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BS: Don't forget to look up

11 Aug 11 - 09:36 AM (#3205987)
Subject: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Bettynh

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.


11 Aug 11 - 09:42 AM (#3205993)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Charley Noble

Thanks for the "heads up"!

Charley Noble


11 Aug 11 - 09:48 AM (#3205997)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,999

Ditto what Charley said.

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

That from Wikipedia


11 Aug 11 - 09:51 AM (#3206000)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: gnu

Ditto too.

100 per hour... cool.


11 Aug 11 - 10:33 AM (#3206026)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Newport Boy

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

Phil


11 Aug 11 - 11:48 AM (#3206076)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Musket

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

OOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!


11 Aug 11 - 11:50 AM (#3206078)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Richard Bridge

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


11 Aug 11 - 12:39 PM (#3206110)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Bettynh

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.


11 Aug 11 - 02:04 PM (#3206163)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Penny S.

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


11 Aug 11 - 03:47 PM (#3206219)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: gnu

A Chevy NOVA? A tad appropos no?


11 Aug 11 - 04:19 PM (#3206239)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon, at the Webster, WI library

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.


11 Aug 11 - 04:22 PM (#3206243)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon again

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


11 Aug 11 - 06:15 PM (#3206303)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Bettynh

Aurora picture gallery


11 Aug 11 - 06:29 PM (#3206313)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: frogprince

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.


12 Aug 11 - 12:23 AM (#3206433)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: katlaughing

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

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


12 Aug 11 - 09:06 PM (#3206985)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: Charley Noble

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

Charley Noble


13 Aug 11 - 10:49 AM (#3207253)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,999

TONIGHT


13 Aug 11 - 11:41 AM (#3207283)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: gnu

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.


13 Aug 11 - 12:04 PM (#3207295)
Subject: RE: BS: Don't forget to look up
From: GUEST,999

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