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Meteor Outburst Possible Tonight

S.B.G

S.B.G

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Sep 8, 2010
26,921
11,006
Detroit
I received this SpaceWeather update today and though I am normally asleep between 2am and 4am, I think I'll try to be up for this. If their forecast pans out, it should make for an entertaining show, especially since the weather in my area is supposed to be clear skies.

This weekend, Earth will pass through a stream of debris from Comet 209P/LINEAR. If forecasters are correct, the encounter could produce an outburst of bright meteors numbering more than 200 per hour. Most models agree that peak rates should occur between the hours of 0600 UT and 0800 UT (2 a.m. and 4 a.m. EDT) on Saturday morning, May 24th, a time frame that favors observers in North America. It is worth noting, however, that Earth has never encountered this stream of debris before, so forecasters cannot be certain of their predictions. The display could be a complete dud, a fantastic "meteor storm," or anything in between. Visit http://spaceweather.com for full coverage.
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I've really been into space stuff recently, thanks for letting us know! Going to call my buddy and see if he's down to stay up for this :D
 
i saw some of The Perseids last year when i was in Texas but it was much darker down there, over here you can barely see stars unless its perfectly clear.
 
carjakester said:
i saw some of The Perseids last year when i was in Texas but it was much darker down there, over here you can barely see stars unless its perfectly clear.
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Do you have a lot of urban light pollution then?
 
One of these days, I'd really like to buy a nice telescope too. I looked briefly on Amazon.com and saw a couple of nice ones... Expensive too.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
Do you have a lot of urban light pollution then?
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When I lived in Vegas, I had to drive at least 40 miles in any direction out of town to get away from the light pollution.

Actually, scratch that. I could only drive southeast and southwest. Southeast took me down into the dam, back up, then back down again, so the mountains could obscure the lights from Vegas.

Going southwest on I-15, I had to drive into California to get away from both the lights in Vegas, and the casinos at Primm/State Line. Mountain pass was up that way, so it was a 3000ft climb up then back down to have the mountains obscure it then as well.

Up here in Sacramento it isn't as bad, but we still have some decent pollution. I should be able to see it from here.

BL.
 
bradl said:
When I lived in Vegas, I had to drive at least 40 miles in any direction out of town to get away from the light pollution.

Actually, scratch that. I could only drive southeast and southwest. Southeast took me down into the dam, back up, then back down again, so the mountains could obscure the lights from Vegas.

Going southwest on I-15, I had to drive into California to get away from both the lights in Vegas, and the casinos at Primm/State Line. Mountain pass was up that way, so it was a 3000ft climb up then back down to have the mountains obscure it then as well.

Up here in Sacramento it isn't as bad, but we still have some decent pollution. I should be able to see it from here.

BL.
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When I lived in California, in the High Desert, I'd be up on the top of the mountain ranges at night calling in air strikes, there was no urban light anywhere. The view of the sky was simply amazing.

Tonight I saw one streak of a shooting star and several faint flashes of light. From my vantage point, this was a dud of a shower. But it was still nice to be out and see some stars. Though there was some mild urban light pollution and obstructions by my building and trees, but I still had a good amount of sky to look at.
 
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