Perseid Meteor Shower 2009: Don’t Miss Tonight’s Show

With up to 100 shooting stars an hour, the celestial light show peaks tonight.

By Molika Ashford Posted 08.11.2009 at 4:46 pm 10 Comments

Perseids: [Fred Bruenjes]

As tonight bleeds into tomorrow morning, the earth will be hurtling through a long skein of dust and rocks. Lucky for us, the result of our bombardment will not be annihilation, but rather one of the richest natural light shows of the year—the Perseid meteor shower. Here's how to watch.

The Perseids (named for the constellation Perseus and the spot where they appear to originate in the sky) grace us once a year as the earth passes through a trail of dust and ice particles spewed out in the wake of the comet Swift-Tuttle.

If you’ve never caught it before, tonight is slated to be a good showing for the shower, marred only by a gibbous moon. For best viewing, get away from city lights and lie down in the darkest place you can find either during tomorrow’s early morning hours, or after sundown tonight (but before the moon rises high in the sky—around 10 or 11 PM.)

Shooting stars are supposed to peak between midnight and dawn August 12th as the earth rotates in the direction of it’s own spin, catching more bits and pieces, though the large Moon may obscure some of the show. In the late hours of August 11th meanwhile, the Moon will still be low in the sky and flashes should be brighter, but less frequent. A good strategy might be to time your viewing to try to catch the best of both conditions.

Perseid meteoroids enter the earth’s atmosphere at 133,200 mph, reaching up to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit as they burn up. An extra boon to viewing earlier in the evening is the possibility of seeing some “Earthgrazers”, meteors that skim the atmosphere like a skipped stone leaving a long, colorful tail.

Don’t forget to bring a pillow.

[Space.com]

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10 Comments

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DaniY

08/12/09 at 3:06 am

What a factual article.Everyone should watch out with that good and annual scenery. People can easily view it by using some astronomical instruments like telescope. So those who can't afford with it, they an resort into some lending loans.Nowadays, Have you heard this new cow song going around the internet? You know, the cow song which is supposed to be titled Hello Cow? Well, it's certainly inane, and it begs the question of just how many drugs over what period of time a person would have to do to come up with something like that, but that aside, it's become incredibly popular. It was on a Fox News segment (that surprisingly wasn't trashing the Democrats, Obama – or anything that's good for anyone, for that matter) about a dairy farm in Wisconsin where cows stand on waterbeds (really) and since then, people have been putting massive internet searches and payday loans to find out who made the hello cow song.To read more http://personalmoneystore.com/Payday-Loans/.

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mrdvd2009

08/12/09 at 6:18 am

Im forwarding this nights, and the Perseid meteor is a great show...
Another actual article:
"Viewing Perseid Meteor Shower guide for 12 August 2009 "

http://www.officialwindowsmagazine.com/05582469248173008342/viewing-perseid-meteor-shower-guide-for-12-august-...

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Bioboy

08/12/09 at 7:32 am

So what does a cow song have to do with a meteor shower??

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GTO

08/12/09 at 7:35 am

Trolling retard spammers.

--GTO--

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John Mahoney

08/12/09 at 9:04 am

He/she/it has been banned.

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sleepybear

08/12/09 at 12:54 pm

After a few minutes a seeing nothing at all I got to see a great long earthgrazer about 11:50 est last night. Streak trailed from the top of the sky to the horizon. I know others out there had to ooh and ah at that.

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sirknala

08/12/09 at 12:54 pm

We should be able to report spam with a little link and then the comment should be deleted asap... otherwise there's no real punishment done to the spammer since their comment is still visible.

Couldn't see this in San Diego... clouds all night. =(

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quasi44

08/12/09 at 2:25 pm

same here in the N.W., sirknala, don't feel bad like you are alone in your private misery. as grateful as we all were up here for the rain(multiple fires in the rain forest), I personally thought about it and wished for big wind. Today the fires are all out or under control, so in retrospect not seeing the show was a small price for so much.

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ThesportsHQ

08/17/09 at 1:39 am

Nice post, Its a very impressive article in my opinion. Its completely my pleasure for comment this post.

http://www.thesportshq.com/

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Verblist

08/18/09 at 7:39 pm

Great article! Incredibly factual and interesting. The shower was amazing. Even in the foothills of Altadena in Los Angeles,Ca. . .Where the smog/fog was horrendous and the light pollution ridiculous, not to mention a very bright and nearly full moon . . .It was still a sight to see. Can't wait till the next shower coming on October 21, 2009.

-Verblist

http:/verblist.net