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The Meteors You've Waited All Year For
StartsWithABang (3485481) writes It's finally here! Sure, we witnessed the birth of a new meteor shower earlier this year, but it was a flop. Many other showers have come-and-gone like they do every year, but none of them have given us a significant number of meteors-per-hour. But even with a near-full Moon out, it's finally time for the Perseids, the most reliable meteor shower year-after-year. Here's where to find them, where they come from and a whole lot more, including some surprising facts about where they don't come from: cometary tails!
I wondered why it was suddenly completely overcast where I live! Seriously, it's like mother nature hates me seeing meteor showers. Every time....
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
When the Moon is full, it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. Each day, the Moon rises (and sets) about one hour later. So, 2 or 3 days after the full Moon, the Moon will rise 2 or 3 hours after sunset, and set 2 or 3 hours after sunrise.
Which means that, after midnight, the Moon will be high in the sky, ruining the view of the Perseids. It will not "set several hours before dawn."
In short, the response above is wrong.
Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger."
mwrsps@rit.edu http://stupendous.rit.edu
You may be expecting too much. Most meteors go by too fast to see motion, because they're close: you just see a faint white line that appears and persists for less than a second. You see these mostly overhead.
If a meteor does show motion, that means it's far away (hence low rate of movement through your FOV), and bright enough to be seen through many miles of atmosphere (hence considerably bigger than average). You see these near the horizon.
If one moves slowly enough that you can say "Hey, look at that" and other people can turn and catch sight of it, it's a BIG mutha.