The 2007 Perseid Meteor Shower
Saw at least 15 meteor's last night at the annual Star-b-que in Nor Cal. *AMAZING* The legendary Perseid meteor shower will peak tonight. It’s expected to display the greatest number of meteors Sunday morning (August 12), late Sunday night and Monday morning (August 13) before dawn. Try to get away from the city lights for best viewing.
This is one of the best shower of the year. The source of the shower is Comet Swift-Tuttle. Although the comet is nowhere near Earth, the comet's wide tail does intersect Earth's orbit. We glide through it every year in July and August. Tiny bits of comet dust hit Earth's atmosphere traveling 132,000 mph. At that speed, even a tiny smidgen of dust makes a vivid streak of light--a meteor--when it disintegrates. The shower is most intense when Earth is in the dustiest part of the tail.
Perseid meteors fly out of the constellation Perseus, hence their name. The best time to watch is during the hours before sunrise when Perseus is high in the sky (use a sky map, many avilable on the web).
Happy Star Gazing!
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