Meteor Showers

The Geminid meteor shower is coming!  One of the best meteor showers of the year peaks in the early morning of December 14^th.   You have the Perseids in August, the Leonids in November – now it is December and here come the Geminids.  Meteor showers get their name from the constellations they seem to come out of.  Perseids come from near the constellation Perseus – kind of in between Perseus and Cassiopeia, but closer to Perseus.  The Leonids seem to radiate from the constellation Leo.  So – following that train of thought, the Geminids are found shooting out from the constellation Gemini.  All three of these famous meteor showers happen around the middl e of the month they are associated with – so remember next August – the Perseids can really be spectacular.  I remember one year laying on a lawn chair to watch Earthgrazer meteors streak across the sky.  An Earthgrazer is a meteor that skims along the Earth's atmosphere like a stone skipping on a pond.  They are big, bright, and very pretty.  Earthgrazers appear with the meteor shower is near the horizon.  This shoots the meteors more horizontally rather than coming down at a more vertical trajectory.

 

Head outside Thursday night after 10 p.m. and look toward the constellation Gemini.  If you can't find Gemini – look for Orion.  Almost anyone can find Orion's belt – Gemini is not as easy to spot. Gemini is close to Orion.  After midnight the number of meteors seen per hour will increase until dawn Friday morning.

 

There are a lot of fun websites about meteors and space things.  There is one place where you can find the "near Earth objects."  That can get a little freaky to read what is coming close and when.

 

Here are some links of interest.  The first one is a story on this year's Geminids.  You can sign up with NASA for email alerts for anything space related.  For the next couple nights – you can go outside to spot the space station flying over.

 

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03dec_asteroidshower.htm

Info on the Geminids next week

 

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+States

Go here – click on your state – click on the city (or closest to you) this will show when the International Space Station is flying over.  I missed it early last evening -- I have another couple chances -- today and Thursday.

 

http://www.spaceweather.com/

Go here to find out about the latest on Sun spots, near Earth asteroids, and see some really cool photo galleries of space related objects and clouds.

 

Now if I can get everyone in the neighborhood to turn off their outside lights!!!