Heads Up! (literally)

August 7, 2016 5:34 PM

The Perseids is said to promise the best show in a decade. They say is gonna be a very good one.

In 2016, astronomers expect an outburst of Perseid meteors! The prediction is for 200 meteors per hour seen on the peak night, August 11-12 (evening of August 11, morning of August 12). That’s about double the usual rate. From southerly latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll enjoy the shower, too, with about a third as many meteors expected.

posted by shockingbluamp (39 comments total)

From southerly latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, you’ll enjoy the shower, too, with about a third as many meteors expected.

Always the damn Northerners with their fancy star things.
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:44 PM on August 7, 2016 [8 favorites]

So excited for this! Wanted to get up onto a mountain next Friday night, but it looks like the best I can hope for with my schedule is the local beach, which happily has a Northeastern outlook. Planning to get a little party together. Should be a great show!
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:45 PM on August 7, 2016

Hey Joe, you folks down there have the three brightest stars in the whole sky. Our brightest here are numbers four and five. That ain't nothin'.

(Plus I remember there being vastly less light pollution in Australia than in most of the U.S. Sigh…)
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:49 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Every year the prediction, and almost every year a disappointment. We used to go to Hatteras but it's not as dark as it used to be. Favoite spot now is Ft. Jefferson - on the Southeast side of the fort away for the blasted crime light they have burning all night by the main gate.
posted by sudogeek at 5:59 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

I have, for the past seven-odd years, been trying to see the Perseids myself. And like sudogeek, every year my efforts come to naught - but not because of the Perseids. I instead have had the most rotten luck ever trying to do this - one year my cat was dying right about the time the Perseids were at their peak and I knew I should stay home, one year the car I rented to drive out to a darkish spot on Long Island developed car trouble en route (the STUPIDEST problem ever too - the horn kept coming on and wouldn't turn off), one time I got there and it was a full moon, one time a friend drove us upstate and it rained.

I'm too afraid to try this year.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:12 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm so psyched for this. I camp on the beach south of Ocean City for this every year. It's the closest to real dark I can find in the DC area, despite the rather bad light pollution from OC. It was mostly cloudy last year, so hoping it will be better weather for this year's show. Two years ago, my campsite neighbors were freaking out about the number of meteors - one of the kids had never seen a shooting star and was kind of afraid that the sky was coming down when the first really bright one, which lit up the entire arch of the sky, came down.
posted by gemmy at 6:15 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Up island is where you want to be. Check it out.
posted by vrakatar at 6:19 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm no weatherman, but I can bet on clouds and thundershowers, even if only directly above my head. Like Madam Empress, I tend to have rotten luck.

*sigh* I guess the farmers need the rain.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:49 PM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm actually gonna be in a plane flying west to east across the northern US that night! This means I'll be able to see it out my window, right?
posted by Mizu at 7:20 PM on August 7, 2016

The Perseids fall on my birthday! I go dark as often as I can for them.
posted by Oyéah at 7:28 PM on August 7, 2016

Mizu, you might be able to if your seat is a window seat on the left side of the plane, particularly if your flight is after the moon sets around 1:00 AM.
posted by RichardP at 7:29 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

When I was younger and in boy scouts, we'd often take our 50- or 100-miler hikes in early August so we'd be deep in Wilderness area away from light pollution during the Perseid meteor shower. Often there was rain and clouds that blocked our view, but I remember vividly one year, a clear night, we were not in our tents but in our sleeping bags around the red coals of a dying campfire, and this FUCKING HUGE ENORMOUS BLUE-WHITE FIREBALL came shooting across the sky, bright enough to leave flash-bulb-like echoes on our retinas. That was after a few hours of probably a shooting star a minute or less, and was followed by a few hours of lots of shooting stars, too.

That one moment, with that one really amazing fireball... is seared into my brain from age, what? 15? Until this day. And will continue to be until I die.

The cosmos is full of wonders.
posted by hippybear at 7:37 PM on August 7, 2016 [23 favorites]

EmpressCallipygos: "one time I got there and it was a full moon"

Plan to stay out late; their will be a fairly bright moon until it sets around 1AM. Best viewing is always after midnight anyways so it isn't too bad.
posted by Mitheral at 8:53 PM on August 7, 2016

We went to Shenandoah National Park last year and all the best viewing came on the early side because cloud cover set in for good around 4AM. We also were unprepared for how cold it got (48° F, IIRC). This time we booked a campsite at Big Meadows for two nights, and we'll have a tent and sleeping bags … but my wife got called in for a workshop on a play, so we're only going to be there one night after all.

Processing all my images after the fact was fun. I had no idea if I got anything, and you couldn't see any detail on the camera, but once I figured out my adjustments I grabbed my wife. "Here's the before. [click]" "There's no way we saw that many stars."
posted by fedward at 9:12 PM on August 7, 2016

Can anyone figure out the meteor's apparent direction for an observer in Melbourne? Which way should I go to have the city lights behind me?
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:17 PM on August 7, 2016

the meteors will appear to radiate from the constellation perseus. you can generate a star chart on calsky.org, but even weatherunderground's astronomy pages may be useful.

the direction you'll need to go depends on where in your sky perseus will appear thruout the night.
posted by joeblough at 10:58 PM on August 7, 2016

My uncle was a science teacher when I was growing up, and I remember being plagued with bad luck every time we tried to see any meteor shower (equally bad luck with the Leonids).

Fun meteor aside: mostly owing to bad luck at meteor showers, I never actually saw one until I started dating my current partner. I've seen many in the years we've been together. I shouldn't say it's a sign that the cosmos wants us to be together, but it's been very nice just the same (the meteors have been pretty, too, thankyouillbehereallweek).
posted by teponaztli at 11:36 PM on August 7, 2016

How quickly does it fall off after the peak? I don't think I'll be able to make it out to somewhere dark enough until the night of the 13.
posted by feloniousmonk at 12:26 AM on August 8, 2016

'78 was my personal best year (yet) for the Perseids - - not only plenteous, but it was the only time I could hear 'em!
posted by fairmettle at 2:03 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, maybe the "shooting star" I saw on the way into work very early Sunday morning was a precursor. I had no idea. Thanks for the "heads up"!

So wow. Much sparkles.
posted by mightshould at 3:17 AM on August 8, 2016

The Perseids fall on my birthday!
I'm pretty sure they burn up in the atmosphere, and never quite make it that far, but it's a nice thought.
posted by quinndexter at 3:43 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Plan to stay out late; their will be a fairly bright moon until it sets around 1AM. Best viewing is always after midnight anyways so it isn't too bad.

Yeah, I know - the time I was thwarted by the full moon, though, it was 3:30.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:01 AM on August 8, 2016

and I'd woken up special and driven an hour to Robert Moses park dammit
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:02 AM on August 8, 2016

Here's another more recent article on meteor sounds, from LiveScience in 2013. I saw and heard an amazing fireball in the perseids about a decade ago. I had long hair, metal-framed glasses and was out lying on the grass. I'll have to set up some type of transducer this time (short hair, plastic specs...). Oh I'm excited now - hacking the perseids!
posted by lokta at 4:44 AM on August 8, 2016 [7 favorites]

Last summer during Perseid week my soon-to-be-wife and I were at our place on Cape Cod. She had never seen a meteor. We planted ourselves in a little hollow at Sea View Park in Dennisport around midnight. I love meteor showers Not only was it a clear night with relatively low light pollution, we probably saw (and in some cases heard) 12-18 absolute scorchers (locally = scorchahs!!) in about an hour. It's one of those moments I'll never forget. God-willing this weekend the event will be replicated. It's magic, really.
posted by eggman at 7:46 AM on August 8, 2016

I'm no weatherman, but I can bet on clouds and thundershowers, even if only directly above my head. Like Madam Empress, I tend to have rotten luck.

Oh hey, I should try and do something this year. We could really use the rain.
posted by maryr at 9:15 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

We went out on Saturday night and saw a huge bright meteor and each of us (three long haired people with glasses) swore we could hear it sizzling but thought that seemed crazy. Good to know that other people have heard sounds from really big meteors too!
posted by Tesseractive at 10:13 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

One of my favorite memmories is of being on a road trip at night, with my dad, somewhere in between Palm Springs and Phoenix, durring the Perseids. I saw so many "shooting stars" I ran out of wishes.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 1:27 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

In Virginia, the best way to tell if the Perseids are peaking is to notice that the sky is completely overcast, and has been for a week. This is also a good way to verify that it is currently a calendar day that ends in 'Y'.
posted by FatherDagon at 1:51 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, we're planning on going camping this weekend specifically to see the Perseids but the forecast right now is calling for clouds and light rain. I don't trust any forecast this far ahead but it still isn't what I want to see.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:06 PM on August 8, 2016

All I'm saying is, this didn't end well in Day Of The Triffids.
posted by BlueNorther at 2:41 PM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

It means a lovely evening with lots of shooting stars. Looking forward to it, which means it will probably rain. Because Eeyore.
posted by theora55 at 4:07 PM on August 8, 2016

Fogged in here. Drat.
posted by vrakatar at 10:07 PM on August 11, 2016

Went up to the mountains, lots of cars waiting for shooting stars.
The leaning half moon, seems spit out by a perfect triangle of stars.
The cool air flows down with pine, and fragrance of dry grass.
I hear voices in soft conversation, one half mile across the canyon,
And the stream sounds a persistent rushing down the middle of it all.
Now one, two little sizzlers now a big one, now my moon shadow hard
Against the car, and at long last it is cold.
The crickets are fewer up here, heading home.
posted by Oyéah at 10:58 PM on August 11, 2016

Thanks to my dog having eaten something he shouldn’t have eaten and consequently suffering from a bout of diarrhœa and consequently waking me up at intervals through the early hours needing to go outside, I got to see a single Perseid at about 4am (03:00 GMT), despite the sky’s not being entirely cloudless. I wished upon that falling star please can I get some more sleep.
posted by misteraitch at 1:13 AM on August 12, 2016

Last night around 11:30 a friend and I went to a nearby park that's on a bit of a hill and has no trees in it, so we had a great view of the sky. Within the first two minutes we saw a half dozen or so, then for the next half hour...nothing. Got bored and went home.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:51 AM on August 12, 2016

The meteor sound thing is pretty damn interesting. Actually hearing it via radio waves!
posted by tavella at 10:55 AM on August 12, 2016

Well, I managed to get out on the beach with a few friends and family last night. It was pretty hazy and we only stayed out until 1 AM because we had to be up today for work, but collectively we counted 145 meteors including a few really nice ones. (Our standard was that every meteor seen by at least one person counted, as long as that person was sure they saw it.) It was a very peaceful and pleasant way to spend a warm summer's night. I'm glad we went—the haze and clouds were bad enough that we almost didn't, but it ended up being one of the better meteor showers that I can recall.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:56 PM on August 12, 2016

I put the camera on a tripod and started it in timelapse mode, and then mostly ignored it. It didn't manage to capture the amazing V formed by two meteors — or one that split into two pieces — but I still got a few decent photos.
posted by fedward at 8:30 PM on August 13, 2016 [2 favorites]