The next 24 hours are going to be a real treat for sky-watchers. First, this evening, the Moon and three planets — Venus, Mars and Saturn — will line up for a quadruple conjunction in the western sky. NASA writes:
The show begins at sundown when Venus, Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon pop out of the western twilight in tight conjunction. All four heavenly objects will fit within a circle about 10 degrees in diameter, beaming together through the dusky colors of sunset. No telescope is required to enjoy this naked-eye event: sky map.
Meanwhile, as that’s happening, Perseid Earthgrazers are a real possibility. And then…
The planets will hang together in the western sky until 10 pm or so. When they leave, following the sun below the horizon, you should stay, because that is when the Perseid meteor shower begins [in earnest]. From 10 pm until dawn, meteors will flit across the starry sky in a display that’s even more exciting than a planetary get-together. …
2010 is a good year for Perseids because the Moon won’t be up during the midnight-to-dawn hours of greatest activity. Lunar glare can wipe out a good meteor shower, but that won’t be the case this time.
As Perseus rises and the night deepens, meteor rates will increase. For sheer numbers, the best time to look is during the darkest hours before dawn on Friday morning, Aug. 13th, when most observers will see dozens of Perseids per hour.
According to SpaceWeather.com, there have already been reports — on the last few, pre-peak nights — of “more than 35 Perseids per hour, including many fireballs.” Tonight is the peak of the shower, so meteor counts should be even higher.
NASA adds, “For best results, get away from city lights. The darkness of the countryside multiplies the visible meteor rate 3- to 10-fold.” As it happens, I’ll be up in the mountains, and I’m definitely planning on doing more sky-watching than sleeping tonight!
P.S. If you’re going to be sky-watching too, you should check Heavens-Above to see if there will be any ISS or other satellite passes, or Iridium flares, visible from your location. For me, an artificial “meteor” will add to the Perseid scene at 4:26 AM when Iridium 62 flares overhead.
Images courtesy of IceInSpace, NASA/MSFC/Bill Cooke, and Nick Ares.
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I froze my ass off last night, in a t-shirt and shorts, looking up at the sky. I saw one cool meteor go straight across my house, but that’s pretty much it. I thought I saw some out of the corner of my eye, but I’m pretty sure that was just wishful thinking. I guess I should’ve gone to Joshua Tree to seem them.
I was out of doors last night. Unfortunately, 75-100% of the sky was covered by clouds (started out at 75, and then it rained on us in the end.
So no celestial events here.
I was looking up at the sky and I think I was struck by lightning. Then I got really smart and started inventing super crazy energy devices and messing with government missile silos and predicting earthquakes and being telepathic and hanging out with Forest Whitaker and buying some dingbat’s furniture.
Turns out it wasn’t lightning — I had a brain tumor. So then I started doing really stupid things like being a Scientologist and making “Battlefield Earth”.
Driving back from Tempe to San Bernardino between 1 AM and 6 AM this morning (Aug 15) I saw some meteors..a couple per hour…….