Tonight! Meteors! Mars! Space station!
OK, so you'll have to be up in the middle of the night. Do it anyway. It's worth it. It's the annual Perseid meteor shower, and it's scheduled to peak for Marylanders between 2 a.m. and dawn Friday morning.
And there's a bonus in it for us this year. Two, actually. First is Mars, which will rise at about 11:30 p.m. tonight, and be visible high in the east by 2 a.m. Big, bright and red, it's approaching opposition in November and its best appearance in 2.2 years.
Also, the International Space Station will fly across the sky, from about 4:50 a.m. until 4:53 a.m. At its peak it will appear about 60 degrees above the northwest horizon Here's the track. It will pass from southwest to northeast, looking like a steady, bright, but fast-moving white star.
So roust yourselves and the kids (they don't have to get up for school anyway), find a dark spot with a wide view of the sky and settle down on a blanket or a lounge chair and just watch the sky for a few hours.
The weather forecast isn't too bad for this time of year. We've a fair shot at some clear sky.
There's no need for binoculars or a telescope. They'd just get in the way. All you need to do is scan the sky for the bright, quick streaks of light that mark the trails burned by bits of dust as they zip into the atmosphere at 132,000 mph. They're the debris left behind by the passage of the comet Swift-Tuttle. Each year at this time, as the Earth makes its way around the sun, it plows through the stuff and it puts on this really cool light show.
While it's not the best meteor shower of the year, it is the easiest to watch, thanks to mild temperatures and the number of people who don't have to be awake and functioning once the sun finally rises (at around 6:15 a.m.). You might even inspire your kids to pursue astronomy or planetary science as a career. As Willie Don would say, "Just do it!"
Comments
With all the light pollution in the Washington DC area, where is the best place in Maryland to go to see the meteor shower?
Julie: Sorry I didn't see your comment earlier. You're right. Light pollution in the Baltimore-Washington area is extreme. I went out early this morning to see the meteor shower and, between the high humidity and light pollution, I couldn't see a thing. It would have been far better to head off into the country, but I wasn't optimistic about my chances. So I popped back in bed.
To answer your question, (and for future reference) the best "seeing" in Maryland is as far from urban areas as you can get. Amateur astronomers like Tuckahoe State Park, off Rte. 404 at the Queen Anne's - Caroline County line on the Eastern Shore. I often drive up I-83 into northern Baltimore County. Howard County amateur astronomers like Carrs Mill Park, off Frederick Road near Lisbon.
If you can stay overnight, though, the darkest places in our (and I use the word in its broadest sense) region are in north-central Pennsylvania and east-central West Virginia.
In Pennsylvania, try Cherry Springs State Forest, about 50 miles north of State College, southwest of Galeton.
In wild and wonderful West Virginia, dark-sky nirvana is on Spruce Knob, southwest of Seneca Rocks, east of Elkton. - Frank
Posted by: Julie | August 11, 2005 5:32 PM
I was going to wake two of my children. (They wanted to see the meteors.) But each time I went outside it was too cloudy/hazy. I was very disappointed.
David: Me, too. While skies were generally clear, the humidity was extremely high all night, and the moisture in the air reflected any lighting in the area and made the sky pretty opaque. I could just make out Mars, but that was about all. It was disappointing. But it's a hazard every August with the Perseids. Summers here are just very humid. The Leonid shower in November is usually better, but also cold.
If anyone out there had a better experience this morning, let me know. File a comment and I'll post it as soon as I can.
But the nice thing about sky watching is there's always another opportunity. The autumn and winter months will bring drier weather. The space station is a regular visitor and easy to see, even in urban lighting. So are the planets. And these meteor showers come around every year. Just keep checking back with the WeatherBlog. I'll try to alert readers to the best celestial events on tap for Maryland observers. - Frank
Posted by: David Gerstman | August 12, 2005 9:25 AM