Posted on 08/11/2009 6:05:16 PM PDT by RDTF
The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a good show this week for those willing to get up in the wee hours of the morning and wait patiently for the shooting stars.
In North America, the best time to watch will be between midnight to 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 12, but late Tuesday night and also Wednesday night could prove fruitful, weather permitting.
The Perseids are always reliable, and sometimes rather spectacular. The only things that puts a damper on the August show are bad weather or bright moonlight. Unfortunately this week, as the Perseids reach their peak Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the moon will be high in the sky, outshining the fainter meteors.
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The best time to watch is between midnight and dawn Wednesday. Forecasters say the best stretch could come between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. ET, which would be after daybreak in Europe. Some Perseids might be visible late Tuesday night, and Wednesday night into Thursday morning could prove worthwhile, too.
Meteor forecasting is still in its infancy, however, so the best bet for anyone truly hungry to spot shooting stars is to get in as much observing time as possible from around 11 p.m. Tuesday night until dawn Wednesday, and if you miss that show, try the same time frame Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.
Meteors should be visible in the pre-dawn hours, weather permitting, all around the Northern Hemisphere
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(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This might help ...............
http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/tours-events/sky-this-week/the-sky-this-week-2009-july-31-august-24
From spaceweather.com for August 11, 2009...
PERSEID UPDATE: The Perseid meteor shower is about to peak. The show begins after sunset on Tuesday, August 11th, and continues until dawn on Wednesday, August 12th. During the long night, sky watchers could see dozens of meteors per hour.
A time of particular interest is 0800 UT (1 am PDT) on August 12th. That’s when Earth is expected to pass through a denser-than-usual filament of dust from the shower’s parent Comet Swift-Tuttle. For an hour or so, rates could surge to 200 per hour. Bright moonlight will blot out many of those Perseids, but even a fraction of 200 is a good show.
http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=11&month=08&year=2009
Observing tips may be found in the Science@NASA story “The Perseids are Coming.”:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/31jul_perseids2009.htm
Perseids? I thought Alexander the Great kicked their A$$ a long time ago?
LOL!
Just quoting her...
:-)
Wish I was rich and could stay up to 4am and not have to worry about going to work at 5am.
I was going to watch them tonight because the BBC forecast clear sky for Edinburgh. It’s too hazy though :-(
Looking northeast around midnight on August 11th-12th. The red dot is the Perseid radiant. Although Perseid meteors can appear in any part of the sky, all of their tails will point back to the radiant.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/31jul_perseids2009.htm
Kinda screwed in NYC.
Thanks for the heads up!
...Stormy tonight in Kain-tuck. With all the “”stuff”” going on in my life and all our lives, this’d be a welcomed distraction. Been watching the Perseids for 40 years. Hope y’all get a good show where e’re yer are...
...Stormy tonight in Kain-tuck. With all the “”stuff”” going on in my life and all our lives, this’d be a welcomed distraction. Been watching the Perseids for 40 years. Hope y’all get a good show where e’re yer are...
...Shht, another phookin double post, the web is stormy too...
A big moon rising here on the East coast. It will greatly diminish seeing this within an hour or so.
...Clearing up a bit in Kentucky, some lightning to the east, and a half moon coming out of the storm clouds, have you seen anything in your neighborhood???
Foggy w/ bright moonlight here in far W. KY. Darn.
I just got back from the peak time.
“Spectacular” doesn’t begin to describe it. It was breathtaking. Just looking at the sky tonight I was in awe at G-ds creation. The meteor shower was one of the best I’d ever seen in my life.
Same here in NJ. Bright sky with moonlight and cloud coverage. But I saw one -— at 5:08 streak thru the clouds. Just one makes me smile. Can’t imagine how great it would be to see a whole burst of shining streaming “stars.”
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