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Perseid Meteor Shower This Week

Posted by michael on from the star-gazing dept.

fejikso writes "Space Daily and the BBC announce the coming of the annual Perseid meteor shower, and forecasters say it could be unusually good. The cosmic spectacle is produced by the debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. When the shower peaks, by August 12, sky watchers can expect to see dozens, possibly even hundreds, of meteors per hour."

7 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. Great... by Ayaress · · Score: 3, Funny

    And here in Michigan, the forcasts say not to expect clear sky until next week. The only time I can remember Michigan not having crappy weather during a major meteor shower was when I was in Florida - which of course, had crappy weather every night that week.

    1. Re:Great... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 3, Funny

      Same here on the foggy north coast of California. I'm beginning to think that the meteors actually generate the fog.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  2. Re:seconds per meteor by Ayaress · · Score: 4, Informative

    The article says "as many as 200 meteors per hour", so:

    200 meteors/3600 seconds = 1 meteor/18 seconds

    So roughly 18 seconds per meteor. The reason they use per hour is that with something so random, the time between any two is wildly variable, and you need a large sample to get accurate rates. Just some statistical ass-covering, I guess.

  3. Re:Actual shower times? by Ayaress · · Score: 5, Informative

    The times are local time - wherever you are. The shower runs 24-7 for several days. Just go out at the darkest time of night and hope there aren't clouds.

  4. Re:Actual shower times? by Chuck1318 · · Score: 5, Informative

    While the shower goes on for several days, the peak, when we go through a filament of material, is August 12, 09:20 UT (what used to be Greenwich time). With daylight savings time, that will be 2:20am here in California.

  5. Wishes of shooting stars by sevenofnine · · Score: 3, Funny

    Better start preparing a list of wishes for each of the shooting stars that we can be expecting here then :)

  6. Big City by eingram · · Score: 3, Informative

    I live in a big metropolitan area (DFW), and two years ago during the Leonids, I had to drive about an hour and a half out to see them really well (there was also a full moon during the shower, which sucked). So I suggest if you're in a big city, head for the country.

    This should be a pretty good show, though. While we won't have a new moon (different from full moon) on the 12th, it'll be damn close. Plus, in this area, the moon will be below the horizon until around 3:30am. I can't wait (and I'm sure I'll be a zombie at work the next day, too)!