The Perseids are coming!

  Wow it's been a while since I've put up a new post, been busy with a bunch of stuff over the past few months. I hope to be able to start posting on here a lot more often, we have some cool astronomy happenings coming up later this year. More on that in a later post.

 For now lets focus on what's going on in the near future: the Perseid meteor shower. It's that time of year again for one of the most spectacular meteor shows of the year, perhaps second only to the December Geminids. The Perseids run from mid July to late August, and peak on August 11-13. They originate from the tail remanents of Comet Swift-Tuttle and are notable for producing very bright meteor streaks in the sky. The Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, from which they get their name, and the expected hourly rate this year is anywhere from 60 to 100 per hour.

 So when and where to look? Start this weekend on the night of the 11th/morning of the 12th. The young crescent moon will have set before midnight, so begin your search then. The radiant in Perseus will be low in the sky toward the northeast, but the meteors can and will appear from anywhere in the sky. The best times to watch will be in the early morning hours of the 12th and 13th.

 Have fun and get out your cameras. You might be able to get a quick pic of a meteor. Because it is impossible to anticipate when and where a meteor will appear, you will have to take many pictures over a long period and hope to capture one. Use a wide angle lens or set your zoom to it's widest point. Use a tripod or lay your camera on a flat surface pointing up. Set it to take several 10-20 second exposures at a high ISO setting. Afterwards, you can look though your images and hopefully you'll have a nice meteor surprise!