This year's Perseid meteor shower could be even better than usual. "A filament of comet dust has drifted across Earth's path and when Earth passes through it, sometime between 0800 and 0900 UT (1 - 2 am PDT) on August 12th, the Perseid meteor rate could surge to twice its normal value," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. The following profile is based on the debris stream models of veteran forecasters Jeremie Vaubaillon and Mikhail Maslov:



The filament was shed by Perseid parent comet Swift-Tuttle in the year 1610, and this is one of Earth's first encounters with it. "In addition," notes Cooke, "the main Perseid debris stream, which we run into every year, may be denser than normal due to a gravitational enhancement by Saturn. The total combination of these effects could result in as many as 200 meteors per hour (ZHR)."

Bright moonlight will overwhelm the outburst's fainter Perseids, but even a fraction of 200 is a good show.

Brian Emfinger of Ozark, Arkansas, photographed this early Perseid just after midnight on Sunday, July 26th:

"I used an off-the-shelf digital camera to capture this fireball and its smoky trail," says Emfinger. "It was a bright one!"

Wots the time in english? Never heard of 'ut' or 'pdt?!

UT is Universal time (Grenwich Time) PDT is Pacific Daylight time.

Will this be visable in daylight?

"The Perseid meteor shower actually starts in late July and runs to late August. However, the best time to view is around the peak.

It’s not precise, but the 2009 peak is expected on August 12th at around 15.00 hours UT. There is some uncertainty, so it’s very worthwhile to observe either side of this.

In particular for European observers, the hours of darkness either side the peak hours, may well prove more fruitful! So try the previous Tuesday night, as well as the night of Wednesday 12th.

And there is also a potentially prominent Moon to contend with. It will not set below the horizon until the early hours of the morning."

Source

Damn clouds

Saw a plane lol....but nothing more

See any Ravens?

Raisins?



Nope. No raisins

Once again Joe shows his unequaled ability for hearing it oh so wrong...

Dragged myself out of the pit and sat in the garden for about 10mins. around 0345hrs this morning. Worth the effort though. Saw 5 meteors after the eyes had become adjusted.

About 3/8 cloud cover, so not bad conditions. The moon was up which "spoilt" the sky a bit. One of the meteors was very bright which left a short lived trail behind it.

Saw one satelite passing over. If there's not much cloud about tonight, I might drag the deck chair out and tool myself up with a flask of coffee and biscuits and have another go. It's FREE !!

If the sky is clear tonight, I might do the same....but not at 3:45am

Had a look last night.

Saw a few, but didn't know exactly where to look.

Tried to get a few pictures, will have a look if any turned out later, but I doubt it lol

couldn't see any cause we were surrounded by cloud. it always happens when something's in the sky.

wow! I did get a picture of one

This must av been what all the weirdo's were down New Brighton front for at stupid hours the other night looooooool!