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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Watch the Meteor Shower... or listen to it!

Tonight we plunge through the thickest part of the Swift-Tuttle dust cloud giving us a better than usual night sky show.
The crescent moon will slip below the horizon around midnight leaving us with a clear field of view so start watching the show as soon as it gets dark with it peaking between 2 and 4am.
The build up to tonight has been great with last night’s show giving about 20-30 per hour. Tonight could see 90-100! The further away from light pollution you are the better viewing you will have since the fainter meteors will also be visible. On a clear night smoke trails may actually be visible when baseball to basketball sized meteors shoot through the atmosphere.
For those in areas with clouds obstructing the show you can actually listen to all the action as the meteors sizzle their way through. Space Weather Radio has a great link to the Air Force Space Surveillance Radar where you can hear echos of passing dust and rock particles impacting the atmosphere. To hear the meteor shower tonight click here.
NASA operates a sky cam in Walker County, Georgia which videos anything bright that impacts the sky such as lightning, satellites, planes and of course meteors. Click this link to see the Meteor Cam.
The sky is predicted to be clear in both northern and southern Ontario tonight so grab a lawn chair and look up.