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Title: Lather up your weekend with the Perseid meteor shower
Source:
Washington Post
URL Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs ... e1-98e7-89d659f9c106_blog.html
Published: Aug 9, 2012
Author: Blaine Friedlander
Post Date: 2012-08-09 19:35:46 by Buzzard
Keywords: None
Views: 108
Comments: 1
How do you watch a meteor shower? Step one: Find yourself a clear, dark sky late in the evening. Two, pour a cool, summer beverage. Three, find a lawn chair, sit and drink aforementioned beverage. And finally, look up. Not only do we get fireworks on the Fourth of July, we get nature’s own fireworks in mid August. Check out the Perseid (pronounced PURR-see-id) meteor shower on the night of August 11-12. While the Perseids loiter around our heavens from July 25 through Aug. 20, these shooting stars peak this weekend. You can start looking up late Saturday night and if you are lucky, you’ll observe a handful of meteors dart across the cosmos. Likely, you’ll see more after midnight – in the wee hours of Sunday morning. The International Meteor Organization and The Observer’s Handbook 2012 explains that the zenithal hourly rate is about 90 to 100 meteors each hour. Although you’ll never see that many, be happy with a few. The shower allegedly peaks Sunday at noon Universal Time, which is 8 a.m. Eastern Time. That’s well after the sunrise. So Saturday night and Sunday night could be your best chances. Slightly dampening your observations after midnight, the waning moon rises in the east around 1:30 a.m. (Sunday morning, Aug. 12). Hey, don’t fret, it’s just a crescent, it shouldn’t be too bothersome. This shower appears to emanate from the Perseus constellation – hence the name Perseid meteors. Like driving through a snowstorm with high beams, that’s how these meteors will generally look. Meteors are nothing but a trail of cosmic dust left by comets. On its annual tour around the sun, Earth smacks into these trails. The debris strikes our atmosphere, burns brightly and we see the resulting streaks. Comet Swift-Tuttle leaves the trail that causes the Perseid meteors, which is a “middle-age stream, still fairly compact …” says author Neil Bone in his book “Meteors.” Bone explains that these bits of dust are small, like the size of a grain of sand or instant coffee granules. These tiny pieces have little structural integrity and burn easily when they strike our upper atmosphere. Poster Comment: Nature's fireworks ! A great reason for a late night party !
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#1. To: Buzzard, All (#0)
(Edited)
Bump, it's tonight! I'll be outside with a cool beverage to observe the activity. " The meteors tend to streak across the sky, but you will want to look toward the Perseus constellation, which is in the northeast part of the sky and forms an inverted "Y" shape." 
-Alex Kurtagic
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