Andy’s Astronomy: Meteor Shower Begins Next Week
One of the best summer meteor showers is set to begin next Friday night.
The Perseids Meteor Shower begins July 17 typically ending on or about Aug. 24.
One of the best summer meteor showers is set to begin next Friday night.
The Perseids Meteor Shower begins July 17 typically ending on or about Aug. 24.
One of the more popular meteor showers, the Perseids will peak during the overnight hours of Aug. 12-13 with about 30-50 meteors per hour. Best viewing time is shortly before dawn of Aug. 13.
The meteor shower is known to produce meteors with long, bright trails mixed with some fireballs. The shower comes from the comet Swift-Tuttle which has a 133-year orbit around our Sun.
A new moon takes place during peak activity and if skies are clear this could be a great meteor shower to watch. Those with an action camera should consider setting up the camera pointing at the sky to capture peak activity.
Mixed in the Perseids could be a few meteors from the ongoing Alpha Capricornids Meteor Shower that started July 3 and ends on or about Aug. 15.
The next meteor shower will be the Southern Taurids that begin Sept. 20.
Meteors can flash across the sky anytime, day or night, and they are spotted quite often. Particularly bright meteors are often referred to as fireballs.
On June 24, a fireball was reported by 17 people across Florida.
The fireball was first reported at 9:50 pm by a skywatcher in Clearwater who reported, “At first, I thought it was a shooting star, but it didn’t fade away. It stayed bright and fell south of me beyond the horizon.” It was seen as far north as Jacksonville, as far east as Coral Springs, as far south as Marco Island, and as far west as Largo.
None of those spotting the fireball reported hearing noise associated with or seeing it fragment. The fireball appeared to travel from south-southwest to north-northeast.
Anyone seeing a fireball is urged to report the sighting to https://amsmeteors.org
Going outside and looking at the night sky can be fun and educational for the entire family.
There are a number of free apps available to help identify stars and constellations, and some of the apps will show satellites.
Happy skywatching!
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