Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Perseid Meteor Showers

Posted by michael on from the crop-circle dept.

obfuscated writes "'Flying gravel bank' attacks the Earth's atmosphere; damage unknown. Visible now and peaking on August 12th, the Perseid meteor shower is back to trained and amateur sky watchers. At its peak as many as 60 or more shooting stars can be visible per hour from the Northern Hemisphere. This year's viewing should be especially good since the 'Earth is expected to encounter the core of the Perseid swarm, where meteoroid concentration is densest, next Monday.' Space.com as well as MSN has the full text."

6 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Northern Hemisphere by fobbman · · Score: 3, Funny

    It'll be similar but the streaks will be going the other direction.

  2. Observing by CommieLib · · Score: 4, Informative

    1. Don't even bother with binocs, much less a scope.

    2. Get outside of the city and lay on the hood of your car.

    3.Bring a flashlight with a red filter to save your night vision.

    4. The Perseids come from a point near the constellation Perseus (go figure). It's actually closer to Cassiopeia, which is much easier to find (it's the big W). Find this point for the best viewing.

    --
    If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
    1. Re:Observing by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's actually closer to Cassiopeia, which is much easier to find (it's the big W).

      Last December you said Cassiopeia was a "big M". Can't you make up your mind, you damn space geeks!

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  3. The scar of light pollution by Elm0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I often like to sit out underneath the stars with a close girl-friend of mine, but one thing stands in the way of us seeing the natural beauty of the stars: Light Pollution.

    When you mention this to people they often admit to not having noticed it before; after all, when was the last time you've been somewhere that strange sodium yellow streak wasn't shooting across the sky? If you weren't thinking about it you might take it to be a natural aura.

    I saw a photo a while back (on the printed page, I've searched on Google and couldn't find it) of the night sky a 1000 miles west of Sydney Australia : the sky was still scared by the bright lights.

    I found this picture on Google of light pollution from space: Light pollution over Canada circa 1975 As far as I am aware, this is of Canada, all though the picture isn't very clear I'm afraid it does illustrate a point about the long-reaching effects of light pollution.

    On the greater impact outside of amateur sky watches, I can imagine this greatly hampers the efforts of earth-bound telescopes, and obviously explains why they are in such remote locations.

    Is there anywhere on earth with NO light pollution?

    1. Re:The scar of light pollution by Triv · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I live in New York City. Here you'd be lucky to see the north star on a normal night. Ground lights and buildings obstructing your view do not for good shower viewing make.

      However, a good portion of my friends live in central Jersey. During the last major shower a few of us were lying on the hood of a car in the middle of nowhere, freezing our collective asses of, watching the sky falling. Granted, it wasn't as clear as it could've been, but the contrast between there and NYC was amazing.

      Triv

  4. Light Pollution in US by xeroh · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Mapof light pollution in the US.


    Finding a dark sky near you.


    It looks like I-35 is roughly the dividing line between a much lighter East and generally darker West. Luckily, I live just west of said road, and can head further west to watch from the top of a big bald rock.