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There is a meteor shower tonight
Topic Started: Aug 12 2009, 01:42 AM (585 Views)
Mike
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I read in the paper this morning that later tonight, the sky will be filled with meteors over several hours. If inclined, you might want to view this. :toasting:
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ngc1514
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It's the Perseid meteor shower that takes place every year at this time. "Filled with meteors" is a bit of an exaggeration. The Perseids, on an average year, might have a 60 meteors per hour ZHR. ZHR is Zenith Hourly Rate and is an optimized number that you might see if you were watching the whole sky - something no one person can do.

If you want to watch, set up after midnight facing the northeast and wait. As the earth's rotation carries us around towards sunrise, we are facing more and more into the direction the earth is moving as it orbits the sun. At sunset meteors have to catch up with the earth while before sunrise the earth is "sweeping" them up. You always see more meteors in the early morning hours.

The Perseids are one of the better meteor showers of the year. The Geminids actually have a higher ZHR, but they take place in December when fewer people are willing to sit outside in the cold.

The last quarter moon will interfere with viewing tonight, but you never know how good a show the Perseids will put on.

The only shower that fills the sky are the occasional Leonid meteor "storm" that takes place every 33 years or so. The last storm was around the end of the 20th Century with brief storming events taking place in 1999, 2001 and 2002. These were localized to small geographic areas on the earth but bursts of over 1000 meteors per hour recorded. The great Leonid storm of 1833 displayed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 meteors per hour! The sky was truly filled with meteors that night!
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Mike
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I'm going to sit out under the awning and see what transpires.
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ngc1514
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There are worst ways of spend time, Mike. Alas, I need to drive 50 miles to find sky dark enough to make watching worthwhile. Seen enough meteors during my observing career that I'll probably sleep through this year's Perseids.
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Deleted User
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It's been our tradition to camp up higher in the Sierra for the Perseids. Here it's not like a dramatic event. More like enough "shooting stars" to keep it interesting. Some even get a "wow" when they have a long tail.

This year we are stuck at home. We live in the forest so no night sky except straight up.
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Summer
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Just took a peek, and that 'ol moon was shining brightly in the eastern sky so I didn't see anything! I'll give it a few minutes and try again. :smile:
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Mike
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I stayed out about an hour ad was able to catch a few shooting stars. I thought it would be more dramatic.
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ngc1514
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"Burners," as my amateur astronomer friends like to call meteors, are fun to watch, but rarely dramatic. I've seen a couple dramatic meteors in my observing career with the most so being a meteor as bright as a full moon dragging a long tail behind and leaving a trail visible for almost half an hour after the meteor passed.

Now THAT was dramatic!
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