Re: Weekend showers - of meteors - expected


"MAXdaAXEjd" <johndaigle123@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1186855866.420911.122910@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Aug 11, 8:50 am, "Bill Becker" <bb...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Perseids are the most consistent meteor showers year after year. If
you
have any interest in seeing something spectacular....you'll check 'em
out.

"Chad Bryant" <r...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:Xns99896D7F78278rspwchadbryantnet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





Look up! Look up! The Perseids are coming!

Meteors will be racing across the sky from the dusty fragments of an
old
comet this weekend and, with no moon out at night, should enchant
patient sky watchers who've never seen them before, and give
astronomers
delightful work.

The Perseid meteor shower happens every August, and although it's not
unusual at this time of year for nighttime fog to obscure the spectacle
for everyone in San Francisco, the problem can be overcome by heading
for the hills outside the city. Other good spots for viewing include
Bay
Area parks and meadows where city lights can't pollute the dark sky.

The best time to view the Perseids should be from Sunday after 10 p.m.
until well before dawn Monday, but a few meteors will already be flying
across the sky before midnight tonight and dawn Sunday, astronomers
say.

Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI
Institute in Mountain View, calculates that by 11 p.m. Sunday, about 15
streaks of light every hour will be flaring like falling stars across
small segments of the sky. But by 5:14 a.m. Monday - just before dawn -
the count could rise to nearly one every minute, Jenniskens said.

Most Perseids are likely to be somewhat faint, but now and then a
single
streak could shine as brightly as a star, he said.

The Perseid meteors are named after the region in the constellation
Perseus known as the radiant where, to those watching, they appear to
originate. They are, in fact, the dusty debris of a comet named Swift-
Tuttle that orbits the sun and flies through the inner solar system
roughly every 120 years.

The comet was discovered in 1862, and astronomers last observed it in
1992. But each year Earth's orbit carries it through the trail of
particles from the comet - some are even as large as pebbles - that the
sun's violent energy has stripped away. When those particles pass
through the Earth's upper atmosphere they vaporize by friction into
short-lived white-hot streaks.

At the end of this month, a truly rare and perhaps even more
spectacular
meteor shower called the Aurigids will also be visible briefly over
Northern California skies, Jenniskens said.

About 2,000 years ago, a comet now called Kiess passed by the sun and
flew back beyond the solar system before returning again in 1911,
leaving behind a thin stream of dust particles that only occasionally
encounter Earth's orbital path. The dusty meteors appear to originate
in
the constellation Auriga, hence the shower's name.

This year the Aurigid meteors will flare for only about an hour and
should peak around 4:36 a.m. on Sept. 1. Sky watchers should be able to
count almost 160 of the "falling stars" in that brief period, according
to Jenniskens. Some could be colorful and some even brighter than
starlight, he said.

Amateur astronomers - and professionals, too - will use this weekend's
Perseid shower to practice their observation skills in preparation for
the peak appearance of the Aurigid meteors.

Jenniskens will be flying out of the NASA Ames Research Center this
weekend to practice observing and counting the Perseids, and then will
lead two NASA planes on a rare all-night airborne mission to observe
the
Aurigids.

--
Chad Bryant
www.chadbryant.net
Salus populi suprema lex esto.

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what portion of the sky would i look at them if i was oh lets say
about 30 miles west of vegas at mt charelston?

Here's a star map for yee:


http://spaceweather.com/meteors/perseids/images2007/skymap_north.gif

saw the 5 moons of jupiter lined up next to the planet earlier this
summer, was sweet...

Only Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are easily spotted in binos or small
telescopes. The 5th "moon" was a background star.



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