Perseid Meteor Shower

Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 11:07 AM by Dave

My favorite meteor shower is this month, the Perseids. They are fairly numerous and bright but will be seen very well due to the moon setting around 1 am on the morning of the 12th. The best time to view them is around 3 - 5 am that morning. A friend of mine gave me his checklist for meteor shower watching. Here it is.

Meteor Shower Checklist:

· Get up early or stay out late.
· Best time is between 3am & 5am. Sunrise is 5:55am.
· Get away from city lights if possible.
· Count how many you or your group witness. Expect to see one “falling star” every minute or two.
· Bring bug spray!
· Bring lawn chair or blanket.
· Look all over the sky.
· You do not need binoculars or telescope.

Look towards the eastern sky to the constellation of Perseus. Perseus looks like a swirly letter A below Cassiopeia, the W in the sky.

Here are some meteor facts:

· Most meteors are no bigger than a grain of sand.
· The dust grains come from debris left by a comet.
· Meteors can travel over 40 miles per second!
· The Leonids in 1833 were stunning! An estimated 20 meteors per second fell. One witness said, “it was as difficult to count them as to number the raindrops”.
· Most burn up at the top of the Earth’s atmosphere—40 to 60 miles above you!
· The word “Meteor” comes from the Greeks—meaning “high in the air.”
· If the meteor is about bowling ball size, part of it may survive the friction with our atmosphere and impact the Earth as a meteorite.
· Around 1,000 tons of meteorite dust falls to Earth each day!

Clear skies to you! See you outside on the morning of August 12.

Posted in Astronomy News

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