Perseid Meteor Shower

In my family we have a “Perseid tradition”. The shower generally occurs sometime around my Mom’s birthday, 11 August. Being as one of my hobbies is amateur astronomy and another is amateur meteorology it falls to me to check moon phase, sky condition forecasts, etc. and let everyone know if a Perseid party is a go or no go. It’s rare that everything comes together for a good night of viewing the Perseids.

This year looks marginal to fair with a forecast of < 30% cloud cover where I live. I won’t make the call until about an hour before sunset on 11 August* because things are subject to change. I don’t want anyone to miss the meteor shower but I don’t want to drag everyone out on the lawn, bathed in DEET and staring up at the bottom side of a cloud deck either.

If it’s a “go” I’ll drag out my telescopes. I have three, an Orion 10″ Dobsonian Intelliscope, a 6″ Celestron StarSeeker EQ reflector on an equatorial mount and a 6″ Celestron NexStar SLT Mak-Cass on a computerized tracking mount. I also have an astronomical binoculars on an alt-az mount but those are better for comets than anything else, except maybe the moon.

We’ll use those to pass the time looking at planets and deep sky objects until the meteor shower ramps up after midnight. You don’t watch a meteor shower with a telescope, the Mark I eyeball is most suitable for that.

Jupiter is in opposition this month on the 19th and Saturn is just past opposition right now (rising a little earlier than Jupiter) so those will likely be our main telescope targets. Viewing for both planets is at its peak for the year right now. Jupiter’s opposition occurs during a full moon so the next few days will likely be the very best viewing of Jupiter and Saturn all year and the viewing should be spectacular in my ‘scopes.

So if the weather is cooperative and knowing the moon will not be a factor we’ll all congregate on the back lawn for a Perseid Party until the wee hours of the morning. There will be drinks and snacks along with a tablet and keyboard displaying Stellarium on a table. I’ll do an “official” meteor count for submission to the American Meteor Society and a good time will be had by all under the night sky.

At least two of us will be wearing sidearms against the very unlikely event of a varmint (of either the two or four legged sort) making an appearance.

(* The peak of the Perseid meteor shower is advertised as being on 12 August. Don’t make the mistake of going out on the evening of 12 August to watch the Perseids. You’ll probably still see meteors but the shower will be past its peak. The Perseid peak is in the early hours of 12 August until just before dawn, with the very best chance of a truly amazing meteor shower occurring just before the sun washes out the sky at dawn on 12 August. A good display can happen anytime from 11 PM 11 August until before dawn on 12 August. The following two nights can also be good, but that night will be the best.

The Perseid Radiant, which is the constellation Perseus, rises in the NNE just after full dark. Which is about 9:30 PM where I live. You can expect to see meteors anytime after that with increasing numbers until dawn. The radiant climbs in the sky all night long and the reason the most meteors are visible prior to dawn is that is when the rotation of the Earth is facing directly into the debris stream of the comet that generates the meteors, Comet Swift-Tuttle )