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Perseid Meteor Shower.

Aug 12, 2016

Here in a thorough article from EarthSky.com we have all the information needed for observation of the Perseid Meteor Shower visible in the evening sky right now.
 
Like so many people, we love the annual August Perseid meteor shower. It takes place during the lazy, hazy days of summer, when many families are on vacation. What’s more luxurious than taking a siesta in the heat of the day and watching this summertime classic in the relative coolness of night? No matter where you live worldwide, the 2016 Perseid meteor shower peaks on the mornings of August 11, 12, and 13, with our nod for best morning going to August 12. On a dark, moonless night, you can often see 50 or many more meteors per hour from northerly latitudes. From southerly latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll enjoy the shower, too, with about one-third that many meteors. Fortunately, in 2016, the waning gibbous moon sets before the optimum predawn hours. So you’re guaranteed of dark skies in the wee morning hours for the 2016 Perseid meteor shower. Follow the links below to learn more.
 
When and how should I watch the Perseid meteor shower in 2016? Don’t wait until the peak nights of the 2016 Perseid shower to watch for the meteors. The Perseid shower rises gradually to a peak, then falls off rapidly afterwards. Although the meteor numbers increase after midnight, the Perseid meteors still start to fly at mid-to-late evening from northerly latitudes. South of the equator, the Perseids start to streak the sky around midnight.
 
Start watching in the first week of August, when the Delta Aquarid meteor shower is still rambling along steadily. In early August (and even through the peak nights), you’ll see the Perseids and Delta Aquarids together.
 
Keep watching in the second week of August, when the Perseids are rising to a peak.
Overall, Perseid meteors will be increasing in number from early August onward, and but moonlight will be increasing throughout this time. First quarter is August 10, 2016. That’s okay, because a first quarter moon sets around midnight, and …
 
The Perseids are best between midnight and dawn. The hours before dawn are the very best for watching the Perseids.
 
Don’t rule out early evenings, either. As a general rule, the Perseid meteors tend to be few and far between at nightfall and early evening. Yet, if fortune smiles upon you, you could catch an earthgrazer – a looooong, slow, colorful meteor traveling horizontally across the evening sky. Earthgrazer meteors are rare but memorable. Perseid earthgrazers can only appear at early to mid-evening, when the radiant point of the shower is close to the horizon.
 
Here’s how to watch in bright moonlight. Sit within a moon shadow, and otherwise enjoy an open view of sky.
 
As evening deepens into late night, and the meteor shower radiant climbs higher in the sky, more and more Perseid meteors streak the nighttime. The meteors don’t really start to pick up steam until after midnight, and usually don’t bombard the sky most abundantly until the wee hours before dawn.
 
Northern Hemisphere watchers might see 50 meteors per hour – or more – in a dark sky.
 
From mid-northern latitudes, the constellation Perseus, the stars Capella and Aldebaran, and the Pleiades cluster light up the northeast sky in the wee hours after midnight on August nights. The meteors radiate from Perseus.
 
General rules for Perseid-watching. No special equipment, or knowledge of the constellations, needed.
 
Find a dark, open sky to enjoy the show. An open sky is essential because these meteors fly across the sky in many different directions and in front of numerous constellations.
 
Give yourself at least an hour of observing time, for these meteors in meteor showers come in spurts and are interspersed with lulls. Remember, your eyes can take as long as 20 minutes to adapt to the darkness of night. So don’t rush the process.
 
Know that the meteors all come from a single point in the sky. If you trace the paths of the Perseid meteors backwards, you’d find they all come from a point in front of the constellation Perseus. Don’t worry about which stars are Perseus. Just enjoying knowing and observing that they all come from one place on the sky’s dome.
 
Enjoy the comfort of a reclining lawn chair. Bring along some other things you might enjoy also, like a thermos filled with a hot drink.
 
Remember … all good things come to those who wait. Meteors are part of nature. There’s no way to predict exactly how many you’ll see on any given night. Find a good spot, watch, wait. You’ll see some.
 
What’s the source of the Perseid meteor shower? Every year, from around July 17 to August 24, our planet Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle, the parent of the Perseid meteor shower. Debris from this comet litters the comet’s orbit, but we don’t really get into the thick of the comet rubble until after the first week of August. The bits and pieces from Comet Swift-Tuttle slam into the Earth’s upper atmosphere at some 130,000 miles (210,000 km) per hour, lighting up the nighttime with fast-moving Perseid meteors.
 
If our planet happens to pass through an unusually dense clump of meteoroids – comet rubble – we’ll see an elevated number of meteors. We can always hope!
 
Comet Swift-Tuttle has a very eccentric – oblong – orbit that takes this comet outside the orbit of Pluto when farthest from the sun, and inside the Earth’s orbit when closest to the sun. It orbits the sun in a period of about 133 years. Every time this comet passes through the inner solar system, the sun warms and softens up the ices in the comet, causing it to release fresh comet material into its orbital stream.
 
Comet Swift-Tuttle last reached perihelion – closest point to the sun – in December 1992 and will do so next in July 2126.
 
The radiant point for the Perseid meteor shower is in the constellation Perseus. But you don’t have to find a shower’s radiant point to see meteors. Instead, the meteors will be flying in all parts of the sky.
 
What is the radiant point for the Perseid meteor shower? If you trace all the Perseid meteors backward, they all seem to come from the constellation Perseus, near the famous Double Cluster. Hence, the meteor shower is named in the honor of the constellation Perseus the Hero.
 
However, this is a chance alignment of the meteor shower radiant with the constellation Perseus. The stars in Perseus are light-years distant while these meteors burn up about 100 kilometers (60 miles) above the Earth’s surface. If any meteor survives its fiery plunge to hit the ground intact, the remaining portion is called a meteorite. Few – if any – meteors in meteor showers become meteorites, however, because of the flimsy nature of comet debris. Most meteorites are the remains of asteroids.
 
In ancient Greek star lore, Perseus is the son of the god Zeus and the mortal Danae. It is said that the Perseid shower commemorates the time when Zeus visited Danae, the mother of Perseus, in a shower of gold.
 
Bottom line: The 2016 Perseid meteor shower will probably feature a good show on in the predawn hours of August 11, 12, and 13, with the nod going to the morning of August 12.
 

Image: 

Here’s a cool binocular object to look for while you’re watching the meteors. The constellation Cassiopeia points out the famous Double Cluster in northern tip of the constellation Perseus. Plus, the Double Cluster nearly marks the radiant of the Perseid meteor shower.

 




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