Rare Meteor Shower Early Saturday Morning

[bananas]

Source: KGO

Scientists Ask For Help Documenting It
By Terry McSweeney

Aug. 31, 2007 (KGO) - A very rare meteor shower will take place in the skies early Saturday morning and scientists are asking for the public's help in documenting this event. You may never get the chance to see the meteor shower again, because it won't be back until next century at the earliest.

The Aurigids meteor shower will occur tomorrow morning from about 4:00 to 5:00 am. Brighter and more active than the recent Perseid meteor shower we saw a few weeks ago, or the Leonid meteor shower.

Scientists will take to the skies tomorrow morning and follow the meteor shower across the western United States from 45,000 feet.

The Kees comet passed by the sun 2,000 years ago and emitted dust particles from its crust which are entering the earth's orbit again tomorrow morning.

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Read more: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5622605

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This is this morning - the next couple of hours - in case anyone is awake.

[bananas]

1. more info - "Only three people alive today are known to have seen this shower"

Find out if there are clear dark skies near you: http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/

Star chart and more info at msnbc.com: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/08/31/342203.aspx


This sky chart shows the radiant for the Aurigid meteor shower, due to hit
its peak Saturday. Aurigids appear to emanate from a central point, but
they can appear anywhere in the sky. Click on the image for a larger chart.

Will they or won’t they? Meteors are expected to light up the sky in a rare, brief burst at around 4:36 a.m. PT Saturday. Most years, the Aurigid meteor shower is little more than a weak dribble, but this year Earth is projected to go right through the heart of the debris stream that causes the celestial display. Or so the experts say. To document how it turns out, they’re asking skywatchers to catch a falling star or two with their cameras.

Professional astronomers are already on the alert for Aurigid sightings, from the ground and from the air.

"Two airplanes full of advanced instruments will fly from east to west 300 kilometers (185 miles) apart, while groups from Northern Ireland and Germany will work scores of video cameras from Lick Observatory and Fremont Park here in California," German astronomer Daniel Fischer wrote in a posting to the Meteorobs discussion forum.

Meteor showers come about when Earth passes through the streams of cosmic grit left behind by comets intersecting our planet's orbital path. The orbit varies slightly from year to year, and this year Earth looks set to go through the trail left behind by Comet Kiess, according to the SETI Institute's Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer specializing in meteors.

"Only three people alive today are known to have seen this shower before in 1935, 1986, and 1994," Jenniskens wrote during the buildup to Saturday's peak. "After the 2007 encounter, the Aurigids will not be seen again in our lifetimes."

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[pinto]

3. The cleardarksky website is incredible. Thanks.

http://www.cleardarksky.com/csk

[pinto]

2. Thanks for the heads up. Here's a little more info (Nat'l Geo)

Rare Aurigid Meteor Shower to Appear Saturday
Anne Minard
for National Geographic News

August 30, 2007
A meteor shower on Saturday morning will present a rare greeting from the distant Oort cloud located at the far edges of our solar system.

The two-hour Aurigid meteor shower is predicted to peak around 4:30 a.m. Pacific daylight time on September 1, peppering Earth's sky with up to 200 shooting stars an hour.

But unlike most of these light shows, which are caused by the trails of comets that loop around the sun in a couple hundred years, the Aurigids are castoffs from a so-called long-period comet that orbits the sun once every 2,000 years.

(Related: "Perseid Meteor Shower to Peak This Weekend" .)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070810-perseid-meteor.html

The meteor shower therefore represents a unique opportunity to study the far reaches of the solar system, scientists say.



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070830-aurigids-meteors.html

[bananas]

4. I just saw one a couple minutes ago

it was low in the sky directly east
very fast and bright
going back outside...

[pinniped]

5. I can see the moon and it looks like blurry swiss cheese.

I missed the lunar eclipse last week as well.

[lapfog_1]

6. From my vantage in SE Arizona

I saw quite a few large "shooting stars"!

I took my niece out (4:30am) here, and between us, we saw maybe 20 meteors...

Moonlight and broken clouds too.

She had a great time!

[postulater]

7. I bet you had a great time too!

Lucky!:hug:

[bananas]

8. That's great! I saw another 3. nt

[Catshrink]

9. I'm also in Arizona..

but couldn't see any because of cloud cover. The one night there's cloud cover in Arizona!