dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (08/10/85)
We're now near the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. More -- in a minute. August 10 Observing the Perseids The next two nights are good opportunities to try to watch a meteor shower. The meteors in this particular shower are called the Perseids, because they appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus. Meteors are also called "shooting stars" -- and during this shower they may be seen at a rate of about one per minute in a very dark country sky. Though they had a very strong year in 1980 -- and have tapered off each year since then -- the Perseids still are one of the best showers of the year. The peak of the Perseids is Monday morning around dawn. Unfortunately, this year, the moon is in the way again -- in the sky in the hours after midnight. To see the Perseids this year, you might try getting out in the country in late evening Saturday or Sunday night -- to watch for meteors before moonrise. All meteor showers, including the Perseids, have their own distinct personalities. Perseid meteors come in a variety of colors -- which is different from, say, the Geminid meteors, which are almost all plain white. Perseid meteors are like nature's own fireworks that sometimes explode as they fall. But you never seem to hear them explode -- and you never find any fragments of the Perseids lying around on the ground. Like all meteors in annual showers, the Perseid display stems from Earth's encounter with a swarm of icy particles-- debris left in space by the passage of a comet. In the case of the Perseids, the comet is Swift-Tuttle -- now overdue for its own return near the sun. More on that tomorrow. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin