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The Perseids (Perseid Meteor Shower)

Still plenty of time before the peak, and the Moon will gradually wane after today's full moon. Meteors are generally better after midnight, too.
 
Yes, it peaks in about 3 weeks time so plenty of time yet.
I shan't be on the lookout tonight.
I'll be on the shandy.
 
all this Perseid chatter
To be fair, it is all corralled tightly into this 'perseid meteor shower' thread.
It's not like it's being repeated ad nauseum on the TV news daily.
 
To be fair, it is all corralled tightly into this 'perseid meteor shower' thread.
It's not like it's being repeated ad nauseum on the TV news daily.
Sorry that was rather badly worded, I means that some discussions puzzlingly seem to be talking about looking out for the Perseids this month, rather than August.
 
Oh I see what you mean.

The thing is, the Perseids meteor shower might seem like a singularly Augustian phenomena, however they actually started occurring last week some time, and will continue through for some weeks. It's just the peak of activity that occurs on the 12th-14th August.
FYI They are produced each year when the Earth ploughs through dusty debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Swift-Tuttle takes 133 years to orbit the sun once.
Swift-Tuttle is a large comet: its nucleus is 16 miles (26 kilometers) across.
Hence an extremely long and relatively dense tail of debris left behind it for the Earth to pass through each year.
 
I carved the year 2132 (or was it 2114 ?) into the bench in the lab where I was working in early 1990s. That was the reported date calculated for Swift-Tuttle to collide with Earth and wipe out all life. Should be quite a light-show a few hours beforehand.
 
Alas, unless some kind of incredible medical longevity experiment is successful, we will never know.
 
I carved the year 2132 (or was it 2114 ?) into the bench in the lab where I was working in early 1990s. That was the reported date calculated for Swift-Tuttle to collide with Earth and wipe out all life. Should be quite a light-show a few hours beforehand.
2126 is when it next makes a close approach.
 
Hmmm. I'm aiming to still be alive then. Damn!
Good luck with that one.
I have read recently that the first person that will live to be 150 has already been born.
But I don't think it's you.
 
Oh and BTW I was outside last night at about 11pm and the sky was super-clear, plenty of twinkly stars clearly visible.
I spotted a couple of satellites but no meteorites.
 
A lucky night last night.
Went outside at about 11pm and (considering how overcast it had been all day) the sky was unusually clear.
Spotted a satellite and one very clear, bright, long path meteorite which I was looking straight at when it happened, so I was very pleased with that.
It went from my north-east to my south-west.
 
Similar to Trevp666. Got home at 11pm, went outside for about 25 minutes in our reasonably secluded garden. Saw three absolute doozies before going to bed, all also travelling roughly from my north-east to south-west. Best I've seen in years and I go out for most meteor showers. It was helped by being pretty clear, which isn't always the case.
 
I was outside from about 11pm last night and the sky, again, was quite clear having been overcast for several hours previously.
My neck started aching after about 20 minutes and not having seen anything except for a couple of planes going over, but I decided to keep sky-watching until I saw something meteoric.
And just seconds after having that thought I was rewarded with a small, brief sighting.
Again travelling NE-SW but only a very short track, directly above me.
 
I was outside from about 11pm last night and the sky, again, was quite clear having been overcast for several hours previously.
My neck started aching after about 20 minutes and not having seen anything except for a couple of planes going over, but I decided to keep sky-watching until I saw something meteoric.
And just seconds after having that thought I was rewarded with a small, brief sighting.
Again travelling NE-SW but only a very short track, directly above me.
I always feel there's something primal about meteors, and it makes me wonder about how early man reacted on seeing them. On seeing my first meteor last night - right above me, long trail - I let out an involuntary noise, and I was looking out for them...
 
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I was outside from about 11pm last night and the sky, again, was quite clear having been overcast for several hours previously.
My neck started aching after about 20 minutes and not having seen anything except for a couple of planes going over, but I decided to keep sky-watching until I saw something meteoric.
And just seconds after having that thought I was rewarded with a small, brief sighting.
Again travelling NE-SW but only a very short track, directly above me.

Don't you ever worry that you might be struck by one of them?
 
Don't you ever worry that you might be struck by one of them?
I hope that's not a serious question.
But then again, it might be.

No I'm not concerned in the slightest of being 'struck by one'.
They are each (mostly) about the size of a large grain of sand, and burn up in a fraction of a second upon encountering our atmosphere, very high up.
Not to be confused with 'bolides' which are larger items and will generally enter the atmosphere at a steeper angle and explode in a larger fireball. The larger the bolide the greater chance that any of it will reach the ground.
Usually these occur nearer the poles due to 'science' but occasionally elsewhere.

You might recall a couple of separate reports during the last few months of these types of items over the UK, one of which left a small hole in a driveway somewhere in the west country, with a bit of debris.

And I think you'd have to be incredibly (un)lucky to be hit by one of those.
 
Ahah!
I was outside during the hours of darkness last night, smoking a fag, and witnessed a very bright 'shooting star' with a long trail.
And upon checking I find that it's time for the Perseids again!
With clear skies and mild evenings it's fine for going out for a stare at the skies.
 
Well apparently, according to earlier posts and links, I live on the wrong part of the earth to view these:roll:

Edited to correct my misconception that I live "in" the earth. Sorry to disappoint, but I am not a mole person.
 
I live on the wrong part of the earth to view these
No my friend - northern hemisphere. You should be fine.
The darker it is outside the better.
I suggest you get a flask of warm tea (or coffee) depending on how chilly it is out, go and sit somewhere with no light pollution, as close to midnight as you can, and get as wide an area of the sky in view as you can.
You should see at least a few in a half-hour period.
The Perseids will be active over the course of the next week or so, peaking (I think) sometime around Friday.
 
No my friend - northern hemisphere. You should be fine.
The darker it is outside the better.
I suggest you get a flask of warm tea (or coffee) depending on how chilly it is out, go and sit somewhere with no light pollution, as close to midnight as you can, and get as wide an area of the sky in view as you can.
You should see at least a few in a half-hour period.
The Perseids will be active over the course of the next week or so, peaking (I think) sometime around Friday.
I'm in Canada. From some of the articles posted, it is the timing of when the meteor showers occur. One article stated that for us here, the shower occurs during daylight hours.

I don't know anything about astronomy, so I might have misunderstood what I read.
 
No, the Perseids last for several days. You might miss the peak activity, but you would probably see something,
on one or other of the nights around August 13th, near or after midnight preferably..
 
Too much light pollution around me for the Perseids - plus the neighbours will probably celebrate with fireworks. I'm waiting for the Leonids in November on a cold beach on the east Coast.
 
I'm in Canada. From some of the articles posted, it is the timing of when the meteor showers occur. One article stated that for us here, the shower occurs during daylight hours.
No.
The whole of the earth passes through the various meteor showers over a period of several days each.
People in the southern hemisphere are unlikely to see things visible from the northern hemisphere due to the way the planet proceeds through space (and vice-versa)
Imagine it like a like a 'disco ball' hanging from a ceiling with a light shining on the top half of it from one side, with the light staying on for several revolutions of the ball. As your part of the 'ball' rotates into the beam of the light it will be illuminated.
 
No, the Perseids last for several days. You might miss the peak activity, but you would probably see something,
on one or other of the nights around August 13th, near or after midnight preferably..
Just turning in for the night, last night (8th Aug), happend to gaze out of my window at around 12:15 and caught site of a meteorite taking a curved path through from the South West, toward the North Western sky.
 
Watching the Perseids on Mount Nemrut among ancient statues.

Stargazers gathered to watch the Perseid meteor shower among ancient statues at the top of Mount Nemrut in south-eastern Turkey.

Hundreds spent the night at the Unesco World Heritage Site for the annual meteor show that stretches along the orbit of the comet Swift–Tuttle.

Perched at an altitude of more than 7,000 feet, the statues are part of a temple and tomb complex that King Antiochus I, of the ancient Commagene kingdom, built as a monument to himself.

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Mount Nemrut in south-eastern Turkey (Emrah Gurel/AP)

A 164ft man-made mound, the presumed tomb of Antiochus, sets the background.
The ancient site that includes giant 33ft seated statues of Antiochus, surrounded by ancient Gods, including Zeus and Apollo, was discovered in 1881 by a German engineer.
Excavations began there in the 1950s.

2.68338856.jpg
Hundreds spent the night at the site (Emrah Gurel/AP)

Son of the founder of the Commagene kingdom, Antiochus reigned between 64 and 38 BC, until he was deposed by the Romans.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40941125.html
 
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