(meteorobs) Re: Perseids are coming next week! (was Re: Call for guest authors)

Lewis J. Gramer lgramer at upstream.net
Thu Aug 5 20:30:10 EDT 2004


Wes is definitely right that the Perseids are worth watching well
past moonrise, for any meteor afficiandaos out there! One thing,
they are relatively bright compared to some other major showers
(r=2.6, for folks interested in the details). And on the night of
11/12 Aug. in particular, the later North American observers stay
out watching, the more likely they are to see a ramp-up to some of
the predicted times for possible outbursts during that day! (With
the caveat, that some of these outburst predictions call for very
short ramp-up times, and some of the outbursts may be richer in
faint meteors than the main peak, causing even a full-on outburst
to be nearly lost to observers cursed with moonlight or twilight.)

Anyway, my announcement below was mainly for folks interested in
getting out to see the best possible show - and for whom even that
little waning crescent moon will probably put a significant damper
on their fun... But if you are interested in meteor showers for
their own sake - and CERTAINLY if you are attempting to record
the Perseid shower for scientific purposes - please do stay out
for as much time during the activity period of the shower as you
can manage - twilight and moonlight, or not. :)

(And again, for more information on how you CAN record what you
see of the Perseids in a scientifically useable way, see some of
those links I mentioned in that original email, especially:
 http://www.namnmeteors.org/guidechap2.html
 http://www.imo.net/visual/#meteorcounts
(and also: http://www.namnmeteors.org/namnnotes0408.html )


Clear skies all!
Lew Gramer


> -----Original Message-----
>      To: starrynights at yahoogroups.com
>    Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2004 23:30:56 -0000
>    From: "westronomy" <wes_stone at lycos.com>
> Subject: Re: Perseids are coming next week! (was Re: Call for guest authors)
>
> Although the Moon will be up in the morning sky, it will be a waning
> crescent that's less than 20% lit on the nights around the peak and
> shouldn't be that nasty.  Just face away from it.  At most, it'll
> lower your limiting magnitude by a couple of tenths. It's MUCH more
> important to get away from serious artificial light pollution, which
> can REALLY spoil your fun (OK, overcast skies are even worse).
>
> Especially on the morning of the 12th, the approaching peak and the
> high radiant elevation should encourage observers to watch until
> morning twilight and probably see the best North American rates this
> year.
>
> http://skytour.homestead.com/per04.html
>
> Hopefully, I'll get clear skies to put in a decent number of
> observing hours from dark sites in Central Oregon.
>
> --
> Wes Stone
> Chiloquin, OR
> http://skytour.homestead.com





More information about the Meteorobs mailing list