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June 2009
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The Aurigid meteor storm is nearly upon us! And the weather may cooperate. More than 2,000 years ago the comet Kiess passed by the sun, and left behind a debris trail in its wake. That debris has been drifting toward the Earth ever since, and will pass into Earth's orbit around 4:00am this Saturday morning, September 1st. So you can expect to start seeing shooting stars around 4am - or can you? Scientists have such limited experience with this specific type of debris field that they're not sure if the meteor storm will definitely materialize. So there could be nothing - or it could be incredible. We all just have to wait and see. And so if it does happen...crossing my fingers here...it will start around 4am, and last until around 5am. The guess is that there will be around 100 shooting stars in that hour. We'll have some clouds pushing through, but it should be clear enough so that you'll be able to catch a glimpse of some of these meteors. And if you don't try to see it tonight, you won't have a chance to do it again. This will be the only time in our lives that Comet Kiess will provide us with a meteor storm. I'm confident enough in my forecast of a semi-clear sky that I'll be waking up to watch these shooting stars - here's hoping I'll get the forecast right. =) To read more about this meteor storm, you can check out this NASA webpage. 11 CommentsLeave a comment |
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Woke up at 3:00 AM. Have been watching and watching and watching. Have seen ONE meteor !! Listening to Roswell Texas echoes and hear very little. Maybe in my next lifetime :)
We live in Prineville, OR...the High Desert...out of town. No lights detracting from watching the infamous meteor shower. Someone is playing tricks on us. We got up at 3 a.m....watched and waited; saw ONE tiny meteor, that was it. Very disappointing!!!
Thanks for the comments, Jack and Len!
I agree, not much going on out there! Woke up a bit later than both of you - around 3:45am - and then watched and waited. Saw probably around 5 good streaks, but that was about it. Maybe we should have called it 'meteor drizzle' instead of 'meteor storm.' =)
Joe M.
I'm glad I wasn't alone . I was up at 4 am in Albany and didn't see a thing
We got up at 4am and saw 5 (suburban Vancouver)... went back to bed!
Ha, the overall theme I'm feeling here from all of you is 'this thing stunk.' =)
Joe M.
About half a hour ago my daughter and the neighbor saw a VERY bright meteor(?) drop straight down to the south west of us in White Salmon. Since then we've seen 3 smaller ones, one dropped straight down the other two went from east to west to the south of us. 10:45 PM 9/1/07
Hi Caroline,
Honestly, I can't explain what you saw. But I just dropped an e-mail to a friend of mine at OMSI. He may be able to shed some light on this. I'll post an update here on the blog when I know something new.
Joe M.
So Caroline, got some information for you...
Turns out there are meteors falling through our atmosphere pretty much all the time. And the meteors you saw were probably some of these 'sporadic' meteors.
In fact, typically in the month of September these sporadic meteors peak, and there can be more than 10 per hour in the hours just before sunrise.
So that's probably it. The meteor storm had already left us by the time you saw 'your' meteors, so to speak.
Joe M.
Thanks Joe, figured as much but hadn't seen them drop straight down before and the one the kids saw first was supposedly so bright that it lit up the trees.
Thanks again for the follow up.
Hello everybody,
Was chatting with someone about the meteor shower, and he had a pretty impressive review...
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We went to Roster Rock park. Between 4-5 a.m. we saw about 27 shooting stars. You were right about the moonlight. I think if we'd been in eastern OR/WA and it would have been a new moon we would have seen more. But is was GREAT!! There were about a dozen or so people at the park. It did peak around 4:30 a.m. when we saw probably 10-12 in the span of 10 mins.
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Wish I was there!
Joe M.