If you're sleepless in the wee hours of Thursday, August 13, 2015, here's something to watch instead of that dreary, motionless, blank of a ceiling. Click Kick Back, Look Up, We’re In For a GREAT Perseid Meteor Shower for details. Excerpt:
Every year in mid-August, Earth plows headlong into the debris left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Slamming into our atmosphere at 130,000 mph, the crumbles flash to light as the Perseid meteor shower. One of the world’s most beloved cosmic spectacles, this year’s show promises to be a real crowd pleaser.
Not only will the Moon be absent, but the shower maximum happens around 3 a.m. CDT (8 UT) August 13 — early morning hours across North America when the Perseid radiant is highest. How many meteors will you see? Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-100 meteors per hour. As always, the darker and less light polluted your observing site, the more zips and zaps you’ll see.
That may be only one or two a minute on average. But some can be quite spectacular. Hey, what are ya gonna do otherwise, sleep?
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