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Bootid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

Posted by timothy on from the very-cheap-date dept.

beanerspace writes: "It's a crap shoot, but some time around 3:00am EST tonight, put down the mouse and take a lookup the Big Dipper's tail. CNN, in an article entitled Meteor shower could be feast for eyes and ears reported that tonights display might be worth your while."

9 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. the seeds of life by deathcow · · Score: 3
    The interesting thing about meteor showers is that they occur when we pass through the tail of comets. Successive orbits of the parent comets leave more meteorites for us Earthlings to enjoy on future Earth orbits.

    Some people theorize that the very seeds of life are left in these trails, and are thereby delivered to the planets which orbit through them. There are and thousands thousands of comets in our system alone, each trailing their own brew of materials behind them.

    Interesting no?

  2. Leonids will be the big show by imipak · · Score: 5
    The Leonids are likely to produce a really spectacular show this November. You may recall that there's been considerable hype over this shower in the last few years. This is because the Earth's orbit intersects the densest part of the stream once every 33 years, and we're at that point roughly now. In addition, every few hundred years the Leonids produce a truly awesome outburst - rates of the order of 100,000 per hour. The last few years' results have allowed various models of the stream dynamics to firm up their numbers; the best model's predictions for last year were spot on. This same model predicts a large outburst in 2001.

    NAMN (the North American Meteor Network) or the IMO (International Meteor Organisation, which is actually amateur - same as NAMN) are good starting points, or try the Google Directory or DMOZ Open Directory meteor sections for much more background reading. I strongly, strongly recommend doing some research before November, getting a bit of practice in, then do what I've done - book some time off work! :-)


    --
    "I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"

  3. Things to look up for (a whole month in advance) by eXtro · · Score: 3
    What's Up This Month is an up to date guide to astronomical events. It's got a daily to do list of things to look for as well as seperate areas for comets and meteors etc.

    I noticed that the bootid shower isn't listed, which is odd, but its really a very good service.

    --

    Chris Kuivenhoven is a thief, beware

  4. Scared by Goldberg's+Pants · · Score: 3
    Every time I hear about things like this, I can't help but think about Day of the Triffids.

    ---

  5. It would have been nice to know this YESTERDAY! by Julius+X · · Score: 5

    ...when the shower actually was.

    Astronomers expect it to reach its peak Wednesday around 3 a.m. EDT

    Which was 24 hours ago people......the article is dated two days ago. Someone's asleep at the wheel.

    -Julius X

    --

    -Julius X
    remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
    1. Re:It would have been nice to know this YESTERDAY! by TrumpetPower! · · Score: 4

      As I write this, the fortune at the bottom of the page reads:

      Better late than never. -- Titus Livius (Livy)

      So, not only is somebody alseep at the wheel, that somebody also thinks he's a clown.

      (Yeah, I know the fortune is random.)

      b&

      --
      All but God can prove this sentence true.
  6. BootID Exploit cracks Earth's defenses! by maxwells_deamon · · Score: 3
    Chicken Little Discovers New Exploit Attempt

    Famous for her tales of "sky falling", Chicken Little today announced that her team of experts has discovered a new security threat: The BootID DOS Attack.

    Users should wear strong headgear and avoid looking up while this attack is occuring. A patch for the hole in the sky that this attack is aiming for is in development.

    The hacking community responded that basing security of any planet on blue sky and clouds was fool hardy. "We have been waiting for someone to notice the holes we have been punching in the sky over the last few years", rebutted Foxy Loxy.

    Click here for background material!

  7. Now we know where Pink Floyd came from by BierGuzzl · · Score: 3

    Damn, you gotta listen to the audio stream (which clearly indicates that the meteor shower already happened and that this article is a day late). Would be neat to clean it up a bit -- sounds like a flute in the background.

  8. I'm not doing too badly! by OpCode42 · · Score: 4

    Its only June and this is my second shower of the year :)