* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Perseid meteor shower

Blobrana · L

The Cloudbait observatory, in Colorado, US, has produced a composite image of 95 meteors collected over three evenings, August 10-12.

Web link:

Date: Aug 13 17:06 2006

There was a large fireball over Baltimore MD August 12, 2006 at ~11:31 pm edt. North to south, covered almost the whole sky and was audible. Fantastic! One of the closest or biggest I have ever witnessed.

Several earthgrazers between 9 pm and midnight. Then the Moon stole the show.

Best regards,

Charleigh Chadwick

Blobrana · L

Perseids 2006

Blobrana · L

The year's biggest display of meteors peaked last night when the Earth swept through the dust trail left by the Swift-Tuttle comet in 1992. Up to 120 flashes an hour were expected after sunset, although clouds over the north-east hampered viewing.

The display should have been best between 1am and 4am, but a bright and almost full moon washed-out most of the fainter meteors. A few chose to observe around 10 o'clock while the moon was low.

Tonight, if you get clear skies it is still worth having a look, as the meteor stream has a broad range and is expected to last until the end of the month.

Blobrana · L

RE: Perseid meteor shower

Blobrana · L

The 2006 Perseid meteor shower is going to be washed out by the glare of an 87%-full Moon.
When the shower peaks on Saturday morning, August 12th, the Moon will be high in the night sky, making all but the brightest meteors impossible to see.

Looking north after sunset, Friday evening, August 11th, 2006.

A tip is to look for Perseids before the Moon rises. Between 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, August 11. The Moon won't have risen and it may be dark enough to see Earthgrazer meteors appear from low in the North-eastern sky.

Blobrana · L

On 1 - 12 August: Perseid Meteor Shower
The best-known annual meteor shower should reach its peak this year on the nights of 12 - 13 August. Unfortunately, viewing prospects will be adversely affected by strong moonlight. Since Full Moon falls on 9 August, the shower’s peak will be swamped by glare, and only the brightest meteors will be seen.
The Perseids are produced by dust particles shed by comet Swift-Tuttle. They get their name from the constellation Perseus, from which the meteors seem to originate and radiate outwards. The shower, which is rich in fast, bright meteors, begins in late July and lasts for most of August. In ideal conditions up to 80 meteors per hour may be seen. A number of less prominent meteor showers are also visible during August.

Blobrana · L

Unfortunately the weather in Scotland is predictably cloudy.

More Weather Maps LINK:

So I`ll have to make do with just listening to the forward scatter radar web feed from Huntsville, Alabama.
LISTEN

-- Edited by Blobrana at 19:19, 2005-08-11

Blobrana · L

An outburst is projected for Aug. 12, 2005, at 08:18h UT (04:18 EDT), when Earth will encounter the dust ejected in the return of the parent comet in 1479 AD.
Rates can go up to about 240 per hour for a brief period of time (approximately one hour).
In addition, rates may increase again around 13h UT, when Earth is expected to encounter an older Filament component, rising to 86 per hour on top of normal, annual activity.

http://aquarid.physics.uwo.ca/~pbrown/perseid-theoretical.pdf

-- Edited by Blobrana at 19:47, 2005-08-12