Thursday, January 3, 2013
The Quadrantids - a short, but oft-impressive meteor shower - should dazzle tonight.
Keep an eye open for the first meteor shower of the year in the hours before dawn Friday. The Quadrantids meteor shower should be quite a show, with 60 - 200 meteors per hour, according to Space.com. The National Weather Service is forecasting clear skies (and temperatures in the high 20s), but a bright, waning gibbous moon may steal the show. Meteor showers are named after the constellations from which they seem to radiate - we had the Persieds, the Orionids, the Tuarids, the Leonids, all fairly straight forward. So where in the sky do the Quadrantids come from? Quadrans Muralis, of course. If you're scratching your head, it's OK. Quadrans Muralis is an obsolete constellation. The meteor shower was named in the 19th century, …
Friday, October 19, 2012
Don't fret, the National Weather Service says everything's going to be fine.
If you’re looking up and worried about your chances of catching the Orionids meteor shower tonight, don’t fret. Everything will be OK. At least the National Weather Service says it will. The meteor shower is set to peak before dawn on Saturday and Sunday. Despite the cloudy skies today and forecast for Saturday, when it matters, the skies should clear. A cold front is moving through the area, but it should keep on moving, heading offshore by Friday night, taking with it most of the clouds, according to NWS. Then, between midnight and dawn, look up. Meteors will be visible in all parts of the sky, but if you trace their paths, they will all look like they are coming fro a single point in the sky – the radiant point – and that’s in the …
Thursday, August 9, 2012
This weekend's biggest show is in the sky.
Earlier this week, the big news was on Mars as the world watched the Curiosity Mars rover speed through that planet’s thin atmosphere at 13,000 mph, before being lowered down to Red Planet's surface. This weekend, the show is in our very own sky. The Perseid Meteor Shower 2012 hits its stride this weekend, late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. And what stride it will be: according to NASA, expect up to 100 meteors per hour. As an extra bonus, a waning crescent moon means that moonlight won’t completely overwhelm the meteors as they shoot across the sky. Where do you plan to go to watch the Perseids? Let us know in the comments. Like all meteor showers, the Perseid shower is named after the constellation that the meteors appear to …
