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from the goodness-gracious-great-balls-of-fire dept.
The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks Sunday night into early Monday, and is expected to remain strong for the next few evenings, so don't miss your chance to spot some fireballs shooting across the night sky.
[...] "The Perseids are best seen between about 2 a.m. your local time and dawn," NASA said in a Perseid blog this week. "If those hours seem daunting, not to worry! You can go out after dark, around 9 p.m. local time, and see Perseids. Just know that you won't see nearly as many as you would had you gone out during the early morning hours."
According to Wikipedia:
The Perseids are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Swift–Tuttle. The meteors are called the Perseids because the point from which they appear to hail (called the radiant) lies in the constellation Perseus.
[...] The shower is visible from mid-July each year, with the peak in activity between 9 and 14 August, depending on the particular location of the stream. During the peak, the rate of meteors reaches 60 or more per hour. They can be seen all across the sky; however, because of the shower's radiant in the constellation of Perseus, the Perseids are primarily visible in the Northern Hemisphere.[8] As with many meteor showers the visible rate is greatest in the pre-dawn hours, since more meteoroids are scooped up by the side of the Earth moving forward into the stream, corresponding to local times between midnight and noon [...] Some can also be seen before midnight, often grazing the Earth's atmosphere to produce long bright trails and sometimes fireballs. Most Perseids burn up in the atmosphere while at heights above 80 kilometres (50 mi).
Also at: space.com, NASA, Time, and National Geographic.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday August 13 2018, @04:43PM (2 children)
We went up the road to the darkest spot nearby, where there was a lot of people, almost a block party.
One guy lugged his telescope, many had tripods with cameras. Milky way was showing off, when two days ago was smoky from some distant fires.
We got lucky. We saw half a dozen Hollywood-style long bright ones, and nobody got bit by rattlers or black widows.
I set up the wife's phone for one 30s exposure of the Milky Way plus Mars, and coincidentally got two shooting stars in it.
Yeah, the place burnt recently, is too expensive, has too many people, and we're overdue for a giant quake. But occasionally we're reminded why it doesn't completely suck.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Wednesday August 15 2018, @02:20AM (1 child)
What part of the world are you in, Bob?
Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you like the play?
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 15 2018, @10:05PM
Ventura County. Far enough up the coast to not be LA, though the light pollution 40 miles to the East is very noticeable compared to the darkness looking South or West.