have you ever flown through the tail of a comet?

(guest post by Steve)

There are few things that approach the beauty of the night sky.  Find a blanket and some mosquito repellant on a warm and clear Summer night far away from the lights of a city and just watch.   On a good night you can see thousands of stars and even find a galaxy whose light started its journey over two million years ago.  You can loose yourself in the slowly moving beauty of the heavens.  

Remember the nights can be chilly and bring some warm clothing.  Bring some food and a friend and you will have something potentially deep and memorable.  As a teen I used to spend time on the prairie just watching - among other things I learned coyotes love corn chips.

But wait!  

Every now and then a meteor streaks by.  

And this is why I am writing.  One of the best meteor showers of the year, the Perseids, peak on August 12^th.  The Earth is moving through the path traced out by a comet with the poetic name 109P/Swift-Tuttle.  The comet takes about 130 years to make its elliptical orbit around the Sun.  As it moves it leaves a bit of dust along its way.  The closing speed of this dust and our own rock is about 35 miles per second.  As these tiny bits of stuff (many are about the size of a grain of rice) strike the atmosphere, they give off a bright glow as they quickly vaporize. 

The intensity of the shower has been building for a few weeks and we'll go through the densest part soon.  Ideally there is a very dark sky with no moon, but this year a waning moon rises about 11pm local time.  It will wash out the dimmer meteors, but you will still see something.

The best time, given the rising moon, is probably after midnight until perhaps two in the morning local time.  If you are lucky you may see as many as one a minute, but even one every five minutes is worth it as the experience is experiencing the sky and the randomly spaced pieces of a comet.

Don't worry about knowing where to look.  Your eyes have a wide field of view and will catch the motion. If you trace the paths backwards you'll notice they converge on an area in the sky near the constellation Perseus - hence the name. 

There is beautiful stuff out there.  Slow down enough to catch something the size of a grain of rice seventy or more miles away as it silently streaks along at 35 miles per second.

Oh - if you want to stay up until dawn I won't tell anyone.

Comments

[steve]

Although the peak of the shower is on the 12th, there are some dense bands of dust that take the Earth an hour or less to traverse. A few predictions say the Earth will be going through one of these from 1 to 2 am pdt. This band would raise the normal dark sky count from one a minute to about three or four a minute on average. The moon will wash the dimmer streaks out, but it may be the a good time for people on the west coast and in Hawaii.

[Sukie]

This is off-topic.

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you

Happy birthday, Colleeeeeeeeeeeen. Happy birthday to you.

There. That is the best i have ever sung.

[Nancy]

Adding my belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Welcome to the X1's. (I'm 51... 20 years ahead of you).

BTW, the support you recently received is UNRESTRICTED and does NOT have to be used for the green team if you have a current priority. It was kismet that it was so near your birthday, so that must be a sign to help guide you. ;-)

[jheri]

Jheri can't sing but happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you Colleen!!

It takes so long for us to get young!