Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The best Perseid meteor shower in years expected

According to NASA: It should be a great show this year.

"The Perseid meteor shower this month will peak just after midnight on a moonless night. A good number of meteors should be visible near Perseus every night through August 24. However, you'll see fewer meteors before and after the peak."


Where to look?
NASA says: "Look towards the familiar constellations Cassiopeia and Perseus in the northeast.

They rise soon after sunset, but you'll want to wait till they are higher in the sky to see the most meteors.

The best meteor watching hour is 4 a.m. Eastern on the morning of August 13, when up to 100 meteors per hour may be visible from a dark sky."

What is the Perseid Meteor Shower?
According to EarthSky.org

"Every year, from around July 17 to August 24, our planet Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle, the parent of the Perseid meteor shower.

Debris from this comet litters the comet’s orbit, but we don’t really get into the thick of the comet rubble until after the first week of August.

The bits and pieces from Comet Swift-Tuttle slam into the Earth’s upper atmosphere at some 210,000 kilometers (130,000 miles) per hour, lighting up the nighttime with fast-moving Perseid meteors. If our planet happens to pass through an unusually dense clump of meteoroids – comet rubble – we’ll see an elevated number of meteors." 

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