Tonight is going to be a huge meteor shower. Friday August 13 is when the annual Perseids 2010 shower will be happening. This year will be better than most as the moon won’t be in the sky to distract from the Perseids 2010 meteors. Head out of the city at about midnight and from then until dawn hits, 75 meteors per hour could be seen in the super dark sky. You don’t even have to get a telescope.
Now there is the Perseids 2010 meteor watch
Perseids 2010 is a huge end to a wonderful summer full of stargazing and could be happening tonight. NASA reports the show begins at sundown when Venus, Saturn, Mars and also the crescent Moon materialize above the western horizon clustered together in a “tight conjunction.”. Perseids 2010 starts after these all fall below the horizon, which should be about 10 p.m.. If you want to know where you need to be looking at 10 p.m. for the meteors to start raining, try looking at the Perseus constellation. The sky will get darker and Perseus will go higher in the sky before meteors start coming down at a faster rate. If you are hoping you will be able to meteor watch and want to know the best time, well then right before dawn on Friday morning there can be one meteor a minute coming down.
A few tips for watching meteors
Tips for watching meteors and enjoying them probably the most are given by Alan Boyle from MSNBC. Get away from the light pollution causing the sky to be lit up all night in the cities. Find some place that is at a higher elevation. You’ll need something to keep you warm and to lie on when being on your car up against windshields. Stay warm with the clothes you wear. It will help to get some mood music to play. Get there in enough time that your eyes can adjust to the dark and look up. The Perseids 2010 won’t get really good until after midnight. The meteor show’s peak will be happening right before the sun rises.
Suggestions for photographing the meteors
The big meteor shower tonight is an excellent photo op. Tips are given on photography from Pop Photo. City lights could really hurt the picture with long-exposures and wide-open apertures. Your finger on a shutter button will really help keep the images from being blurred with a cable release. Try to keep away from getting light streaks within the picture by putting something in the foreground. Find the right ISO and exposure time with a wide, fast lens to help take the picture. Just keep taking pictures.
Perseids 2010 can be better than normal
Perseids 2010 is happening since the Swift-Tuttle comet is something Earth is just passing through again. We only see the Swift-Tuttle comet every 135 years when it gets close to sun so it can heat up and spew dust, reports the Christian Monitor. 1992 was when the comet was last seen. Each pass of the comet slowly thickens the dust stream it leaves behind. The dust stream Swift-Tuttle has left behind is denser than usual, and Earth will pass through that.
Further reading
NASA
science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/05aug_perseids/” href=”http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/05aug_perseids/
MSNBC
cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/11/4869749-see-and-hear-the-meteor-show
Pop Photo
popphoto.com/features/how/2010/08/how-photographing-perseid-meteor-shower
Christian Science Monitor
csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0812/Meteor-shower-August-2010-how-you-can-get-the-best-view
