County is being plagued by a rat infestation....I guess I wasn't the only one lol. Luckily my problems are (knock on wood) solved because I listened to people who told me to find all the holes that were larger than 1/4 inch and plug them all up. My biting/stinging bug problem seems to have resolved itself too- haven't seen anything since I got back to Long Island, except when I was in the bathroom last night and I saw this giant (2 inch long) waterbug....or metallic black beetle.....whatever it was had a really strong shell and both crawls and flies, I wasn't able to catch it but it went down the drain (on its own) in my bathroom sink and I plugged up the drain after that to make sure it doesn't come back out. How long can those things live inside the pipes (or will it come up again from there or some other drain?)

honey bee population is down 44% from last year to this year, from a big queen bee die off during the summer. honey bees are responsible for over one third of pollination.

Weirdest thing, I saw fireflies flashing throughout the night even as it was raining during Fay.

Julian, how many degrees above the horizon would you say it was? NW sky right? moon= half degree. 10 degrees = holding your fist at arm's length. also mind sharing exposure settings- effective focal length, shutter speed, iso, aperture, etc?

I really want to see it. I hope it gets higher up in the sky before it fades. One of my favorite memories with my father is seeing Hale Bopp back in 1997. He's gone now but seeing this comet is something that'd make me feel closer to him. I'm hoping to see it either this week or next, I've been looking for it every night....the deadline is July 22nd, after that it's going to get dimmer as it recedes from Earth. I'm wondering if I should scan the skies with my binos first and if I can find it that way, then look for it with my eyes.

Pangaea....that was millions upon millions of years ago though.

tell me about it, we have dozens of them here. They aren't so good for the bird population either.

the new kind of cross polar flow ;-) considering that Maine and Montreal almost made it to triple digits, how hot would it have been had that air made it down here, Chris?

Is this connected to the record heat we have been seeing across the north (Siberia, Canada, Vermont, Maine, Northern NY, etc?)

of course they are, as are rats, but they weren't as common before humans started dirtying things up. Actually, I dont believe north america had any rats, cats or dogs before they were brought here by boat.

The steel wool pads are what I'm using to plug up the holes, also thinking of getting FlexSeal which is supposed to be airtight and waterproof, because that can help me for multiple reasons. Why on earth do mice want to come inside anyway, they are pretty afraid of humans and I never actually see them until they're dead. The UV lamp container thing seems to be helping a lot with gnats and mosquitoes and other biting insects, I've seen a huge population reduction of them since I started trapping them in that container. I just have to empty it out once a week because the damn thing fills up quickly. One of these containers is supposed to cover a half acre, I got two of them and I'm getting another one for the inside. Little flying pests fly into the container and never come back out. I wish there was something like this for mice too. I blame most of these pests on humans- mice, cockroaches, mosquitoes, etc., have proliferated ever since humans started creating all this trash and standing water, etc. Have you heard about the swarms of locusts in South America and India? Seems like it's the worst swarm in many decades, a real plague going on in those regions. It's being blamed on excessive rainfall causing a population boom.

I saw a reservoir around here is using a solar powered cleaning system (chemical free) that cleans 100,000 gallons of water a minute, 24/7. No dangerous chemicals needed!

wear gloves and handle gently! Thats what I did when a bumble bee came inside my house and it didn't sting me!

why are insects so bold (less afraid) compared to birds? You'd think the smaller the creature the more afraid it should be of human beings. I've always wondered about that. Would diatomaceous earth help with mice too? I've gotten rid of most of them, but I'm not sure they're all gone and I want to be completely rid of them before the cold season comes. The last contractor who worked on my house left a few holes that I've been busy covering up. For the outside, I am using this UV lamp trapping container thing the exterminator recommended as a good nonchemical solution. It traps lots of flying insects (no birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, etc.)....so far it's been trapping mosquitoes, gnats, black flies, deer flies, all sorts of detestable pests like that.

I know about all those problems, I only spray them inside my house, so relax :-) I plant stuff for butterflies and bees and hummingbirds to come, so of course I dont spray anything outside to kill them I just want to know where all these new insects I've never seen before come from. And more importantly, why are so many coming inside my house this year that I haven't seen inside ever before. I think it's because of the mild winter we had. I can't think of any other reason. For the outside, I am using this UV lamp trapping container thing the exterminator recommended as a good nonchemical solution. It traps lots of flying insects (no birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, etc.)....so far it's been trapping mosquitoes, gnats, black flies, deer flies, all sorts of detestable pests like that.

I'm only using them inside for the bugs that come into my house. I know they're toxic because my throat was burning while I was spraying it lol. I have a bunch of stuff I specifically planted for birds, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and dragonflies and an above ground "pond" where they come to drink water. On second thought, maybe that "pond" is causing more insects to breed, but I dont care, the birds absolutely love it! For the outside, I am using this UV lamp trapping container thing the exterminator recommended as a good nonchemical solution. It traps lots of flying insects (no birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, etc.)....so far it's been trapping mosquitoes, gnats, black flies, deer flies, all sorts of detestable pests like that.

The problem is my garden has become an obstacle course, I can't walk more than two feet out my door without either getting stung by something, bitten by something else, or caught in a web. I was waiting for all the birds that come to my yard to eat them but they seem to be more interested in the berries or drinking the water from my pond lol. This season has really seen a bug proliferation and a lot of them have also been coming inside my house and I'm trying to figure out how they're getting inside too.

Yet another thing to have to kill. I have been spraying nonstop this season.

Sounds like it will peak right around the time the big heat peaks around here- if it's in the Big Dipper at that point it's going to be really high up in the sky and should be visible even over any tall buildings that usually block the view.

I expected this to get more press, but you dont hear about it in the media at all. And how is it we weren't told about a comet approaching months ago? Was this just discovered? Also, they didn't say how far up in the NE sky to look?