Perseid Meteor Shower To Peak This Weekend 118
Krishna Dagli writes "This weekend provides one of the year's best opportunities to see some "shooting stars". The annual Perseid meteor display is expected to peak on Friday and Saturday night. Meteors are bits of dust or rock that plunge into the Earth's atmosphere and burn up, making bright streaks in the sky. It does not take a large object to produce a visible meteor — most are the size of a grain of sand or a small pebble."
Erm.. (Score:2, Informative)
Plus you know it is sort of Sunday here in the UK, doesn't that make this news story rather useless to a large population of the readers (not to mention Americans who will be sleeping at 11pm - Guy trying to be funny. It's not funny that Slashdotters sit up late, save the joke).
We dont like the Moon! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Late Late Late (Score:5, Informative)
I've seen the Perseid shower before, on Boy Scout trips as a youth, but watching it with my own son would be quite an experience. Oh well, this story at least reminded me of it, so maybe I'll be able to prepare to see it next year.
Sucked this year (Score:2, Informative)
closing anchor tags (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Late Late Late (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids [wikipedia.org]. He can see them next year. I agree, though, it would've been nice to have a more timely reminder.
Re:Late Late Late (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not merely 3rd grade science... (Score:5, Informative)
That's not true. The distinction between a meteor and a meteorite is that meteors do not fall all the way to the ground, and meteorites do.
This also isn't true. Stuff continues to move out there, so we don't pass through the exact same spot in the debris trail every year. How big the meteor shower is varies from year to year.
I'll let somebody else point out that the orbit is 133 years, not 150.
Re:Late Late Late (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Late Late Late (Score:2, Informative)
This [bbc.co.uk] would have told you in plenty of time, for instance - I think it was there before the end of my work-day on Wednesday.
Unfortuntately it's been way too cloudy here (NE England) to see anything, after 2 months of cloudless skies....
Re:Jeez (Score:4, Informative)
Yay for dumbing down science for the masses.
Re:Your signature (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Late Late Late (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Late Late Late (Score:3, Informative)
a. Skyline Drive
b. Blue Ridge Parkway
c. move
Re:Others this year? (Score:3, Informative)
The Leonids, Geminids, and Orionids are the next biggest showers. You can find out here:
Meteor Shower article. [earthsky.org]
Re:Late Late Late (Score:3, Informative)
Re:We dont like the Moon! (Score:4, Informative)
Hard to Breathe? (Score:3, Informative)
FAA regulations are overly cautious due to other circumstances which could create compound problems in which lives would be at stake. FAR 91.211 says that oxygen is required after 30 minutes of flying between 12,500 and 14,000 feet, or immediately when flying above 14,000 feet in a non-pressurized cabin. Supplemental oxygen is only suggested for flying at 10,000 feet during daylight, or 6,000 at night. But that's just a suggestion, not a requirement.
As for hypoxia during star gazing at 14,000 feet, this isn't a vigorous activity we're talking about. You'd likely not be starved for oxygen by merely laying on the ground.
Of course, none of this considers that the person who did the star gazing may have been acclimated to the altitude by spending months or years in high altitudes. When I was a kid in Colorado I saw more stars than I've ever seen anywhere else.