Thursday, August 10, 2006

Perseids Meteors

If anyone happens to have the chance to get out to a dark area tonight, make sure you look up. Tonight begins the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower which is generally between August 10 and 12. You'll have to stay up pretty late (or get up early) to catch the best show.

The Perseids is dependable annual meteor shower, so if you're looking to see a few shooting stars, tonight's the night. However, if you miss it, the next best shot until next year will be the Leonids in November.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bah, it's all clouds and rain here in The Netherlands and no change expected for the next few days. So no Perseids for me this year....

http://www.wetterspiegel.de/de/europa/deutschland/brandenburg/50.html

Stephen said...

The 12th was awesome in Michigan. While the brief flashes were OK, it was the earth grazers that really commanded attention. The moon didn't rise until midnight. At the astronomy club outing, we also got so show the public - including a scout troup. Jupiter, M57, M27, M13, M15, M92, M18, and later, Uranus and Neptune were shown.

But it was cold. I needed a jacket. I turned on the heat in my car going home. By choice. What's with that? Indian winter?

(I'm hoping 'Indian summer/winter' isn't some offensive phrase to some kind
of Indians. I've no idea what the origin of the phrase is.)