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Ooo…pretty!

perseids

Perseid meteor showers peak tonight; they’re my favorite! It’s supposed to be an especially good one this year. I can’t stay out for long, though — we’ve got skeeters the size of buzzards at the moment. Uncle B is a lumpy mess.

British skeeters don’t appear to have much of a taste for weasel, happy to say.

You know, I’m sure I’ve posted this exact picture before. But I’ve looked through the last four Augusts, and no. Anyway, Google Images identifies this as a picture from 2015, so it must be a different but similar diagram. Maybe from that meteor shower in December that I never see because it’s too freaking cold. Geminids. That’s it.

Hey ho, forget the celestial pageantry — I got thirty comments out of you people for a question about eating out of tiny cardboard cereal boxes.

Comments


Comment from Mr. Dave
Time: August 11, 2016, 9:42 pm

Maybe a year old but that’s the Perseid chart. The Perseid radiant is where the sparklers apparently come from. A little more here:

http://earthsky.org/tonight/peak-night-for-the-perseid-meteor-shower


Comment from Skandia Recluse
Time: August 11, 2016, 9:45 pm

Overcast sky, no viewing here tonight.


Comment from Niña
Time: August 11, 2016, 10:15 pm

Not this year, but hopefully next. One year my daughter and I took our sleeping bags up to a hill near Auburn and laid out in them until the wee hours watching whichever show is in November. It’s one of those memories that lingers!


Comment from Gromulin
Time: August 11, 2016, 10:28 pm

We a bunch of cereal eatin morons, what can I say? Ahh, Saturday morning cartoons and cereal boxes…you knew it was officially over and time to go outside (or finally wash those dishes) when Soul Train came on.


Comment from QuasiModo
Time: August 11, 2016, 11:14 pm

Hey, it’s not cloudy here for once…hot as hades, but not cloudy…maybe I’ll try and see some Perseid’s later.


Comment from OldFert
Time: August 12, 2016, 1:19 am

I remember the fambly going outside to look at the meteor shower many Augusts ago. Wasn’t that many (we were looking before midnight). Me, Mrs Fert and the two little Ferts (in mid-careers now, son in the Army and daughter in the Air Force). As I mentioned, there weren’t too many falling stars to look at but some of the ones we saw were really good. And normally were visible right after my wife went inside for whatever. Amazing timing. When she came back out, nothing. Went back in, Showtime! I don’t remember her seeing any of them.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 12, 2016, 1:33 am

This is the time of the year when I miss living out in the country, where I could see stars, satellites, meteor showers, and the occasional comet (Hale-Bopp). The night sky here in San Antonio glows orange, and the street light on my corner is so bright, it’s probably visible from the moon. (In truth, I miss living the the country all the time—I hate the city.) I’m on the email list for notification when the International Space Station passes over my location, but I rarely see it now that I live in town.

A rant: Oh how I detest that stupid Toyota commercial that doesn’t know the difference between meteors and comets—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLNNH3VjEXE

Re: Skeeter bites. Husband reacts badly to mosquito bites, but 1% hydro-cortisone cream works better than anything I know of. Immediately stops the itch and swelling.

P.S. Watching the ISS pass overhead is a terrific treat. It’s a nice thing to show the kiddos and a good way to teach them about azimuths and altitude.


Comment from QuasiModo
Time: August 12, 2016, 2:25 am

It’s been sunny here for weeks…it was sunny earlier this evening even, but of course the Perseids are here so it gets cloudy…arrrrrghhhhh!


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: August 12, 2016, 8:14 am

Her Stoatliness and I did manage some time outside and the display was pretty impressive from here, with some remarkably strong tails perfectly visible.

Being a cheerful sort of badger, I’m sure one will hit me on the head one day!


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 12, 2016, 12:10 pm

Husband saw a meteor hit one night as we were driving home on the dirt road near our little farm. I was looking the wrong way and missed it. Unfortunately, the meteor landed in a cattle feed lot! And he was strongly disinclined to go hunting for it. Another 100 feet to the south and it would have landed in a grazing pasture.


Comment from Janna
Time: August 12, 2016, 1:31 pm

Deborah HH.. I have an app on my phone called “SkyViewFree” from the apple app store. You just hold your phone to the night sky and it gives you all the constellations and planets, with their trajectories. The first time I saw the ISS I freaked out. Wasn’t expecting it. It’s pretty cool, I THINK you just turn on your location setting and it figures out where you are for the display.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: August 12, 2016, 1:53 pm

Janna! Thank you. I love things like this 🙂


Comment from Can’t Hark My Cry
Time: August 12, 2016, 2:42 pm

Maybe you were thinking of this one?
http://sweasel.com/archives/7380


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 12, 2016, 6:13 pm

Why, yes. That’s the one, Can’t Hark. Obviously from the same illustrator.

You’re spooky.


Comment from Can’t Hark My Cry
Time: August 12, 2016, 6:45 pm

Heh. I just have Research-fu!

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