Posted on 06/01/2022 4:20:10 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: It wasn't the storm of the century -- but it was a night to remember. Last night was the peak of the Tau Herculids meteor shower, a usually modest dribble of occasional meteors originating from the disintegrating Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. This year, calculations showed that the Earth might be passing through a particularly dense stream of comet debris -- at best creating a storm of bright meteors streaking out from the constellation of Hercules. What actually happened fell short of a meteor storm, but could be called a decent meteor shower. Featured here is a composite image taken at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, USA accumulated over 2.5 hours very late on May 30. Over that time, 19 Tau Herculids meteors were captured, along with 4 unrelated meteors. (Can you find them?) In the near foreground is the Bok 2.3-meter Telescope with the 4.0-meter Mayall Telescope just behind it. Next year, the annual Tau Herculids are expected to return to its normal low rate, with the next active night forecast for 2049.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Thank you.
Will there be a few stragglers tonight, or is it over until next time? I completely forgot and missed it . . .
I think there could be stragglers. Best time is midnight until sunrise. That is the time when the overhead sky is in the direction the Earth is travelling around the sun. Kind of like how bugs hit your windshield, but not your back window when you drive. Midnight until noon is when overhead is in the direction of travel, but meteors are only visible during the night portion of that time.
Thanks! I’ll give a look-see tonight. Meantime, I’ve been admiring Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in the early morning sky.
Aliens firing at the Kitt Peak military base.
That dome does not have a telescope but a phaser.
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