Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend
By dhunley • Aug 11th, 2007 • Category: Articles(AP) — Summer’s annual meteor shower promises to put on a dazzling show when it peaks this weekend - provided you’re far from city lights. With no moon in sight to interfere with the Perseid meteor shower, skygazers can expect to spot streaking fireballs late Sunday into dawn Monday regardless of time zone. Astronomers estimate as many as 60 meteors per hour could flit across the sky at the shower’s peak. This year’s sky show comes with an added bonus: Mars will be visible as a bright red dot in the northeastern sky.
“We have front-row seats this year,” said Kelly Beatty, executive editor of Sky & Telescope magazine.
Last year’s Perseid shower was somewhat of a dud because the moon’s glare washed out many of the faint meteors. This weekend’s meteor shower coincides with a new moon, which means the skies will be dark and perfect for viewing meteors.
Experts offer some tips to get the most out of nature’s fireworks: Since Perseid meteors can be seen from any direction in the sky, viewers should pick out a dark patch of sky free of light pollution and wait for the meteors to appear.
Dim meteors appear as a momentary flash of light while the brighter ones leave a glowing streak. The number of Perseids zipping across the sky should increase steadily through the night, peaking just before sunrise. Although the peak occurs this weekend, the Perseids are visible for several nights after that.
Unlike other celestial sightings that require a telescope or binoculars, the best way to watch a meteor shower is with the naked eye.
The Perseids are perhaps the most beloved of all meteor showers because of their predictability. The August shower gets its name from the constellation Perseus because the meteors appear to originate there.
The annual Perseid shower occurs when the Earth’s orbit crosses the path of debris thrown off by Comet Swift-Tuttle. As the cosmic junk - many the size of a grain of sand - enters the atmosphere, it burns up in a flash, appearing as “shooting stars” across the sky.
In the past, the Perseid showers have produced such spectacular displays that people swamped radio stations with reports of a mysterious light in the sky.
http://www.physorg.com/news106017257.html
August 11th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
The absolute neatest thing is to get up early and watch as twilight comes, you may start to see the smoke trails. I watched one of these about 6 years ago that was phenominal;( leonids or perceids one?) I had a sore neck most of the day from looking up; one of the top ~15 things I have done with about an hour of my time.
IF I could have only had the presence of mind to get a 35mm camera and do some bracketed time exposures geez? There are alot of duds with these metor showers and that one keeps me always interested in looking for another. Hopefully this one will be doosey?
August 11th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Tech,
About 20 years ago, I had a similiar experience! It RAINED meteors…I was with my wife and baby son, bundled up in the back of an old wagon—so it must have been cold.
I LOVED it and it was among my top 10 experiences—but you’re right, a lot of duds these past few years.
maybe this one will be different…I’ll be looking, for sure.
August 13th, 2007 at 7:24 am
RATS…another dud it appears. I was able to stand outside for about 15 minutes this morning at about 4:30 and never saw ONE meteor? What’s up with THAT? Heck, you can see more than that on a normal night it seems.
Sunday morning, I went out at about the same time and saw over a dozen of them in about 10 minutes—a couple of them leaving faint smoke trails—and I thought “Oh Man, this could be GOOD!”
And last night about 10:30, I saw a huge one…but, then, NOTHING.
RATS I say!
August 13th, 2007 at 9:28 am
saturday night/sunday morning, me and the wife were up at about 2, so we went outside to check it out. we saw a few, including one pretty big one. we had also seen one from the car while driving home a little earlier.
sunday night/monday morning, we set the alarm for 2am, with intentions of going outside and trying to get some cool photos, but when it went off, we decided that we’d just go outside and look instead.
we saw a few, but nothing major. 
oh well.
October 28th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
That comet should be viewable tonight after the crooked \\/ double vV of Cassiopeia gets up above the horizon say 40′degrees/ ~9pm
http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=401
There was a whole discussion on hemp/pot on here censored or The search function isn’t working to find it.
October 29th, 2007 at 4:25 am
right now the comet looks about the same as the orion sword nebula, about the same to the naked eye, with small binocs you can confirm it is a fussy ball, I could not resolve any hint of tail yet, we’ll have to wait and see I suspect, it is over 1.6AU or 150million miles from earth and 2.5+AU from the sun so it could flair up somemore?
August 8th, 2008 at 11:52 am
This article sort of ties in with my comments on the Climate Change article.
The thing that worries me is the talk of the giant meteorite that might hit earth
within this decade.