The Perseids Meteor Shower – August 2009
A brief article about the Perseids meteor shower.
What causes the Perseid meteor shower?
The comet Swift-Tuttle orbits the sun once every 130 years, it last swept through the inner Solar system in 1992. As it passed near the sun it left behind fragments of rock and dust – it is these rock and dust fragments that cause the Perseid meteor shower. As the Earth passes through this gritty debris, the rock and dust fragments cause the Perseid meteor shower. This debris field was left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle when it last came near the Sun.
The debris burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere, most of the meteoroids are smaller than a grain of sand, yet they produce an impressive display. Any fragments that do reach the Earth’s surface are then called meteorites.
Image via Wikipedia
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43 Responses to “The Perseids Meteor Shower – August 2009”
On August 11, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Well written article. Thanks. I’m popping out now to have a look. I’ve missed the peak of the shower for the last two years due to bad weather, but I’m hoping to see one or two tonight. Oh for a house in the country with no street lights around!!
On August 11, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Very informative and well written. The children and I will be setting up camp tonight and watching the show.
On August 11, 2009 at 11:31 pm
can i see it if i live in virginia ?
On August 12, 2009 at 12:09 am
I have seen four of them tonight in the 20 minutes or so I was outside
On August 12, 2009 at 5:10 am
The best time to watch the Perseid Meteor show in Virginia will be August 12, but you’ll need to be up late to catch the best seat, the best time to watch the Perseid’s will be between the hours of 1:30 AM and 6:00 AM. This is because you need to watch them after the moon has set and before the sun rises.
Enjoy ;o)
On August 12, 2009 at 5:23 am
can i see it in sydeny,australia
On August 12, 2009 at 5:51 am
Watching this morning too, but a bit cloudy. Looking forward to your new footage. Here are some older Perseid meteor shower videos: http://bit.ly/QPcnV
On August 12, 2009 at 8:33 am
Nice meteor shower it was huge!!!!
On August 12, 2009 at 9:49 am
Can i see them today august 12, between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm?
On August 12, 2009 at 10:04 am
fdfdfd: The Perseids are a reliable northern hemisphere meteor shower where you can see about a meteor a minute.
In Australia, the point of origin of the shower lies very close to the horizon, below it if you are south of Brisbane, so unfortunatley few meteors will be seen.
Lucy: you should do, but that depends where you are – they will be more impressive later on in the night after the moon has set and before the sun has come up.
On August 12, 2009 at 10:21 am
Cool. The largest known meteorite on Earth is the Hoba Meteorite in Namibia which I’ve written about on this site.
On August 12, 2009 at 2:20 pm
The perseids are going to be awsome!
On August 12, 2009 at 4:35 pm
when can I see them in eastbourne, east sussex?
On August 12, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Great article! do you know if i can see it if i live in the southern hemisphere?
On August 12, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Cool, I love astronomy. Thanks for the tips.
On August 12, 2009 at 10:01 pm
On August 13, 2009 at 1:07 am
Good Work
I like your article.
Thanks
Best Regards
On August 13, 2009 at 2:52 am
well written article. very informative, too.
On August 13, 2009 at 6:23 am
wow thanks for this article and great photos!
On August 13, 2009 at 6:25 am
well written article and great photos to go with it!
On August 13, 2009 at 6:30 am
great article and nice photos!
On August 13, 2009 at 6:36 am
Excellent article and great pics. Bookmarked.
On August 13, 2009 at 6:58 am
A very good artical that I found enjoyable to read,
On August 13, 2009 at 7:10 am
Thank you everyone – I really appreciate all the kind comments that you have left for me, and every “like click” is a positive affirmation for me… Thank you
On August 13, 2009 at 11:22 am
Please let me know if my son & I will be able to view some of the show tonight Aug. 13th. we live in N. GA. My husband and I only saw a few after 11pm last night. My son is really looking forward to it. I hope I can tell him he will see something tonight, even if we have to wake him up in the middle of the night.
On August 13, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Nice article I would love to see them.
On August 13, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Good article. We checked out the shower last night for about 45 minutes or so around 10:15 pm. It was a pretty busy sky and very clear. We saw many of these bits and pieces burning up in that time – very apparent and pretty cool.
On August 13, 2009 at 5:13 pm
For those of you that haven’t yet seen them the Perseids will remain active until around August 24th… You need to be somewhere with as little light pollution as possible and look towards the North East.
On August 14, 2009 at 12:49 am
i had the good fortune to be on a small lake in northern wisconsin last night, took the boat out and drifted on a black mirror under the spine of the milky-way. It was wonderous…so much variety in the display from long golden arcs to short blue streaks. I was out ’til 2 am when cloud cover brought the show to a close. I’ll never forget it.
On August 14, 2009 at 1:57 am
Very cool.
On August 14, 2009 at 2:50 am
VERY NICE AND INFORMATIVE! I WILL GO OUT AND LOOK UP!
On August 14, 2009 at 6:36 am
Its good article. very informative.
On August 14, 2009 at 7:33 am
This is probably one of the best pieces out there. Keep up with that – Redburn
On August 14, 2009 at 9:54 am
Truly interesting article and very well-written. Thanks for sharing.
On August 14, 2009 at 9:56 am
Very infromative and interesting to read and a very good mix of pics
On August 14, 2009 at 11:53 am
I would love to see a meteor shower for real, I need to find a good place to camp out for a while when there’s one nearby where I live!
On August 14, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I’ve heard a lot about this, but I never really knew what it was. Great article, well written!
On August 14, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I saw them the last few days. They were cool!
On August 15, 2009 at 12:14 am
This year I didn’t see any meteors because of the cloudy skies. The whole entire sky was filled with clouds and i was sad i could see them.
On August 15, 2009 at 7:19 am
Great article. Great info.
On August 16, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Last nite at 159am i saw a rather large meteorite,very impressive trail and today found the article about perseids, dont know if it is the same shower or not but this one was awesome!!
On September 11, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I am looking about informations from meteorits. On the 15th of august I saw a meteorit burning over the sky of Luxemburg at near the belgian boarder. I was so impressed about, that today i realise what really happens, and maybe i will never see thath again. It was amazing. Does anybody got pictures of that meteor or videos. Greg
On September 29, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Quite disappointing I thought this time? Saw about 10 over the space of an hour. Still worth looking at those few though!
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