Ursus Posted August 10, 2007 Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6940962.stm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASCLEPIADES Posted August 10, 2007 Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6940962.stm And Happy Saint Laurence's Tears! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Augusta Posted August 10, 2007 Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6940962.stm Yep - thanks, Ursus. The August Perseid shower is an annual perennial for we sad dabblers in astronomy, although I have never managed to see it in all its glory due to always living in a street-light saturated area. But if anyone can get out to a dark sky area (the countryside, for example) this is well worth the effort. And the constellation itself is beautiful through the telescope - especially the famous cluster. In fact, a tear comes to my eye as I tell you that Perseus is one of the most beautiful constellations in the night sky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted August 10, 2007 Report Share Posted August 10, 2007 Ah Augusta my dear heart!! Astronomy is one of my pet subjects as you may know. Meteor astronomy especially so. I was a member of the British Astronomical Association for years and also of their meteor section. I and my brother Phil once recorded 117 Perseid meteors in one hour and 111 the next before the usual sharp decline. We had gotten into the nineties before those though!!! It kindles some very fond memories and funny tales of which I shall tell more when I meet you in October!! You'll hurt laughing!!! Are you gonna get out to watch them tonight or tomorrow even? I may get out tomorrow as it should be clearish. Tonight is clear but I am mega busy!! Sadly.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASCLEPIADES Posted August 11, 2007 Report Share Posted August 11, 2007 Salve. A guide from a year ago: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 Well, guess what!! Saturday night was a total washout - no surprise there then!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustus Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 Well, guess what!! Saturday night was a total washout - no surprise there then!! (Meteor Showers/Astronomy/Ancient Rome/Caesar and Another World --) Preceding my introduction into Latin/Ancient Roman history I was deeply influenced to become an amateur astronomer because of an event visible to all who may have been alive on the night of October 9, (a Wednesday), 1946. Depending on weather conditions at an observers location, as is always the case for things astronomical, those who were alert to the sky on that night would have seen what I saw at the age of 5 years. It was both awe inspiring and traumatic, for someone so young, Others that I know of who saw it weren Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASCLEPIADES Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 Salve! This image (from Cockfield observatory at Suffolk, UK) is the progenitor body of the Perseid meteor showers during its last perihelion (November 1992), the highly regular Comet 109P Swift-Tuttle, a Near-Earth Object with extremely low impact risk for this milennia, which earlier passage was retrospectively identified at 69 BC (during the consulship of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus and Quintus Hortensius. and around the birthdate of Cleopatra VII of Egypt, the Hollywood one). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klingan Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 Here's another shot on this years shower, taken from Nasa's daily picture (And resized from their almost ridiculously huge resolution) Here's what they say about it: Raining Perseids Credit & Copyright: Fred Bruenjes Explanation: Tonight is a good night to see meteors. Comet dust will rain down on planet Earth, streaking through dark skies in the annual Perseid meteor shower. While enjoying the anticipated space weather, astronomer Fred Bruenjes recorded a series of many 30 second long exposures spanning about six hours on the night of 2004 August 11/12 using a wide angle lens. Combining those frames which captured meteor flashes, he produced this dramatic view of the Perseids of summer. Although the comet dust particles are traveling parallel to each other, the resulting shower meteors clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky in the eponymous constellation Perseus. The radiant effect is due to perspective, as the parallel tracks appear to converge at a distance. Bruenjes notes that there are 51 Perseid meteors in the composite image, including one seen nearly head-on. This year, the Perseids Meteor Shower is expected to peak after midnight tonight, in the moonless early morning hours of August 12. From Nasa's daily picture. Full picture here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pertinax Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 A few here tonight, but the cloud cover is very variable. Alas its work in the morning so we will have to try again tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klingan Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 Me and my sister caught four in just a mater or minutes out here just a moment ago! Really beautiful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted August 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2007 It was cloudy in my neck of the woods. And since I had to awake at 5, I didn't go out at Midnight to check. Maybe next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost_Warrior Posted August 13, 2007 Report Share Posted August 13, 2007 I saw a few last night. I didn't stay up for it, too tired. I got up in the middle of the night and saw a few out the window. And one star that looked like it was about to Supernova or something. It was huge, and flashing, I looked away for a second to see a beautiful meteor with a long, thick tail and when I looked back my star was gone. Then it appeared again, faintly and grew stronger back to it's huge flashing glory again. I don't know what was up with that. I was thinking maybe I was seeing a meteor "head on". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augustus Caesar Posted August 13, 2007 Report Share Posted August 13, 2007 Well it was clear eventually here in North East England last night at a very late hour and too late for my wife and I to go out and take a look. It would take a longish walk to get away from street lights so it wasn't the best opportunity in the world. However, the storm mentioned above is one helluva way to be introduced to meteor astronomy!! I sometimes feel that maybe it gives a bit of an anti climax to see 'so few' in ensuing years though! So it has its good and bad points. It must have been spectacular to watch but pretty futile in having to spend an hour doing recordings of magnitudes etc!!! The Perseid shower where I mention above at recording 117 per hour is by far the best I've seen yet. I don't particularly want to surpass that by too many either unless it is like the storm mentioned above. It makes for a more relaxing time just lying and recording maybe two meteors per minute!!! Better still when one is observing with ones brother who shares exactly the same affinity with the stars. I do hope to get back into observing again in the coming years and at one time had amassed so much material for an attempt at writing a co authoured book with my brother on meteor astronomy. I still have all that material. Maybe one day, maybe!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docoflove1974 Posted August 13, 2007 Report Share Posted August 13, 2007 I currently reside in a city with yellow street lights. Yes, yellow...the same color as the signal lights. It's beyond annoying. "In theory," yellow lights are meant for you to see the night sky better...however, I can't squat, either in the night sky nor the signal lights when I'm driving at night. *sigh* Another year missed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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