Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Geminid Meteor Shower

Posted by michael on from the bring-an-umbrella dept.

zetes writes "Space.com has an article here about a meteor shower called the Geminids, which will occur Saturday night (December 13th). Around 9 PM 'from mid-northern latitutes' will be a great time to look - at about 10 PM the Moon will rise and spoil the show. Enjoy!"

7 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. Detecting meteors with the radio by G4from128k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems that one can detect meteors by radio. Meteors create transient ionized trails in the ionosphere that reflect radio waves that would not otherwise bounce of those ionosphere (HF and high-frequency shortwave signals). It even sem that there is software such as this tool for PC-based analysis of radio signals that can help one detect meteors and measure the intensity of the shower. Has anyone ever tried this?

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
    1. Re:Detecting meteors with the radio by OneOver137 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm a ham, but have never done this kind of communicating. I know they use very slow morse code and set up "skeds" on clearer frequencies (or even IM or e-mail) to coordinate the conversation which comes in bits and pieces due to the temporal nature of the ionization. Any other hams care to comment?

  2. Re:Telescope viewing? by OneOver137 · · Score: 5, Informative

    viewing meteors through a telescope is not recommended. the field of view is very small and a meteor shower is a whole-sky event. To watch a shower, find a comfortable place to lay or sit, and stare in the general direction of the radiant (in this case, the constellation Gemini). For this shower, the radiant is close an obvious yellow "star" called Saturn. Save your scope for stars,planets, or deep sky objects.

  3. Great... by Bob+Vila's+Hammer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can't wait to see the clouds.

    --


    --"The perfect example of the man of action is the suicide." - William Carlos Williams
  4. Re:9pm? by mph · · Score: 4, Informative
    What time zone? ET?
    Uh, "local time" would be my guess. The moon rises at about the same local time whether you're in the ET or PT time zone. Likewise, if you're on the west coast, you'll be looking at about the same part of the sky at 9:00 PT as east coasters were seeing at 9:00 ET.
  5. Re:9pm? by Tango42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    They don't. The radiant rises at the same time, regardless of timezone (that's the point of timezones, to make things rise at the same time everywhere - usually the Sun), so the meteor shower starts at the same time, regardless of timezone. (It should start shortly before the radiant rises) There's a slight chance the sky might clear before 9 here (UK), but i'm not hopeful.

  6. Gee, thanks by jfengel · · Score: 2, Funny

    There is no surer predictor of bad weather in my home town than a cosmic event. With the exception of Halley's comet (not even this place could sustain cloud cover that long) and the occasional lunar eclipse, I've never managed to catch any event (including the Leonids and Perseids *every* *single* *year*).

    We had lovely clear skies until I read this posting.