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Perseid Meteor Shower To Peak This Weekend

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the go-out-and-watch-the-sights dept.

Krishna Dagli writes "This weekend provides one of the year's best opportunities to see some "shooting stars". The annual Perseid meteor display is expected to peak on Friday and Saturday night. Meteors are bits of dust or rock that plunge into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up, making bright streaks in the sky. It does not take a large object to produce a visible meteor — most are the size of a grain of sand or a small pebble."

19 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. They're not really meteors by WilliamSChips · · Score: 3, Funny

    They're the aliens, trying to establish contact but getting attacked by the USAF.

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  2. Late Late Late by iced_773 · · Score: 5, Funny
    is expected to peak on Friday and Saturday night.

    Shoot, I missed most of it.
    1. Re:Late Late Late by eln · · Score: 4, Informative

      Really, what's the point of even posting this now? If people weren't aware of it, it's too late to do anything about it now. Personally, living in an urban area, I would have to travel an hour or more away just to get far enough out of the city to be able to see this thing, so maybe a post about it on, say, thursday night or friday afternoon would have been more helpful.

      I've seen the Perseid shower before, on Boy Scout trips as a youth, but watching it with my own son would be quite an experience. Oh well, this story at least reminded me of it, so maybe I'll be able to prepare to see it next year.

    2. Re:Late Late Late by BootNinja · · Score: 5, Informative

      Wrong. The perseids occur every august.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids. He can see them next year. I agree, though, it would've been nice to have a more timely reminder.

    3. Re:Late Late Late by bdp · · Score: 4, Informative

      The comet has a period of 133 years, but the Earth passes through the debris left by the comet every year.

    4. Re:Late Late Late by JPribe · · Score: 5, Informative

      Put it on your calendar for next year, there won't be any moon to contend with. I took the wife and my Canon 20d out...while I didn't get any good photos of streaking light (I have better luck with lightning,) we did see a few really good ones, but the moon rose about 10:30 and it was a waste after that. The moon is just past full, and was really, really bright tonight.

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    5. Re:Late Late Late by snafu109 · · Score: 5, Funny

      In other news, Halley's Comet is expected to pass by Earth sometime in 1986. It should be quite a sight!

    6. Re:Late Late Late by castrox · · Score: 5, Informative

      It is only peaking this weekend. It will be visible a great deal longer - till august 20th or something. So pack your bags...

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  3. We dont like the Moon! by Gothmolly · · Score: 5, Informative

    This year's Perseid shower is a dud, due to a nearly full moon.

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    1. Re:We dont like the Moon! by Typingsux · · Score: 3, Informative

      The moons average albedo is .12. Just imagine if it didn't have the reflectivity of charcoal!

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  4. Re:Erm.. by gadzook33 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't think we really needed the 3rd grade scienst lesson.

    but a spelling one would be nice.

  5. I sense... by wwiiol_toofless · · Score: 4, Funny

    A great disturbance in the Force. It was like a million voices crying out in unison, then suddenly silenced as millions of Dads finally attempted to use their $600 Costco telescopes, only to realize they had thrown out their manuals with the box...

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  6. Too late by FlyByPC · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...looks like the posting's HTML got holed by one of the Perseids -- one of the tags got taken clean out!

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    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
  7. The View is Good from up high by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I camped on the summit of a 14,000ft peak last night. I've never seen so many shooting stars despite the full moon and the light pollution of a distant city. It was beautiful... also cold.

  8. As slashdot says... by MattS423 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Well, you should have used the preview button!"

  9. Meteorite Hit Three Blocks From Me Once by chromozone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My hometown of Peekskill New york got hit with a meteorite back in the 90's. It crashed through the back of an old junker car belonging to 17 year old girl. She was in tears. Turned out she got about 80,000 USD for the rock and the car. It was only known car to be hit. The car and meteorite went on display in Museum Of Natural History and other museums around the world. It was also filmed going across sky in Washington. Every year around this time I hope for my car to get hit. A view of meteor in sky before it hit is on this cool meteor site:

      http://fireball.meteorite.free.fr/index_en.html

  10. Re:Not merely 3rd grade science... by bdp · · Score: 5, Informative
    It should also be noted that the distinction between meteors and meteorites is one of particle size, not composition, and since this is 3rd grade science it should be added that meteors are the smaller of the two.

    That's not true. The distinction between a meteor and a meteorite is that meteors do not fall all the way to the ground, and meteorites do.

    Since the comet takes 150 years to complete an orbit, it would also seem to follow that there must be less debris in successive years until the comet sweeps by again, so you've missed all the really good showers until 2126 anyway.

    This also isn't true. Stuff continues to move out there, so we don't pass through the exact same spot in the debris trail every year. How big the meteor shower is varies from year to year.

    I'll let somebody else point out that the orbit is 133 years, not 150.
  11. Re:Not merely 3rd grade science... by langelgjm · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll let somebody else point out that the orbit is 133 years, not 150.

    The orbit is 133 years, not 150.

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  12. Re:Jeez by HotmanParisHiltonKam · · Score: 4, Informative

    And in fact the meteor is the light trail itself, not the lump of matter that creates the light trail by burning (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meteor). The lump is called a meteoroid and any part of it that hits the Earth as anything more than vapour is a meteorite.

    Yay for dumbing down science for the masses.