OT - Great Meteor "Storm" Possible Tonight
So lot's of people will be lucky enough to be in Northern Michigan tonight. Some of us won't be as lucky, but will still be lucky enough to be in the midwest or in Cali, where between 2 am and 4 am early Saturday morning, they will be able to witness a great meteor shower. We're talking between 200 and 1000 meteors an hour*.
This is a huge amount of meteors. The most well known yearly meteor shower that takes place every August (Perseid Meteor Shower) is significantly below that number, we're talking typically under 100 meteors an hour and closer to 50 an hour.
So if you're interested in space, or have kids or grandkids, and you're not too old to make the "it's too late" excuse, I highly recommend getting out to a dark area, away from lights, and checking it out. It really should be a great show.
Full tangent nerdy time (last two are videos from space.com)...
[The Adventures of] LINK
[A] LINK [to the Past]
LINK['s Awakening]
[A] LINK [Between Worlds]
*There is a slight chance this could be a dud. That probability seems unlikely, but the last video explains it. But keep that on the D.L. More people need to be excited about space.
Really trying to earn your name eh?
They don't call me Space Coyote for nothin' (no one in real life calls me Space Coyote... this is unfortunate)
Need more people to drop acid...
I mean eat chilli peppers. Very hot chilli peppers.
i hope i didn't brain my damage
There. I called you by that.
The wife and kids will probably get pissed, but we are seeing this. haha
There seems to be a similar tone about this as there was with Comet ISON. Earth has never passed through this tail before so nobody can say for sure how many, if any, meteors there will be. I really really hope for a big show, and I'm going to be even more pissed than I was after ISON was incinerated if this turns out to be a dud.
Shhhhhh, I just put a warning at the bottom of the post.
There does seem to be an unlikely chance that this is a dud, but being completely new, no one really knows for sure what it's going to bring tonight (basically, this is the trail left behind from a comet that passed through here in the 1800s). Most places, including NASA, are predicting big things, but leaving wiggle room in case it doesn't fully develop.
Awesome.
Doctors Club?
Oakland Hunt Club. Sits on the border of Alcona & Alpena county right off of Doctors Club Rd.
No way! Is your entrance right by the old school house?!? I flipped my grandpa's ATV on the road right out front when i was like 12 haha. We own the BIB (sign with the raccoon you drive by)
Wow this is a small, small world. Yes, that is the entrance. That is amazing - drop me a line [email protected]
(aren't we ?!!)
/s
The one big drawback about living within earshot of a major metropolitan airport is that I have to make plans to go somewhere to see these, and as my wife's shift is not a late one today, I might very well go to one of the metroparks around here with the telescope do that. I've done similar things with other showers in the past anyway because they are fun to observe. Someone on TV actually said that we might see activity as early as 10:30 PM and it could possibly last until dawn in terms of visible activity on the other side of the 2 AM - 4 AM peak.
That is my problem, too. I live in a suburb of Cleveland I have a feeling I won't be able to see many of these either, well, without going about 20-30 minutes west, but now that I think about it again, I don't think I want to do that.
Easy solution. I also live in a suburb of Cleveland (Medina) so all you have to do is pre-schedule a family reunion for the Alpena area months ago and then load up your entire family in the Yukon, drive 7 hours north and then count on the kindness of strangers (thank you again Space) to give you a heads up that something amazing is going to happen that you would've slept through blissfully ignorant of its significance without this post.
Hey.....it worked for me.
I am in Rocky River.
HEY! You and Tony Rizzo are probably neighbors!
Too much ambient light?
You mean...I have to interrupt my Call of Duty playing for a freaking meteor shower? OK fine...
You lay on your back with controller in hand and everytime you see a meteor you press A and it tallies the number you glimpse.
Not unlike a wireless abacus.
The entire Zelda series (at least the console versions, I have never played the hand held games) is one of the greatest of all times. That said, the last Zelda game I played is Twilight Princess, which is unfortunate because of my love for the franchise. I just haven't purchased a Nintendo since the Gamecube was bestowed upon me and don't plan to because that company keeps making stupid consoles. I wish Nintendo would just realize they have been dethroned and instead of making consoles AND games, just make games. I'd love to play Mario, Zelda, and Metroid again, but that won't happen unless they become a third party game developer.
Was incredible. Never played the GameCube version.
WW is my favorite Zelda game with Ocarina of Time a very close second. I played WW on Gamecube. I'd love to play the HD remake of it, but again, it's on the Wii U only, which I will never purchase.
As you can see the Great State of Michigan pretty much has the best view of this shower in the world.
This shower should (could) be pretty awesome. The meteors are predicted to fall very slowly around 12 miles per second. For comparison, the Perseid meteors fall at 25 miles per second. We could even see some fireballs.
Thanks, SC. I'll be in northern Wisconsin tonight (traffic permitting). I'll either sing your praises at 2 a.m., or will be sticking needles into my Space Coyote voodoo doll hoping to cause you major discomfort if this is a bust.
Seriously, though, there's nothing quite like staring up at the night sky. I need to do this more often. I appreciate the heads-up.
Supposed to be clear here in AA and since I live outside of town, I'm hoping to see something. Usually when I try to see a meteor shower, it's not worth it. There's either hardly any of them or it's cloudy. Hopefully, this may finally be THE ONE.
of living up north is the lack of light pollution. however in this instance they say that further south will be better because of the polar circumnavigation of this particular meteor storm - it'll be coming straight down on those of us up north but moving laterally grazing the whole sky as you get south.
(in my best Ed Sullivan voice) Really Big Shoe tonight!
tonight's predicted meteor shoewer (there, I said it) on the local news earlier this evening and am really excited about it---I live on a bluff just across from a rather large lake here in SW Michigan and have a perfect vantage point looking toward the north. With the clear moonless sky overnight tonight, I'm geeked to the point of being nerdy about it! The meteors as supposed to appear to be "rediating" from a spot near the north star, so as long as that's high enough in the sky, my trees shouldn't block it. If they do, then it's a short hike down the path to a couple of long docks that will give me an almost perfect look at the entire sky in all directions.
The advantages of living here near the lake almost always outweigh the annoyance I often feel for the FIPs that are just starting to invade for the summer...
or maybe your summer visitors aren't that bad.
kind of like my favorite bumper sticker: if it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?
i know, a bit dark, but there you have it.
"F'n Illinois Pricks". Only probably applies to a relatively small % of the folks that invade SW Michigan every summer from Chicago and beyond, but that small minority earn the "FIP" nickname by being very pushy and pompous. Most of the ones I have met would just as soon hand you a beer and make you feel at home.
I'll withhold further comment about the ones who shoot off their high-powered fireworks until 2 or 3 in the morning and cause my dog to freak out....
(edit---I'd love to find that bumper sticker. Good one!)
from my alaska buddies who live near a place called homer, ak, also known as the 'end of the world'. i have visited them frequently in the 20+ years we've known each other. the sticker reads: homer, a quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem'.
haven't you ever heard of it?
/s
That was very, very underwelming. Sorry for those that stayed up. Doubly sorry for those that stayed up but have internal clocks that get them up at 7 still. That was a real dud.