BS: Don't forget to look up

Subject: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Bettynh
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 09:36 AM

The Perseid meteor shower will happen this weekend, perhaps washed out a bit by a full moon. But not even a bright meteor can be seen if you don't look up at the sky. For that matter, taking a minute or two to stare at the full moon isn't a bad thing, either.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 09:42 AM

Thanks for the "heads up"!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,999
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 09:48 AM

Ditto what Charley said.

Year        Perseids active between            Peak of shower
2011        July 17 - August 24            August 13 (ZHRmax 100)

That from Wikipedia

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: gnu
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 09:51 AM

Ditto too.

100 per hour... cool.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Newport Boy
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 10:33 AM

There's a nice shot of one on today's NASA APOD together with a satellite track, and snow in the Atacama Desert.

Phil

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Musket
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 11:48 AM

If I had known I had to look up at the full moon, I wouldn't have bothered to shave first.

OOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 11:50 AM

Damn, I thought you meant Mary Poppins was going directly overhead.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Bettynh
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 12:39 PM

My most memorable meteorite: standing on the roof of a parking garage in DC, 1992. I'd been to the Smithsonian with my 10-year-old twins. MASSIVE silent green streak across the sky, through clouds. We waited a couple minutes to see if Washington was going to be blown up by an ICBM, then climbed into the car when no explosion. It took a day or two for the paper to report that the meteorite took out a Chevy Nova in a Peekskill, NY driveway.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Penny S.
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 02:04 PM

Mine was heading north while I was driving between Dartford Heath and Crayford, just crossing the site fo the battle between the Jutes and the British which established a boundary which is still that of London. Which has nothing to do with the fireball, which looked so close that my friend and I turned off and went north to Erith to see if anything had happened.

Which it hadn't as it was much higher, and had crossed the North Sea to crash in Greenland (possibly). It has never been found.

It was huge, throwing out sparks like a firework.

Of course, the Perseids aren't that sort of size, being comet debris and dust sized particles. I used to see them when I went camping in Cornwall, where the skies are dark, one or two each time I visited the loos.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: gnu
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 03:47 PM

A Chevy NOVA? A tad appropos no?

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon, at the Webster, WI library
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 04:19 PM

Speaking of looking up—

I heard on the news a few days ago that there were sun flares, and this would probably result in northern lights in a couple of days. (It takes a while for the particles to reach earth.) Has anyone actually seen them?

I suppose our Australian friends might see southern lights.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon again
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 04:22 PM

Don't forget Lou and Peter Berryman's song PERSEIDS.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Bettynh
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 06:15 PM

Aurora picture gallery

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: frogprince
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 06:29 PM

I've been afraid to look up around our house recently. We have a wild cherry tree in the back yard, and I've been swabbing bird crap off my car every time I go outside.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Aug 11 - 12:23 AM

My sister sees the northern lights as she lives in Alaska.

Thanks for the reminder. We'll be sure to watch for the Perseids!

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Aug 11 - 09:06 PM

Don't forget to wear your hard hat and be sure to wear clean underwear.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,999
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 10:49 AM

TONIGHT

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: gnu
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 11:41 AM

N. lights. I used drive about ten miles north to watch them from a high point. Best in winter.

I used to see them up Kent County (near Cipman, New Brunswick) in the wee hours on a clear late fall night.

Labrador was great for seeing them. I worked in a number of spots there.

Always awesome.

Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,999
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 12:04 PM

Saw lots in north Alberta and the Northwest Territories near the Arctic Circle on the Mackenzie River. Lots of folklore goes with them, too.