Posted on 08/06/2009 1:05:39 PM PDT by TaraP
METEOR UPDATE: Perseid meteors are now hitting Earth's upper atmosphere with a speed of 58 to 60 km/s, about 130,000 mph. That's the result of triangulation by a dual-station meteor monitoring system operated by NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Last night the system detected five fireballs that provided the data for this speed estimate...
EARLY PERSEIDS: The Perseid meteor shower is slowly intensifying as Earth plunges deeper in Comet Swift-Tuttle's debris stream. On August 4th, amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft caught an early arrival using an all-sky camera at his observatory near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Click on the image to play a movie with sound effects:
Oh noz, the sky is falling.
The “ping” you just heard was a 61.25 MHz TV signal bouncing off the meteor’s ionized tail. Ashcraft keeps an antenna trained on the sky so that he can record the echos and lay them down as soundtracks for his all-sky movies. “I’m sure I’ll record many more in the days ahead,” he says. “Highlights will be posted here.”
According to the International Meteor Organization, about 10 Perseids per hour are now streaking across the night sky: data. This number could increase to as many as 200 per hour when Earth crosses an anticipated filament of comet dust around 0800 UT (1 a.m. PDT) on August 12th. Observing tips and a sky map may be found in the Science@NASA story “The Perseids are Coming.”
I hope I’m lucky enough to see some of this shower.
We saw quite a few falling stars last weekend while having a family campout. It was kind of neat to see the little ones getting a look at their first falling stars.
“According to the International Meteor Organization, about 10 Perseids per hour are now streaking across the night sky: data. This number could increase to as many as 200 per hour when Earth crosses an anticipated filament of comet dust around 0800 UT (1 a.m. PDT) on August 12th. Observing tips and a sky map may be found in the Science@NASA story ‘The Perseids are Coming.’”
http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=06&month=08&year=2009
The Perseids are Coming
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/31jul_perseids2009.htm
They’re a fantastic show here in the NM mountains.
The night sky is one of my favorite things about camping.
I look..but I have not seen..I only see the Bright Full Moon with Jupiter near-by which is very enchanting...
>>>The Perseids are Coming
::laughing::
Bush's Fault?
Cool.
Will be ruined this year by a bright moon every night.
Next Year looks good though
BLANK IS BEAUTIFUL: The sun is entering its 27th consecutive day of spotlessness, quiet and calm. That's okay. According to astrophotographer Greg Piepol of Rockville, Maryland, blank is beautiful:
I'm sure you know they're not really falling or shooting stars, but rather tiny sand and dust debris from a passing comet.
Been cloudy for the last three here in Northern Ohio. A waste of time for me. 5 years ago I saw one turn green and explode though!
Yeah I know. I just use the common nonscientific term.
We explained it all to the youngsters last weekend.
I figured so. :)
Sounds like you all had a great time camping under the stars. Memories like that will stay with you forever. I’m sure the kids will long remember it. I, unfortunately, only first went camping in my mid-twenties.
THX.
Two possible humor angles that I can think of there!
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