Celestia Forums

A little question about it, it says on the nasa site "They come in mid-August when it's warm and comfortable to be outside at 4 o'clock in the morning", but they failed to mention weather its est, gmt, ect. Anyone know a little more about it?

Check out http://www.spaceweather.com.

well, that wasnt really that helpful, but thanks anyway. i was trying to get more of an idea of when on august 13th in est

Hi Mike,

The URL you listed in your first message contains the info you are asking for ...

"No matter where you live, the best time to look will be just before dawn on Wednesday morning, August 13th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Space Environments Team at the Marshall Space Flight Center. At that time, the sky overhead will be tilted into the debris stream of Comet Swift-Tuttle--the source of the Perseid meteors. Furthermore, the moon will be low in the sky before dawn. You can stand in the shadow of a building or a hill or some other Moon-baffle to reduce its glare.

This tells me that you should be outside "just before dawn", whatever local time that is for you in the EST zone, no?

If you don't know when the sun comes up where you live, check a local newspaper weather report, which sometimes lists sunrise and sunset times. In Colorado, sunrise is about 5 am. If unsure, be outside around 4 am and you should be able to see some -- weather (clouds) permitting.

Last year, my wife and I watched both the Leonids and Perseids showers and I got some video too, using a Sony camcorder with NightShot activated. Pretty cool stuff!

Enjoy ...

How spread out are the Perseids in time? Do they all come on the 12th-13th, or can we go out and see some activity a few nights before and after (e.g. tonight??)

From http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/perseidobs.html:

The duration of this meteor shower covers the period of July 23 to August 22. Maximum currently occurs on August 12/13 (solar longitude=140.0 deg), from an average radiant of RA=47°, DEC=+57°. The maximum hourly rate typically reaches 80.

If you want to see 3-D orbital info of Earth and Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, go here: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=Swift-Tuttle&group=all&search=Search. This requires Java to be active in your browser.

Excellent. I'll keep my eyes peeled over the next few nights. Thanks!

don wrote:Hi Mike,

The URL you listed in your first message contains the info you are asking for ...

"No matter where you live, the best time to look will be just before dawn on Wednesday morning, August 13th," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Space Environments Team at the Marshall Space Flight Center. At that time, the sky overhead will be tilted into the debris stream of Comet Swift-Tuttle--the source of the Perseid meteors. Furthermore, the moon will be low in the sky before dawn. You can stand in the shadow of a building or a hill or some other Moon-baffle to reduce its glare.

This tells me that you should be outside "just before dawn", whatever local time that is for you in the EST zone, no?

If you don't know when the sun comes up where you live, check a local newspaper weather report, which sometimes lists sunrise and sunset times. In Colorado, sunrise is about 5 am. If unsure, be outside around 4 am and you should be able to see some -- weather (clouds) permitting.

Last year, my wife and I watched both the Leonids and Perseids showers and I got some video too, using a Sony camcorder with NightShot activated. Pretty cool stuff!

Enjoy ...

Oops, sorry, didn't see that. Thanks for hte info, but at this rate I don't think it will be clear here by then. We'll see what happens. Thanks for the help.

You guys are welcome.

By the way, the best way to see them is away from city lights. We live "out in the country" about 45 miles from the nearest city (small, Colorado Springs, Colorado) and have very little local light pollution. Our nephew, who lives in the city, tried viewing but saw none last year, when we saw several every minute where we live. So, light pollution from city lights really makes a difference in viewing meteor showers.

Hope y'all get a chance to see some

I've seen a few Perseids over the last few nights, including an amazing one that streaked across the northern sky and left an amazingly long and wide trail.

I'm kinda wondering why Swift-Tuttle is not included in the default list of comets in Celestia.
I mean, if the Perseids is the most famous of all meteor showers...