New Meteor Shower on Tap Tonight: How to See It (Friday & Saturday)

Discovery ^ | May 23, 2014 | by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist

[bd476]

Tonight's meteor shower is both a rare event and opportunity. Enjoy!

Comet 209P/Linear 20 May 2014

[Vinnie]

Heard prediction of 1k/hr. That would be fantabulous.

[T-Bird45]

It would be even better if we weren’t under a heavy cloud cover — guess I’ll have to go with the online observatory.

[21twelve]

My daughter and I will be heading out over the mountains to the clear skies of Eastern Washington to watch it. I hope the drive is worth it!

[VanDeKoik]

Already getting set up! The sky looks like it’s going to be clear and dark here in W. Michigan.

[bd476]

"Fantabulous" yes, indeed! :) I hope everyone has a chance to see it.

[eyedigress]

I remember watching a meteor shower from my roof in the early 90’s.

I lived way out in the desert and me and my friends set up chairs over the apex with a cooler of beer at hand. It was quite a show!

[bd476]

Fantastic! It will be fun to hear what you saw, your impressions whenever you get a chance, later, tomorrow, whenever.

[bd476]

Sounds like great fun. Around here to get away from all the city lights, you have drive out miles away and into the wilderness, into bear, coyote and mountain lion country. That means it’s roof of the car or nothing, and even then, it’s still can be a little spooky.

[DannyTN]

Beers, chairs on the apex of a roof, leaning back watching the stars.

What could possibly go wrong?

[eyedigress]

I’ll try to catch this one. I am a little close to the city here in NC but since I had to travel to Clemson and back today I’m also a bit tired.

Thanks for the heads up. These events can be quite spectacular, esp out west. :^)

[eyedigress]

LOL! I had one flat roof over the laundry room for access. 8ft step ladder and up you go. Peeing off the flat top was allowed for this event only.

If you fall, remember to bring up more beer...

[bd476]

Tonight is supposed to be the big show yet they say that tomorrow will also be good. Whatever you do, please don’t drive while drowsy. :) There are also going to be live streaming videos available to see.

[VanDeKoik]

Will do! :)

[eartrumpet]

Good night vision equipment easily triples the sightings. Good IR scopes drop sightings to zero.

[amihow]

My friends and I. :-)

[Yosemitest]

Be sure to watch for the unusual meteorite showers from Comet 209P Linear's old trails, TONIGHT just after 01:21 AM Eastern Time until 04:17 AM Eastern Time.
I think a lot of us will have cloud cover tonight.

We enter that debris trail May 23 through May 25, 2013, for 30 hours, with the peak density forecasted May 24, 2014 at the 7th hour Universal Time,

which should be 1 am Central Daylight Savings TIme.

3 Hours, 52 minutes, and 50 seconds of debris we'll be traveling through, with the center of the peak at 7:21 UT would mean

we would enter the dark area at 11:25 pm Central Daylight Time, May 23, 2014,
and come out of the dark area at 3:17 am Central Daylight Time, May 24, 2014.

A few things to look at and consider:

Comet 209P/LINEAR Earth Flyby Simulation ( 0:26 )
By SpaceRef on May 18, 2014
This simulation was created by Associate Professor Paul Wiegert of Western University's Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX).
It shows the path of Comet 209P/Linear.
The resulting Carmelopardalis meteor shower scheduled to peak overnight on May 23rd could be spectacular for residents of North America.


The Changing Orbit of Comet 209P/LINEAR
By AstroGrav on May 16, 2014
An AstroGrav video that shows a simulation of the changing orbit of Comet 209P/LINEAR between the years AD 1700 and AD 2100.
The comet's orbit is currently inclined at an angle of approximately 20 degrees to the Earth's orbit,
and the omega symbols on its orbit indicate the ascending node and the descending node,
which are the points where it crosses the plane of the Earth's orbit.
To the left, the comet is above the plane of the Earth's orbit, and to the right, the comet is below the plane of the Earth's orbit.

In AD 1700, the points where the comet crossed the plane of the Earth's orbit were very far from the Earth's orbit.
As time passes, the comet's orbit is significantly changed due mainly to the gravitational influence of the planet Jupiter,
and as a consequence, the points where the comet crosses the plane of the Earth's orbit move significantly.
By AD 1787, one of these points (the descending node) had moved very close to the Earth's orbit, and is visible below the Sun in this video.
It stayed in this position until AD 1845, when it moved away.
In AD 2012, the descending node again moved very close to the Earth's orbit, and is visible below the centre of Monoceros in this video.
It will remain in this position until AD 2046.
There is no possibility of a collision with the Earth, because the comet and the Earth always arrive at the comet's descending node on different dates.

Comet 209P/LINEAR is the comet associated with the Camelopardalid meteor shower of 23rd/24th May 2014.


QUESTIONS: Comet 209P/LINEAR
Feb 27, 2014 By Yosemitest

Comet 209P/LINEAR ( 23:30 )
Uploaded on Mar 2, 2014
STEREO image astrometric solution:
http://nova.astrometry.net/user_image…
Astrometrically solved 209P/LINEAR image:
http://nova.astrometry.net/user_image…
209P/LINEAR Orbital solutions and ephemeris using amateur data:
http://dropcanvas.com/00pj5

Camelopardalids Meteor Shower's Parent Comet Imaged | Exclusive Interview( 6:55 )
VideoFromSpace, Published on May 23, 2014
Astronomer Carl Hergenrother first photographed Comet 209P/LINEAR in September 2013 and again in May 2014 (seen in video).
The possible meteor shower may hold clues to how active the comet was in the past.

Here's the Live Streaming Event Link

Comet 209P/LINEAR Special
Slooh, Scheduled for May 23, 2014
On the night of May 23rd, a new meteor shower will appear in the night sky with potential to become a full meteor storm as debris from Comet 209P/LINEAR passes by Earth this month.
Slooh will cover this possible meteor storm and the parent comet live as it draws closer to Earth than any other point during its orbit.
Slooh will broadcast the comet event from telescopes located off the west coast of Africa in the Canary Islands on May 23rd starting at 3 PM PDT / 6 PM EDT / 22 UTC,
then will follow up with live coverage of the new meteor shower starting at 8 PM PDT/ 11 PM EDT/ 03 UTC (5/24).
Viewers can watch free on Slooh.com and ask questions during the comet show by using hashtag #slooh.
The live image stream of Comet 209P/LINEAR will be accompanied by discussions
led by Slooh host Geoff Fox,
Slooh observatory director Paul Cox with special guests from NASA,
including meteor expert astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens,
and Asteroid Grand Challenge Program Executive, Jason Kessler.
The live meteor shower stream from North America will be accompanied by expert audio from Slooh astronomer Bob Berman.

[eyedigress]

That sentence seems to be missing some parts. :^)

[The Cajun]

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