The 2008 Perseid Meteor Shower

Esav Benyamin

Esav Benyamin

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For all the skywatchers out there!

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/22jul_perseiddawn.htm

Mark your calendar: The 2008 Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12th and it should be a good show.

"The time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday, August 12th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "There should be plenty of meteors --perhaps one or two every minute."
 
Most welcome. Be sure to wear your extra-thick tinfoil beanies if you go out, in case one of them dings ya.
 
First mention I've ever heard of the Perseids in a popular song:

"The Perseids were fallin', on that hothouse Summer night,
I saw two come down together, and I thought it looked about right..."

Jeffery Foucault.

Great album, BTW, "Ghost Repeater".
 
Thanks for the heads up.
I have a question. I am up at 3:30 am, would I be able to see it then?TIA!
 
Thanks for the info Esav:thumbup:....

I'll be keeping my eyes in the sky.

......hope no bigguns slip through:eek::D
meteorite.jpg
 
On a remotely related note, it is also fun to watch the international space station and space shuttle (when its up there, of course). I have literally stood in my driveway and without the aid of binoculars watched the space station as a dot of light tracking across the sky, pursued by the shuttle. Very cool. There are websites that tell you when and where to look. Its worth the effort, especially if you have kids.

:thumbup:
 
I had glanced at Heavens Above. It is European oriented, but also seems easy to use. :thumbup:
 
Thanks Guys! Definitely good stuff.
 
That's one of the things that I really miss about being on the road,August nights traveling across I80 in Ohio and Indiana was the best place I ever saw for viewing the meteor showers,around here you usually can't see anything through the clouds.:(
 
I'm going to head out back in about an hour and light up my fire pit for this one. Should be good since its a nice cool night here in eastern WV.

Although I just walked out to check the sky and there seems to be a lot of patchy clouds invading :mad:. Hopefully when the moon sets here in a bit they will have moved on, it was like 85% clear all day, figures...:cool:

Should I play my Native American Flute for the aliens, or would that be a little TOO Bohemian =)
 
Ok, Finally got to see some shooting stars near dawn. Strangely enough at about 5 am I saw two parallel dots cross the sky in a slow, perfectly symmetrical path. As if they were connected by a solid bar. Was this the space station, or just two satellites that have the same orbit? They looked to be about an inch away from each other from ground perspective(hundreds or thousands of actual miles I'm sure).

I really want to get into stargazing but it seems so overwhelming!
 
No chance for me, unfortunately. Too much glare around here. These people think any light they can put up is a good thing. It's as bad as living in a city.

A little bit of haze perhaps, reflecting the light of surrounding towns here in north Jersey.

I saw one fine streak as I was walking to the first of 3 areas I hoped I'd get some dark around me, but no luck. A second small streak out of the corner of my eye hardly counted.
 
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