It's Friday! No excuse not to stay up late and watch the show!
Got plans for this evening? Going to be out late? Don't forget to look up and see one of the universe's greatest shows! The Perseid meteor shower, so named because it appears to emanate from the constellation Perseus, will be at its peak tonight. We here at Tecca love?meteor showers, and this is one of the best opportunities to do some?star-gazing, as the weather's warm and hanging out outside all night isn't too onerous.
The nearly-full moon will likely wash out some of the dimmer meteors, but the weather is forecast to be pretty nice over a large swath of the country tonight. For the best view, try to get somewhere dark, away from city lights. You don't need any special equipment to view the meteors, but if you're feeling adventurous, you might want to bring along a camera and tripod and see if you can?get some good photographs. As an added treat, the International Space Station will be flying over the United States this evening, so check out the?Skywatch tracker to see if you can see it in your area.
Stargazing has also gone high-tech these days! Numerous?smartphone and tablet apps help you identify constellations and find all sorts of other astronomical information, and NASA will be hosting an 'Up All Night' web chat session with astronomer Bill Cooke and his team from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The experts will be on hand to answer questions and chat about the heavens tonight. NASA is also hosting a live video/audio feed of the meteor shower from a camera mounted at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Not only will you be able to watch the show, but you'll be able to hear the ethereal sounds of the meteors entering our atmosphere. They don't actually make noise that the camera picks up, of course, but the ionization of the air around them as they burn up in the atmosphere reflects radio waves back to the antenna, which is represented by the sounds you'll hear.
[Image credits:?European Southern Observatory,?NASA]
Post by Katherine Gray
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