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Perseid Meteor Shower To Be Hampered By Full Moon
An anonymous reader writes "The annual Perseid meteor shower, which is caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle and has been observed for about 2000 years, will be hampered this year by the full moon. The full moon falls on August 13, and is also called 'Grain Moon' or 'Green Corn Moon.' During this time, the moon rises about the same time the sun sets, and sets at about the same time the sun rises. This will create difficulty in viewing the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on the night of Friday and into the early morning of Aug. 13."
The shower won't be hampered! Viewing it will.
Perseids are just a small reminder that the orbit of the comet (the source of the mess) crosses the orbit of Earth. It is probable that the comet itself will strike the Earth or Moon on August 14 2126. Of note is the fact that it is much larger the the presumed 10km object that led to dinosaur extinction.
Get an FM broadcast radio with an external aerial socket, and a Yagi antenna such as you would use for fringe area reception. Aim it more or less towards the radiant of the meteor shower, and up at about a 30-40 degree angle. Now tune to a station well out of range, in roughly the direction you're pointing.
When a meteor burns up in the atmosphere it will leave a trail of ionised particles, which will reflect radio waves. This is called "meteor scatter", and will show up as little "pings" of signal from the distant station that pop up out of the noise for a few seconds.
Listen carefully, and make a note of the times of the pings so you can plot how frequently they occur. Congratulations, you're doing science.
The Moon obstructing your view of the Perseids? I can lend you my Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator if you promise not to destroy the Earth.
It's going to be cloudy that night here, so no worries about the moon.
Just use a masked image intensifier ( ie, don't look directly at the moon ) and watch the sky through an image intensifier.
Apart from a 40 degree FOV, you'll also see about a hundred times as many stars and meteors, even on a moonlit night.
A decent Gen2 or Gen3 image intensifier will suffice. PVS-14's aren't just for the military you know...
Though a Micro housing with a c-mount objective lens can also be modified later to fit into the eyepiece for improving your telescope too!
GrpA
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How long are we going to let the moon fuck with us and destroy our astronomical observations. The fucking thing is always shining on things and causing people to go crazy. I think we as humanity should endeavor to destroy the moon. We should not do this because it is easy, but because it is hard. Rather than worrying about all these faggety ass wars against our fellow humans, we should endeavor to destroy the real enemy of mankind. THE MOON!. We can send rocket ships powered by nuclear reactors carrying quark bombs, and lay siege to the fucker.
And then we can go after the fucking sun. Think how much further our telescopes would be able to see if they did not have to worry about the sun blinding all the sensors.
-I am just too stupid to know how dumb I truly am.
The headline had me thinking that the moon was going to be intercepting all those meteors. Turns out they meant "Viewing of the Perseid Meteor Shower To Be Hampered By Full Moon"
If that would have been too long of a headline then perhaps "Full moon will hamper viewing of Perseid Meteor Shower" would have been better
Same number of words as original headline and much more accurate.
Who writes these things?
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
It's cloudy anyway...
The clouds block the moonlight.
No brain, no pain.
You know, the post makes it sound like the sunset moonrise conjuction is specific to this moon. But if you think a little, you'll realize it's true for all full moons.
It's one of the things in litrature that kill me. Moon rise and moon set depend on the phase of the moon. A full moon will rise as the sun sets, and half a moon never will. It's simple geometry.
Bad editing, anonymous reader.
Why is this news?
Anyone who has any history at all of watching meteor showers knows the problem the moon can be.
Every reasonable almanac (and their online equivalents) has both full moon dates, and meteor shower peak dates.
Every full moon rises at approximately sunset. To be full, Sun - Earth - Moon have to make a 180 degree angle.
So where is the news?
****
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