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."
I put on my robe and pedant hat (Score:1, Insightful)
The shower won't be hampered! Viewing it will.
Re:27km wide rock behind (Score:4, Insightful)
From the wiki... [wikipedia.org]
"He found the comet was most likely observed by the Chinese in 69 BC and AD 188, which was quickly confirmed by Brian G. Marsden.[8] This information and subsequent observations have led to recalculation of its orbit, which indicates the comet's orbit is very stable, and that there is absolutely no threat over the next two thousand years."
I know it's fun to spread FUD, but come on.
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I think you forget what FUD means...
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You obviously have little conception of celestial mechanics
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And don't start with the "Will somebody please think of the children" crap. Kids are smart, they'll figure out what to do.
If they'll survive the economic crisis by then.
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.
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Congratulations, you're doing science.
Awesome... Can I have some cake now please?
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Yes, of course.
delicious cake [deliaonline.com]
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Sorry you kept on trying and we ran out of cake...
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HAMs use meteor scatter all the time for super-brief contacts.
Some even bounce signals from the moon.
Hell, they have their own satellites!
Simple Solution (Score:4, Funny)
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I got that, and you surely don't mean Marvin. Why would he complain about destruction of the Earth, which we all know is blocking his view of Venus.
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The door is over there. Please hit your ass on the way out.
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
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For only $3000 or so [amazon.com]? It's a steal. Looks awesome, but I think I'll be watching with the naked eye this weekend.
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The moon is an absurd liberal myth.
Meteors impacting the moon?? ... Oh wait, (Score:2)
The headline had me thinking that the moon was going to be intercepting all those meteors. Turns out they meant "Viewing of the Perseid Meteor Shower To Be Hampered By Full Moon"
If that would have been too long of a headline then perhaps "Full moon will hamper viewing of Perseid Meteor Shower" would have been better
Same number of words as original headline and much more accurate.
Who writes these things?
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The headline had me thinking that the moon was going to be intercepting all those meteors.
The question is why, when if that was the case then the headline should be "Perseid Meteor Shower to Hit the Fucking Moon!"
"Hampered" would be an extremely weird word to use in that context, yah?
Who writes these things?
People used to natural language communication, who unfortunately assume people reading are the same, rather than attempted pedantic literalists. :)
After all, a meteor only becomes a meteor when it hits the earth's atmosphere. So a pedantic reading of the headline would immediately suggest that it can't possibly mea
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Yes, natural language communication, where literal pedantic interpretations are rarely the correct ones. Where meaning not explicitly spelled out can be implied by sentence structure and context. What our brains are optimized for, rapidly and automatically sifting through various possible interpretations and rejecting them for various reasons. Such as if one interpretation is nonsensical, but another one makes sense, then our brains will conclude that the latter is likely the correct one. For example "Pe
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Surely you can't be serious!
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I am, and stop calling me Shirley.
It won't be a problem in Seattle. (Score:1)
The clouds block the moonlight.
Sunrise Moonset (Score:1)
You know, the post makes it sound like the sunset moonrise conjuction is specific to this moon. But if you think a little, you'll realize it's true for all full moons.
It's one of the things in litrature that kill me. Moon rise and moon set depend on the phase of the moon. A full moon will rise as the sun sets, and half a moon never will. It's simple geometry.
Bad editing, anonymous reader.
Once again, a slashdot unstory. (Score:1)
Why is this news?
Anyone who has any history at all of watching meteor showers knows the problem the moon can be.
Every reasonable almanac (and their online equivalents) has both full moon dates, and meteor shower peak dates.
Every full moon rises at approximately sunset. To be full, Sun - Earth - Moon have to make a 180 degree angle.
So where is the news?
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1. Repetitious stories.
2. Summaries that are ei