Perseid Meteor Shower To Be Hampered By Full Moon 43
An anonymous reader writes "The annual Perseid meteor shower, which is caused by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle and has been observed for about 2000 years, will be hampered this year by the full moon. The full moon falls on August 13, and is also called 'Grain Moon' or 'Green Corn Moon.' During this time, the moon rises about the same time the sun sets, and sets at about the same time the sun rises. This will create difficulty in viewing the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on the night of Friday and into the early morning of Aug. 13."
The meteors will still be there... (Score:5, Informative)
Get an FM broadcast radio with an external aerial socket, and a Yagi antenna such as you would use for fringe area reception. Aim it more or less towards the radiant of the meteor shower, and up at about a 30-40 degree angle. Now tune to a station well out of range, in roughly the direction you're pointing.
When a meteor burns up in the atmosphere it will leave a trail of ionised particles, which will reflect radio waves. This is called "meteor scatter", and will show up as little "pings" of signal from the distant station that pop up out of the noise for a few seconds.
Listen carefully, and make a note of the times of the pings so you can plot how frequently they occur. Congratulations, you're doing science.
Image Intensifier Astronomy. (Score:4, Informative)
Just use a masked image intensifier ( ie, don't look directly at the moon ) and watch the sky through an image intensifier.
Apart from a 40 degree FOV, you'll also see about a hundred times as many stars and meteors, even on a moonlit night.
A decent Gen2 or Gen3 image intensifier will suffice. PVS-14's aren't just for the military you know...
Though a Micro housing with a c-mount objective lens can also be modified later to fit into the eyepiece for improving your telescope too!
GrpA