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Tag: Meteor Shower

  • Meteor Storm Not Over: Watch For Comet Caboose Weds.

    Meteor Storm Not Over: Watch For Comet Caboose Weds.

    Did you witness the witching hour light show in the sky this morning?

    Me neither. It’s always nice to see these kinds of events live; but if you’re like me, you might have missed the Camelopardalid meteor shower on account of cloudy skies. Lucky for the both of us, media capturing the cosmic firework display was posted all over the web today. What’s more – we haven’t necessarily missed the entire dusty trail of Comet-209P/LINEAR. In fact, the tail end of the meteor storm should pass by Earth – starting tonight and visible on Wednesday.

    Although the storm wasn’t as intense as some anticipated, scientists chock this up to “unknowns”.

    That is to say, our current models aren’t as good at predicting meteor showers induced by Jupiter family comets. Because Comet-209P/Linear is among these, the gravity of the massive planet is among the variables making predictions difficult. Another reason forecasts may have been off is because the best way we can determine meteor shower characteristics is based off previous models. Because this guy wasn’t discovered until 2004 (and doesn’t swing around but once every five years), it didn’t give scientists much with which to work.

    “Although this is a far cry from predictions, it is hardly a surprise,” says astronomer Tony Philips of Spaceweather.com. He added, “The parent comet, 209P/LINEAR, is faint and currently produces only a small amount of dust. Most forecasters acknowledged that there might be less dust in Earth’s path than the models suggested.”

    If you’re bummed about missing the show, you might still be able to catch the tail end.

    Provided it’s clear enough on Wednesday, it should be visible in the north sky with a consumer model 3-inch-reflector telescope. If you’re ill equipped to see it, watch the celestial eye goodies unfold live. Also, if you’d like to plan ahead for more atmospheric awesomeness, mark your comet calendars for Perseid meteor shower – which is in August.

    But just in case – you might check the skies tonight. Phillips suggested the spectacle might have fallen short of Earth shattering because perhaps the main event has yet to come. He said, “Another possibility is that the shower is not a dud, just delayed,” and then went on to add, “If models mis-located the debris zone, an outburst could still occur later on May 24th.”

    Hey! That’s today!

    Anyone else got last minute plans for a stellar Saturday night?


    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Meteor Shower Will Peak Tuesday Morning

    A meteor shower made by Halley’s Comet will peak on Tuesday morning and will be easily viewable in a dark, clear sky. The meteor shower is made up of dust and debris that will fall from the tail of the comet.

    As these particles fall to earth and enter the atmosphere, they will light up and streak across the sky. Haley’s comet last went through the inner solar system in 1986 and will not be back until 2061. Although the comet is not near earth, when it comes close to the sun, the particles and dust fall off of its tail and create the shower.

    The spring meteor shower is called the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Another meteor shower will occur in October and is called the Orionid meteor shower.

    The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will be most visible early Tuesday morning, but may also be able to be seen in some areas on Monday night. If you are hoping to see a few meteors, make sure you turn off all your inside and outside lights off or move to an area near your home that is dark.

    If you live in the city, you may need to go to a more rural area to get a good view of the meteors as the city lights can stop you from seeing them.

    If you plan to watch the meteor shower, be sure to check out the meteor shower webcast. Astronomer Bob Berman will be providing commentary and you can watch the meteor shower right on your computer or tablet.

    “What makes this shower somewhat special is that the meteors stem from the most famous comet in all of history, Comet Halley,” Berman said in a statement. “As Halley goes around the sun in its 76-year orbit, pieces of it, little chunks of ice, slough off the comet and we intersect that every year around this time, in early May.”

    Are you planning to watch the meteor shower tonight or tomorrow and where is your favorite spot to view it?

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Meteor Shower to Light Up Night Sky

    Meteor Shower to Light Up Night Sky

    Halley’s Comet isn’t scheduled to make its next appearance in the inner solar system for another 47 years, but the debris left in the wake of the comet’s 1986 trip to the Sun is still causing quite a light show for Earth.

    This week our planet is passing through the debris cloud left by Halley’s Comet. The celestial event will light up the sky in both the northern and southern hemispheres with a meteor shower. The peak of the meteor shower can be seen late tonight, early on the morning of May 6.

    Though nearly everyone on Earth will have a chance to see this week’s meteor shower, people in the southern hemisphere will see the greatest number of meteors. According to NASA as many as 30 meteors an hour will appear in the night sky of the northern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere will get an even grander light show with as many as one meteor every minute at the peak of the shower. Peak rates of meteors can generally be seen sometime between 3 am to 5 am with dawn bringing an end to optimal viewing conditions.

    This yearly event is named the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. The name for the shower comes from the fact that, from the perspective of the Earth’s surface, the meteors appear to be streaming from the constellation Aquarius. Though the Eta Aquarid meteor shower isn’t as spectacular as the annual mid-November Leonids, the mild weather predicted for much of the U.S. could make tonight’s event perfect for an early-morning meteor party.

    The skies over the U.S. are expected to be much clearer than they were last Monday, but not everyone will have prime viewing conditions for the meteor shower. For those people NASA will be streaming footage of the night sky from its Marshall Space Flight Center on its Ustream page. Located in Huntsville, Alabama, the location is predicted to have clear skies for optimal meteor shower viewing.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Meteor Shower – The First of 2014

    Meteor Shower – The First of 2014

    One of the best meteor showers known to star gazers which comes around every year at the start – sort of like a New Year’s greeting from the Universe – will peak on Thursday, likely around 20:00 UTC.

    The Quadrantid shower’s intensity is similar to the Geminid and Perseid showers–some 50 to 100 meteors per hour– however, it only lasts a brief time–just a few hours. And because it is short lived, only the dark side of the planet gets to enjoy the show.

    This year, the lucky sky gazers will be central and eastern Asia, they will have the benefit of the full shower. The peak time to view will be around 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Friday evening, when this splendid show will hit the northeastern sky.

    For the U.S. sky gazers – the best place to try to see some shooting stars, is to look high in the northern sky, near the Big Dipper. The farther north you are, the better – those in the south probably won’t be able to see much without a telescope.

    The hours before dawn on January 3 and 4 are the best viewing times, EarthSky.org said. It is best viewed from northerly latitudes.

    “You need a dark, open sky, and you need to look in a general north-northeast direction for an hour or so before dawn,” EarthSky.org said.

    Since it will be Friday afternoon along the East Coast and noon on the West Coast, anyone wanting to see anything will have to catch them before dawn or wait until after sunset. Although the peak will have passed, some meteors are sure to dazzle. You might catch sight of perhaps 10 to 20 “Quads” during an hour’s watch.

    The bonus for those who are unable to or have missed the peak – they might get a spectacular show on Friday evening perhaps witnessing “earthgrazers” – or meteors that appear to come close to earth and to skim across our atmosphere, with long, bright paths. The Quadrantids at that time will be low in the northwest sky.

    The Quadrantid meteor shower is named after a constellation that no longer exists. The constellation Quadrans Muralis (Mural Quadrant), was named in 1795, and early descriptions of the annual shower said they radiated from it.

    When the International Astronomical Union met in 1922 they listed 88 recognized constellations, however, the Quadrans Muralis was not included on that list, even though the meteor shower’s name remains the same.

    Image via YouTube

  • Orionid Meteor Shower Begins Tonight

    The Orionid meteor shower, which has been known to produce bright fireballs, can be seen in the sky beginning after midnight, on early October 21.

    The Orionids are an annual meteor shower which last about a week in late-October. Sometimes meteors may occur at rates of 50-70 per hour, and the best way to spot them is to look up. Actually, one should lay on the ground with their legs pointing toward the southeast (from the vantage of the Northern Hemisphere), and give their eyes about a half hour to adjust to the darkness.

    The shower, usually shortened to “Orionids,” is the most prolific meteoric event associated with Halley’s Comet. The Orionids get their name from the point they appear to come from, called the radiant, which lies in the constellation Orion, but they can be viewed over a large area of the sky.

    Below is a clip of the remnants of a trail left by a fireball produced by the 2012 Orionid shower:

    Halley’s Comet returns to Earth’s solar system every 76 years, shedding fragments of rocks and dust from its icy core. This cosmic detritus lights up the sky as it enters the earth’s atmosphere, creating “shooting stars.”

    According to NASA, Orionids move fast, at roughly 148,000 miles per hour. With this speed, they can leave glowing “trains,” like the one captured in the video above.

    Anthony Cook, head of the telescope program at Griffith Observatory, says that one can expect to see about 20 meteors an hour, as the shower peaks in intensity later tonight and through tomorrow.

    Still, electric lights and a bright full moon might obscure the show. “With city lights and the moonlight, you might be lucky to see two an hour,” said Cook. “But if they are bright, it will be like free fireworks.”

    In related news, we all might experience the joy and wonder of viewing a fireball of a whole different order, if asteroid 2013 TV135 smashes into Earth when it returns in 2032. Though NASA has assured that the chances of this happening are slim and none.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Perseid Meteor Shower: One Shower You Can’t Miss

    There have already been a couple of night’s worth of meteor showers lighting up the sky this week, but apparently the best is yet to come. In the early morning hours of Monday and Tuesday Perseid meteors are promising a shower that will awe. (The rest of the month is supposed to see continued meteor showers, just not of the same magnitude of these two peak nights.)

    According to experts, the best hours to catch a good show are after midnight and just before daybreak. Also, a view of the northeast sky is essential to seeing the most meteors.

    The yearly meteor shower is caused by the Earth’s orbit crossing paths with that of the Comet Swift-Tuttle. This comet is the home to the Perseid meteor shower. In past years, there have been sightings of more than one hundred meteors per hour. However, the showers average around 70 meteors per hour on peak nights.

    The Perseid meteor shower gets its name from the famous Greek constellation, Perseus. These meteors streak through the atmosphere at a whopping 134,000 miles per hour.

    Perseid meteor showers look in photographs like snow or rain falling heavily; however, that is just how many brightly-lit meteors are falling every second! It is a wonder to uphold, and definitely something everyone needs to see at least once – even if you do have that 8:00 Monday morning meeting; plan on an extra cup of java at Starbucks and you’ll be glad you stayed up.