Meteor Shower Tonight 8-11-09

For those of you who get off on celestial bodies, tonight is expected to be the peak of the annual Perseids meteor shower.  1:00am EDT is supposedly the peak, although they were already going well enough last night that I saw four from my bedroom window (including a really nice one) in about 15 minutes. 

So haul yourself out of bed or away from the TV and get outside.  Get as far away from light sources as you can. Set up a comfortable chair pointed generally east, pour yourself an adult beverage, settle back, look up, and watch the show.

They won't be ideal this year because we'll have a little too much moonlight tonight, but it should still be pretty good.  You sit there and imagine this "stuff" that's been hurtling through space for a brazillion years and suddenly gets intercepted by the earth's atmosphere, putting on a light show.  How cool is that?

Here's a couple of links:

http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/perseid-meteor-showe-5085/

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/08/10/2009-perseid-meteor-shower-double-peaks-this-year/

We've been going through the comet stream that produces the meteors for a couple of days, so you don't HAVE to stay up real late. If you get outside anytime while it's dark tonight or tomorrow morning and watch for awhile, you should see some. 

And remember - seeing even one shooting star is really, really good luck.

My favorite meteorite shower of the year!

If you have never seen it, STAY UP.  Leave the city, and enjoy.

This event is one of the coolest ways I have ever been reminded just how d%#m insignificant I am in the overall scheme of things.  In a good way.

The aurora borealis is another one of those ways, that I never get tired of watching.

 I tried to check out the meteor showers but it was too cloudy here, 

Too much cloud cover here as well. Stupid wet summer! I'll try again tonight, though the peak was last night...

No to gloat or anything, but it was severe clear here last night.  We watched from a hayfield just north of Teton Village and we had to wait a few minutes for about 40 elk to get out of the way.

We watched for an hour and fifteen minutes.  Saw 28 meteors.  Several were really nice, including one that took about five seconds to track almost from one horizon to the other. 

The Milky Way was gorgeous.

 Cloudy here.

It reminded me  of a show I saw about astronomers traveling theglobe to view a total eclipse and find evidence to support Einstein's theory of relativity. They took all of their telescopes to the Crimea, Ukraine, Oregon, Africa and finally to Australia. It took them ten years because they kept getting skunked by the various whims of nature (and WW I).

So Bob where are the photos.

Cloudy here.  I did get a break in the clouds and saw one meteor.   I only watched for about 5 minutes.

Years ago I saw a this rather large greenish glob go across the sky while driving half mile from my house.  I thought it was strange.  I passed it off as backyard fire works.  Next day it was all over the papers as a huge meteor that got closer to earth than most meteors.

It was clear, but interference from city lights and a full moon pretty much washed out the sky.