Brent: It's not a problem if you are underwhelmed by this year's Perseid shower.  This one had several strikes against it.  Besides the moon, the peak of the shower occured during the day for our longitude, that's why two nights are listed for the event.  Also the showers themselves vary greatly from year to year. Half a decade ago the Leonids put on a great shower that was rated as a "storm". Unfortunately it rained that night up here but people who had driven to Delta were treated to a great show. For meteor showers there is only 2 really big "shows", that's the Perseids and the Leonids. The best year of the Perseids for me, I went to the west desert and became fully dark adapted. The shower peak occured when the radiant was well above the horizon and there was no moon. Yet beyond the occasional bright member that you can see from the city, all that I saw was a dim spray of very faint and short members comming right out of the radiant at about 1 per every 3 seconds. It's hard to sell this as a "show" to the young and impatient. People's taste are various.  I think that fly fishing is about exciting as washing dishes and the very thought of the game of golf makes me break out in hives.  If you want excitement, there is always duck hunting. Meteor showers don't really ring my bell that much, just being out at night is enough for me. If there is a shower I'll watch it but it don't expect it to hold my attention like a football game.  There are other things to look at anyway.  Sort of like channel surfing, the shower isn't the only thing to look at. DT --- On Wed, 8/12/09, Brent Johnson <mitaccio@hotmail.com> wrote:

From: Brent Johnson <mitaccio@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Persieds Shower To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 10:03 AM

I guess I should also mention I live in the outskirts of Tooele.  None of that Salt Lake nonsense here :)  

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From: rcfry@comcast.net To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:47:28 -0600 Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Persieds Shower

Brent, I went out into the park behind my house this morning at 1:00 AM and spent about 30 minutes watching. I saw four very faint meteors. I suspect that the light pollution plus the moon allowed seeing only the brighter meteors.

All in all, I wasn't that impressed. It probably would have been better had I gone to a darker location.

Rodger Fry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brent Johnson" <mitaccio@hotmail.com> To: <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 10:23 AM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Persieds Shower

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Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so

of viewing of the "Best"

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meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night!

I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go.

I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives?

So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed.

Thanks

Mitaccio

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