The Meteors You've Waited All Year For 31
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!
Not going to matter with a full moon (Score:1)
Perseids are great, but, as with all meteor showers, only looks good without a moon.
Not going to matter with a full moon (Score:1)
Has /. become an outlet for "startswithabang" (Score:1)
Don't you guys think that this "starswithabang" thing is getting too dominant in /. article listing ?
Ah, so that's why! (Score:5, Funny)
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I wondered why it was suddenly completely overcast where I live!
They will not peak until Aug 12-13th, so the weather may clear by then. The meteor shower should continue until about Aug 24th.
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Around where I live, this will be the first summer in 10-15 years where it hasn't been overcast, raining, or foggy. Gotta love the unpredictable weather of the great lakes. It's pretty much the same thing with seeing aurora's, people down as far south as Atlanta will see it, but everyone in the great lakes area you can bet will have overcast skies with a chance of thunderstorms, snow, or it simply being overcast.
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There's a full moon.
Set your alarm clock a couple hours early. The best time to see the Perseids is in the pre-dawn hours. The moon is full on Aug 10th, and the Perseids will peak on the night of Aug 12-13th (Tuesday night / Wednesday morning), when the full moon will set several hours before dawn.
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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.
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Moonset on the 13th is well after dawn [timeanddate.com].
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move somewhere with loooong daaaark niiiights.
finland or whatever.
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Finland?
Isn't that where all the Vikings and Linux developers fled from in order to avoid suicidal thoughts?
No wonder they go berserk from time to time.
Well, yes, that Finland. except for Vikings, they're from the other side of the gulf - But, instead of choosing to conquer Finland they went to raise hell in mothafucking Spain so take that as what you will(then later they came over the gulf).
You sure can see the stars in winter if you're in the Finnish countryside though! so shooting stars are no ufo's, even if they don't make every wish come true.
For the record I've been in Thailand for 10 months on escape from the winter wonderland. food sure is spicy bu
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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" an
It's been raining all night (Score:2)
you insensitive clod.
It's predicted to be cloudy and rainy for the next 7 days. I guess I know why now.
A better use of nukes (Score:1)
Let's nuke a timely comet to get an 1833-style show.
The Meteors *I've* Waited All Year For? (Score:2)
The Meteors You've Waited All Year For
I haven't waited all year for them. I'm really not sure who you're talking to.