Perseid Meteor Shower May Show an Outburst

This Thursday and Friday, there will be one of the best annual meteor showers you and your family can watch -– the Perseids.    And some experts are even predicting that there might be a meteor “outburst” this year –- where the number of shooting stars increases beyond the usual rates.

This is a complicated year for watching the Perseid meteor shower, because the evening sky has a roughly half-lit-up moon in it, making it more difficult to catch the faint “shooting stars.”  So if you can wait until the Moon sets (between midnight and 1 am), you should have better viewing in the pre-dawn darkness.   (That’s great advice for people on camping trip and insomniacs, but probably not useful for those who have to get up for work.)

The best night is the evening of Thursday, Aug. 11 and morning of Friday, Aug. 12^th, although there could be significantly more meteors in the sky on the night before and the night after too.  Meteors or “shooting stars” (which have nothing to do with stars) are pieces of cosmic dust and dirt hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and making a flash of light.  These flashes could happen anywhere in the sky, so it’s best to view the shower from a wide-open place.  See the list at the end for viewing suggestions.

The Perseid meteors are cosmic “garbage” left over from a regularly returning comet, called Swift-Tuttle (after the two astronomers who first discovered it).  The comet itself returns to the inner solar system every 130 years or so; it was last here in 1992.  During each pass, it leaves dirt and dust behind and it is this series of long dirt and dust streams that we encounter every August.  Some scientists who study comets and meteors are predicting that we might briefly encounter an especially crowded part of the debris stream this time.

Each flash you see is a bit of material from the comet hitting the Earth’s atmosphere and getting heated up (and heating up the air around it) as it speeds through our thick atmosphere.  Both the super-heated dust and dirt and the heated air contribute to the visible light we observe.  Since comets are left-overs from the early days of our solar system, you can tell yourself (or your kids) that each flash of light is the “last gasp” of a bit of cosmic material that formed some 5 billion years ago.

EIGHT HINTS FOR “TAKING A METEOR SHOWER”

1. Get away from city lights and find a location that’s relatively dark

2. If it’s significantly foggy or cloudy, you’re out of luck

3. Your location should allow you to see as much of the dome of the sky as possible

4. Allow time for your eyes to get adapted to the dark (at least 10 -15 minutes)

5. Don’t use a telescope or binoculars – they restrict your view (so you don’t have to be part of the 1% with fancy equipment to see the shower; this is a show for the 99%!)

6. Dress warm – it can get cooler at night even in August (and don’t forget the insect repellent while you are outside)

7. Be patient (it’s not fireworks): keep looking up & around & you’ll see flashes of light

8. Take someone with you with whom you like to spend time in the dark!

Good Meteor Shower This Wednesday Night

This Wednesday evening and Thursday morning there will be one of the best meteor showers you and your family can see.

This is a great year for the Perseid meteor shower, because it is happening during the phase of the Moon called New Moon (which is when the moon is absent from the sky).  So there will be no moonlight to interfere with seeing the faint “shooting stars” of the meteor shower.

The best night is the evening of Wed, Aug. 12 and morning of Thur., Aug. 13, although there could be significantly more meteors on the night before and the night after too.  Meteors (which have nothing to do with stars) are pieces of cosmic dust and dirt hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and making a flash of light.

The peak of the shower is predicted to happen around 1 am PDT Aug. 13th, which means that after it gets dark on Aug. 12th, there should already a good number of meteors to watch for.

Here are a few tips for best viewing:

8 HINTS FOR TAKING A METEOR SHOWER

1. Get away from city lights and find a location that’s relatively dark

2. If it’s significantly foggy or cloudy, you’re out of luck

3. Your location should allow you to see as much of the dome of the sky as possible

4. Allow time for your eyes to get adapted to the dark (at least 10 -15 minutes)

5. Don’t use a telescope or binoculars – they restrict your view (so you don’t have to be part of the 1% with fancy equipment to see it; this is a show for the 99%!)

6. Dress warm – it can get cooler at night even in August

7. Be patient (it’s not fireworks): keep looking up & around & you’ll see flashes of light

8. Take someone with you with whom you like to spend time in the dark!

The Perseid meteors are cosmic “garbage” (dust and dirt clumps) left over from a regularly returning comet, called Swift-Tuttle (after the two astronomers who first discovered it).  The comet itself returns to the inner solar system every 130 years; it was last here in 1992.  During each pass it leaves dirt and dust behind and it is this long dirt and dust stream that we encounter every August.  Some experts are predicting we might briefly encounter an especially crowded part of the debris stream this time.

Each flash you see is a bit of material from the comet hitting the Earth’s atmosphere and getting heated up (and heating up the air around it) as it speeds through our thick atmosphere.  Both the superheated dust and dirt and the heated air contribute to the visible light we observe.  Since comets are left-overs from the early days of our solar system, you can tell yourself (or your kids) that each flash of light is the “last gasp” of cosmic material that formed some 5 billion years ago.

[Note: image from Mike Hanley, American Meteor Society]

Good Meteor Shower Starts This Weekend

Whenever small chunks of cosmic dust or dirt hit the Earth's atmosphere at high speed and heat up, they make a flash of light that's visible from the ground. We call these meteors or "shooting stars." When the Earth encounters an organized swarm of cosmic material, we call it a meteor shower.

The Perseids (one of our most reliable meteor showers) is best this year the night and morning of Sunday Aug. 11 to Monday Aug. 12, and the night and morning of Monday Aug. 12 to Tuesday Aug. 13th.

Watching for meteors is easiest for most people’s schedules in the evenings (before midnight). However, the meteor display is generally better after midnight (making night owls and early risers happy.)

The Perseids are better after midnight for two reasons this year:

a. The Earth turns after midnight to face the shower (so that the meteors are coming more directly at us)
b. The crescent Moon will set by then, so its light will not bother meteor shower fans. (On Aug. 11, the Moon sets at 10:32 pm, while on Aug. 12th the Moon sets at 11:10 pm.)

Whenever during those two nights you decide you want to watch, here are Fraknoi’s Friendly Meteor Shower Tips for best viewing:

1. It’s more important to decide WHERE to watch them, than WHEN to watch them. The crucial issue is that meteors are faint, so you need a location where the sky is DARK. That means getting away from city and car lights as much as possible. The darker your site, the more you will see.

2. Of course, if it’s foggy or cloudy, you won’t see a thing. So make sure you get to a place where the sky is not only dark but CLEAR.

3. Don’t use a telescope or binoculars. (Meteor showers are one of the most democratic of sky shows; those of us in the 99% can enjoy them as much as those in the 1%!).) Your eyes are the best tool, because the flash can be anywhere in the sky. So restricting your view to a small part of the sky makes it more likely you will miss many of the meteor flashes.

4. Dress warm for night-time temperatures and be patient. Meteor showers are far more subtle than fireworks. You will need to relax and wait for time to pass. First, it takes a while for your eyes to get adapted to the dark (I recommend at least 15 minutes) and, second, a minute or several minutes might pass without a single flash. Eventually, though, you should see significantly more shooting stars than on a regular night.

5. So (perhaps most important) try to take someone with you with whom you like to spend time in the dark.

The Perseid meteors are cosmic “garbage” (dust and dirt clumps) left over from a regularly returning comet, called Swift-Tuttle (after the two astronomers who first discovered it). When comets get near the Sun, their ice evaporates, leaving behind some of the dirt that was frozen inside them. Since comets are "left-overs" from the early days of our solar system, you can tell yourself that each flash you see is the “last gasp” of cosmic material that formed about 5 billion years ago.

(Our photo, by ESO Photo Ambassador Stéphane Guisard, shows a bright Perseid meteor in 2010 over the grouping called the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile.)