Meteors FROM SPACE!

[Shea]

Perseid shower is this week:

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/090807-perseid-meteors.html

[dirkterrell]

I was observing last night and saw a couple Perseids while getting the telescope going but the Moon is going to wash things out this year. You should still see several per hour though.

Dirk

[TFOGGuys]

But will you need your CCW while observing them on a recreational ride? :lol:

[Shea]

But will you need your CCW while observing them on a recreational ride? :lol:

pfft, the chances of that happening are infinitesimal.

[= Buckeye Jess =]

But will you need your CCW while observing them on a recreational ride? :lol:
Great Jim....just great. Go and ruin a good thread! lmao

[Gregger]

200 per hour or so. Moon should be up by 11:30, but shouldn't kill the show.

[Horsman]

But will you need your CCW while observing them on a recreational ride? :lol:
Am I going to get hit by a meteor while I ride????

[dirkterrell]

200 per hour or so. Moon should be up by 11:30, but shouldn't kill the show.

No, the Perseids don't have counts that high. I see I left out a key word in my first response, should be "several dozen per hour."

Dirk

[rforsythe]

Am I going to get hit by a meteor while I ride????

If you had your CCW you could just blast 'em out of the sky with yo ghat.

Personally I want to have Chuck Norris come along. He would just roundhouse kick that fucking meteor back to space!

[mopoet178]

Question: How do you know when these showers happen before they happen? Where is the website with the meteor schedule? I would love to keep up with it and know when it all happens.

I saw a couple on sunday night when i was down in pagosa springs riding. My riding buddy thought i was crazy.

[dirkterrell]

Question: How do you know when these showers happen before they happen? Where is the website with the meteor schedule? I would love to keep up with it and know when it all happens.


Meteor showers are associated with the orbit of a comet (the Perseids are associated with comet Swift-Tuttle). Debris from the comet is spread around the comet's orbit. When the Earth crosses the comet's orbit, we go flying through all that debris and the result is the meteor shower. Since orbits change very slowly, these orbit crossings occur at the same time every year. The Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_shower) on meteor showers has a list of the major ones.

Dirk

[Mother Goose]

Went out last night till about 11:45. Only saw 1. :( Damn that moon!

[Gregger]

No, the Perseids don't have counts that high. I see I left out a key word in my first response, should be "several dozen per hour."

Dirk


"The annual light show happens as the Earth passes through the debris cloud created by the Comet Swift-Tuttle.

Space forecasters anticipated the show to be more intense this year, with meteors visable up to 200 per hour, because we're passing through a denser portion of the debris."

Thanks for coming out.

[Horsman]

If you had your CCW you could just blast 'em out of the sky with yo ghat.

Personally I want to have Chuck Norris come along. He would just roundhouse kick that fucking meteor back to space!

LOL... Ain't got a ghat so will someone please call Chuck Norris for me!!!!

[Shea]

LOL... Ain't got a ghat so will someone please call Chuck Norris for me!!!!

He's got me on speed dial when he runs into problems he can't handle. Next time he calls I'll let him know you need his assistance... :)

[dirkterrell]

"The annual light show happens as the Earth passes through the debris cloud created by the Comet Swift-Tuttle.

Space forecasters anticipated the show to be more intense this year, with meteors visable up to 200 per hour, because we're passing through a denser portion of the debris."

Thanks for coming out.

My buddy from grad school, Bill Cooke, is NASA's go-to man for meteoroid predictions to safeguard literally billions of dollars in satellite assets, and I have written some NASA-award-winning modeling code for him that predicts how a given meteor shower will affect specific satellites, so I'm not just talking out of my ass here. He's got a pretty good record of modeling these showers (which is why he is entrusted with protecting a few tens of billion dollars worth of government and commercial satellites). His estimate?


"Earth passes through the densest part of the debris stream sometime on Aug. 12," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Then, you could see dozens of meteors per hour." The chances of a human seeing sustained 200 meteors per hour from the Perseids are pretty damn tiny and throw a bright Moon in there and they're even tinier. But, it'll all be settled by the observers in a few hours. Let's play the science game and see how the data turn out. :)

Dirk

[dirkterrell]

Here are some data:

http://www.imo.net/live/perseids2009/

That site looks pretty busy right now so it may time out on you. Last night, the zenith hourly rate peaked at about 30.

I also asked Bill if these predictions of ZHRs around 200 had panned out. His response:



Cooke, William J. (MSFC-EV44) wrote:

Negative - see www.imo.net (http://www.imo.net/) for a live plot.

It appears the 1610 stream encounter did not produce as predicted. Tonight may very well produce the best rates, being close to the traditional maximum.
The traditional maximum is about 60, or "several dozen per hour."

Dirk

[rforsythe]

He's got me on speed dial when he runs into problems he can't handle. Next time he calls I'll let him know you need his assistance... :)

Yeah, when he needs something posted on a web forum somewhere, I'm sure you are his man. :lol:

[Shea]

Yeah, when he needs something posted on a web forum somewhere, I'm sure you are his man. :lol:

Yeah pretty much :)

[Devaclis]

Science is GAY!!! The sky is falling and you smart people are all gonna dai!!!

[Gregger]

Dirk- I bow in your honor!

Thanks for the insight into one of my favorite childhood hobbies.. Astronomy!

[GixXxeR]

Stupid Moon :banghead: