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Re: (meteorobs) NAMN Target Showers: June 1997




Well, Bob, how's THAT for a response! :>

Seriously, Cathy and Wayne's suggestion is just about the best anyone can
make: "Get out under the stars and start getting cozy with them!"

By the way, watching for shooting stars is a GREAT way to get really
intimate with the night sky: all you're doing is LOOKING UP for hours at a
time - and the more you know about the stars' relative positions and
patterns, the better you get at knowing where meteors occur and radiate
from in the sky!

Coincidentally, one last comment on "radiant" and "radiate": as you've
already seen in your sky-watching, a meteor (shooting star) makes a
shortish streak in the sky when it occurs. When you see a meteor, try
quickly aiming that streak or "trail" backward (past the start of the
streak) in the sky - Again, you have to try to remember exactly where the
meteor occurred! If you do this, you will find that on some nights of the
year - like August 11/12 and December 12/13 - most of the meteor trails all
seem to trace back to the same point amid the background stars... This
point is a meteor radiant!

There are actually a whole bunch of these radiants (40 or so recognized
ones), active at almost all times during the year - but especially in some
months!

Lew