Posted on 08/12/2010 10:18:45 PM PDT by Nachum
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Stargazers who cast their eyes skyward Thursday should enjoy two-for-one celestial treats.
A heavenly threesome will appear after dusk, when a trio of planets glides above a fragile crescent moon. Later, the fabled Perseid meteor shower will adorn the night with up to 50 shooting stars an hour.
"This is the astronomy night of the summer," said Arnold Pearlstein, who writes an astronomy column for the Sun Sentinel and teaches science for Miami-Dade schools. "The Perseid is one of the top showers of the year."
The show begins at twilight, with the glow of the setting sun still on the horizon. Three planets — Mars, Venus and Saturn — will gather in the west near a lopsided crescent moon like the discombobulated components of a celestial smiley face.
"This occurs every few years," Pearlstein said. "It just happens to be very convenient, and with the meteor shower, that’s just excellent timing."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
It’s overcast here.
An odd tradition, here at the fhayek family. Every August, me, and my daughters (I have four) trod out to view the annual meteror shower. They even look forward to it. I saw three tonight. The others saw half a dozen. My wife just rolls her eyes.
I went out with my sons and saw a few. Normally I love our street lights, but not tonight!
ping ..i missed it
I just see lightening.
The persids aren’t that great.
My wife and I climbed Mt. Ikoma in Japan to see the Leonids in 2002 (?) and it looked as if God had taken a monkeywrench to the night sky and scattered the debris to us, below. 10 meteors in one second.
What a show that was.
Coincidentally, I went to the huge Asuka museum in Osaka-fu/Nara in 1998 during the Persids and saw two meteors over 3 hours.
We have a clear sky here in Az, but it’s just reaching 10:30 and I saw only one meteor after about 15 min of star gazing.
Will go out in a little bit again, supposed to increase as the night grows older.
SF bay area update:
4 shooting stars
2 satellites
1 owl
Still early though. Will go out again after midnight.
Lucky you, you got to see something! Overcast in my neighborhood.
Happy Ramadadingdong! on this most holiest night of the Muzzie lunar calandar. Praise be to you Mohammad for caring for us for these past 800 years!
Actually, I was on a wonderful offshore sailing trip to Maine many years ago. We happened to draw the evening watch. The Persied metieors started streaking across the sky; the Northern Lights were in full bloom; and at about 1am the new moon started it’s accent into the night sky
Talk about beautiful, talk about almost orgasmic, it’s one of the prime visions in my dreams lo these 25 years later.
Happy Ramadingdong, you’re celestial bodies are aligned! Please don’t kill or mutilate, or be-hesd anyone on your night.
Thread and good info at link here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2569690/posts
It is overcast here but waiting for the usual 1am clearing.
Nice temp outside.
KV is in his specially adapted lung therapy lounge chair butted up against a window that is opened up (drop top paine) so he can see view the sky if he wants to.
Tommarrow is suppose to be clear and warm so he may choose to join me out on the deck for some star gazing.
I am going to go out around 1am and check out the open sky.
I have not been impressed with the show for years now hoping the fireballs show up along with the three planets above the crescant moon.
Star gazing. Good time to have quiet thank be to God prayer time.
Bad wifey.
Roll out some chocolate, wine and romance and see if she joins in.
/sarc
Just shoot ‘em out, it’s okay.
Had no luck here in MO - a friend saw one and I saw none in about 30 min.
Southern Oregon - saw 5 between 10 and 11:15 p.m.. Fun, but not seeing the predicted “60 per hour”. Will set alarm and go out at 3 a.m.
I saw several this morning when I took the pup out before 430 AM. I also saw several on the way to work.
The curious thing is that the majority were not aligned with the Perseus radiant, but traveled opposite or at right angles to Perseid tracks. The best meteors were crossing Cassiopeia from left to right. If I hadn't known it was the wrong time of year, I would have thought they were Ursids...
Bottom line: from my viewpoint, the Perseids have been a "bust" this year...
Did not see much where we were either. But, it was worth a shot.
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