Image Courtesy of Rongem Boyo @ Creative Commons

It is the second week of August again and for astronomers and sky watchers around the world that means it is time to look to the night skies for the Perseid Meteor showers.

On July 30 the Earth began its pass through the dusty trail of the Comet Swift-Tuttle. The meteor show from Comet Swift-Tuttle has been observed for over 2000 years though the origin of the meteors was unknown for sure until 1992. In fact, Comet Swift-Tuttle has been calculated to be on a collision course with either the Earth or the Moon. Sleep tight for now kids as it has not been calculated to strike us this millennium.

Meteors can be seen throughout the month of August but the peak of intensity for the Perseid meteor showers will be sometime on August 11^th or 12^th. As the Moon will be waning from its August 5^th fullness the best bet for observing the show will be to catch them before the Moon rises. That puts the time for best viewing in the Gunnison Valley at around 11:00 PM, weather permitting.

The Perseids get their name from the constellation Perseus which is their radiant. The meteors can appear anywhere in the sky but if you were to trace the tails backward on their line of travel they would all appear to originate from the constellation Perseus. Constellation Perseus, which has been rising around midnight, can be found in our north eastern skies. This means approximately the direction of Crested Butte Mountain from the town of Crested Butte. It could be quite a show of meteors seeming to emanate from the peak of our centerpiece Gunnison Valley mountain.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.