It's likely to be because the standardised measurement for a meteor shower is the Zenithal Hourly Rate - ie, the number of meteors per hour you would expect to see if the radiant (the point in the sky where the meteors appear to be coming from) was directly overhead under ideal conditions.
Essentially, it's a calculation that takes into account height of the radiant above the horizon for a particular hour, and the average of the magnitude of the faintest stars you can see at your location while observing.
I think every recent reference I've seen to the Perseids quotes a rate of 200 per hour, but I remember that being quoted as the typical ZHR for the shower when I first started observing them in the mid-70s. Somewhere along the way, the ZHR concept has got lost in the media reporting.
In real life, expect to see one or two every few minutes, with an occasional flurry of several over the space of a few seconds if you've got proper dark skies and no moon.
Once in a while, there may be a really spectacular bolide (fireball) that's well worth the endless hours staring upwards wondering what all the fuss is about.
Slashdot Mirror
Nah - SchlumbergerSema.
http://www.platopeople.com/about.html was started in 1960 - surely it's got to be a candidate for being the very first online community of any kind.
Unless, of course, anyone knows different...
It's likely to be because the standardised measurement for a meteor shower is the Zenithal Hourly Rate - ie, the number of meteors per hour you would expect to see if the radiant (the point in the sky where the meteors appear to be coming from) was directly overhead under ideal conditions.
Essentially, it's a calculation that takes into account height of the radiant above the horizon for a particular hour, and the average of the magnitude of the faintest stars you can see at your location while observing.
I think every recent reference I've seen to the Perseids quotes a rate of 200 per hour, but I remember that being quoted as the typical ZHR for the shower when I first started observing them in the mid-70s. Somewhere along the way, the ZHR concept has got lost in the media reporting.
In real life, expect to see one or two every few minutes, with an occasional flurry of several over the space of a few seconds if you've got proper dark skies and no moon.
Once in a while, there may be a really spectacular bolide (fireball) that's well worth the endless hours staring upwards wondering what all the fuss is about.