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Archive for the ‘Twitter’ Category

Professor Brian Cox and Dara O Briain host three days of live stargazing on BBC 2 featuring epic images from astronomers and observatories from around the globe.

There will be hundreds of free events up and down the country and many useful videos and guides on the Stargazing web page.

Stargazing Live is all about people doing astronomy and witnessing some of the most spectacular astronomical events, including the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Uranus, the Quadrantid meteor shower and other wonders of the night sky.

In the spirit of getting everyone to look up and share all of the fantastic things going on as well as the BBC 2 program, meteorwatch.org will be doing a twitter meteorwatch for the quadrantids meteor shower, headed up by Adrian West (@VirtualAstro on Twitter).

As well as all the useful information for beginners on this site and tweets from many people joining in on twitter, meteorwatch.org will have the Meteormap.

Tweet #bbcstargazing or #meteorwatch – first part of your postcode – Country e.g UK – and how many meteors you just saw, e.g 3 to see your meteor results appear on the map.

Your tweet should look like this #bbcstargazing SE1 UK 2  or  #meteorwatch PL4 UK 1

Enjoy BBC Stargazing Live, the many events and Twitter Meteorwatch, but most of all, tell your family, tell your friends and tell everyone to look up and enjoy the majesty and wonders of the night sky!

The BBC is not moderating/ overseeing or is responsible for the content on this post, meteorwatch.org or the Twitter Meteorwatch.

Originally posted on Dark Sky Diary by Steve Owens www.twitter.com/darkskyman

At 1900 GMT on 3 January 2011 the Earth will be at perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun this year.

If that sounds confusing to you, and has you wondering why it’s so cold given that the Earth is at its closest to the Sun, then this belies (a) a northern-hemisphere-centric attitude (in the Southern Hemisphere it’s summer right now), and (b) a misunderstanding of what causes the seasons.

The Earth orbits the sun in a nearly circular orbit called an ellipse. The degree by which an orbit differs from a perfect circle is called the eccentricity, e. If e = 0 then the orbit is circular; if e = 1 then the orbit is parabolic, and therefore not gravitationally bound to the Sun. The Earth’s orbital eccentricity is 0.0167, meaning that it is very nearly circular, with the short axis of the ellipse being around 96% the length of the long axis.

Thus, during perihelion Earth is 0.983AU from the Sun, while during aphelion (its furthest distance from the Sun, occurring this year on 4 July) Earth is 1.017AU from the Sun. (1AU = 1 astronomical unit = the average distance between the Earth and the Sun = 150 million km). The seasons on Earth have really nothing to do with how close the Earth is to the Sun at different times of year. Indeed how could they, given that the difference in distance between closest and furthest approach is only a few per cent?

The seasonal differences we experience are of course caused by the tilt of the Earth’s axis, which is inclined by 23.5 degrees from the vertical. This tilt means that, as Earth orbits the Sun, for six months of the year one hemisphere tips towards the Sun, so that it experiences longer days than nights, becoming most pronounced at midsummer, at which point the Sun reaches its highest in the sky at noon. Simultaneously the other hemisphere tips away from the Sun, and experiences shorter days than nights, becoming most pronounced at midwinter, on which day the Sun is at its lowest noontime altitude.

The further you are from the equator the more pronounced the seasonal effects. In fact equatorial countries don’t experience seasonal variations, while the poles experience extremes with six-month-long winters and summers.

The timing of perihelion and aphelion relative to our seasons is entirely random. The fact the southern hemisphere midsummer (21 Dec) almost coincides with perihelion (3 Jan) is simply that; a coincidence. Given that fact, there is no reason to be surprised that perihelion occurs so close to northern hemisphere midwinter. it has to happen some time and it’s coincidence that it happens to occur within two weeks of midwinter / midsummer.

To take this explanation even further, we can calculate how much variation in incident sunlight (called the flux) there would be in two scenarios:

1. an imaginary scenario where the seasonal varioations in temperature are due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis but where the Earth goes round the Sun in a perfectly circular orbit

and

2. an imaginary scenario where the Earth’s axis isn’t tilted, but where it’s orbit is elliptical in the same degree as ours actually is.

1. The Sun appears at its highest point in our sky each day at noon. The highest it ever gets is at noon on midsummer. The lowest noontime altitude occurs at noon on midwinter.

In Scotland the Sun is around 55 degrees above the horizon at noon on midsummer, and only 10 degrees above it at noon on midwinter.

The amount of energy from the Sun radiant on a fixed area is proportional to the sine of the altitude, so the ratio of the solar energy radiant on a square metre of Glasgow between midsummer and midwinter is

sin(55) / sin(10) = 1.84

So here in Scotland we get 84% more energy from the Sun in summer than we do in winter, due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis.

2. If the Earth’s axis was not tilted, then we would only experience temperature differences from the Sun depending on how far or near we are from it. In this case, the amount of energy from the Sun radian of a fixed area is proportional to the square of the distance from the Sun, so the ration of the solar energy radiant on a square metre of Glasgow between perihelion and aphelion is

(1.017/0.983)^2 = 1.07

So we get 7% more energy from the Sun at perihelion than we do at aphelion., due to the differing distances to the Sun.

From this you can see that, while the distance to the Sun has some effect on how much heat we receive, it is a very small effect compared to that produced by our axial tilt.

Originally posted on Dark Sky Diary by Steve Owens www.twitter.com/darkskyman

The first meteor shower of 2011 is the Quadrantids, the peak of which falls on the night of the 03/04 January 2011. The Quadrantids shower has one of the highest predicted hourly rates of all meteor showers, comparable to the two great annual showers, the Perseids and the Geminids, occurring in August and Deember respectively. However unlike the Perseids and Geminids, the Quadrantids peak is very narrow, occurring over just a few short hours.  (You can read the IMO’s rather technical summary of the 2011 Quadrantids here: http://www.imo.net/calendar/2011#qua)

The predicted Zenith Hourly Rate (see my previous post about ZHR and what it actually means here) for the Quadrantids is around 120. The narrow peak is predicted to occur some time between 2100 on 3 January and 0600  on 4 January 2011, however the radiant of the shower – the now-defunct constellation Quadrans Muralis – is very low in the evening hours, rising higher towards dawn, and so the best viewing times are later in this run, just before dawn.

The radiant will rise due N and get to its highest before dawn due E, so look roughly in a NE direction to maximise your chance of seeing some Quadrantids. As always with meteor showers, don’t use binoculars or a telescope – your naked eyes are best. One very useful bit of equipment is a reclining deck chair, which makes observing so much more comfortable!

Let’s use the equation relating ZHR to actual observations of meteors to work out how many Quadrantids you might see:

Actual Hourly Rate = (ZHR x sin(h))/((1/(1-k)) x 2^(6.5-m)) where

h = the height of the radiant above the horizon

k = fraction of the sky covered in cloud

m = limiting magnitude

In the case of the 2011 Quadrantids, if observed from the UK, h = 15 degrees at 2100, rising to 25 degrees at midnight, 40 degrees at 0300, and 65 degrees at 0600. Let’s assume you have clear skies (haha) with k = 0.

The number of Quadrantids you can expect to see from a variety of observing sites, at various times throughout the night, is as follows:

For very light polluted sites, such as city centres, m = 3, and therefore you can expect to see between 3 and 10 meteors per hour at the peak, depending on when it occurs.

In suburban skies near a city or town centre m = 4, and you’ll see between 5 and 20 meteors per hour at the peak, depending on when it occurs.

In rural skies where m = 5, you’ll see between 11 and 38 meteors per hour at the peak, depending on when it occurs.

Under very dark skies, where m = 6.5 (i.e. where there is no or negligible effect of light pollution, like in Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park) you’ll see anywhere between 31 and 109 meteors per hour at the peak, depending on when it occurs.

Remember, all of these numbers assume perfectly clear skies. If half your sky is cloudy, cut these numbers in half!

Also remember that it depends when the peak occurs. Due to the rather narrow peak, if you observe at 2100 on 3 January you may see very few if the peak doesn’t occur until 0600. Still, it’s very much worth a look, just in case!

How many Quadrantid meteors will I see?

Where are you observing from?	Limiting magnitude	Number of Quadrantids per hour if peak occurs at 2100	Number of Quadrantids per hour if peak occurs at 0000	Number of Quadrantids per hour if peak occurs at 0300	Number of Quadrantids per hour if peak occurs at 0600
Very light polluted city centre	3	3	5	7	10
Suburban Site	4	5	9	14	20
Rural Site	5	11	18	27	38
Dark Sky Site	6.5	31	50	77	109

A round-the-world wave to the humans aboard the International Space Station by their fellow humans on the Earth – choreographed by a grassroots Twitter campaign (@ISSwave).

 24-31 DECEMBER, 2010

 

A celebration of human solidarity during the holiday season

For one week beginning Friday, 24 December, humans around the world will show their solidarity with their fellow humans in space (and on Earth) by waving at the International Space Station (ISS) as she passes overhead at 17,500 mph (28,000 kmph).

Participants, recruited through Twitter, are encouraged to share their waves — either alone or as part of an ISSwave tweetup (a physical gathering of twitterers, or tweeps) — by tweeting their zip/postal code and the hashtag “#ISSwave” along with photos and videos of their waves, thoughts, holiday wishes for the astronauts and cosmonauts, etc. Participants’ waves will be registered in real-time at www.isswave.org.

Astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station may even film themselves waving back at ISSwave participants. At least two astronauts, including Ron Garan, have voiced their support for ISSwave in emails and tweets.

The idea for the wave emerged through a serendipitous twitter exchange among Twitter acquaintances and regular ISS watchers Lucy Rogers (@DrLucyRogers), Richard P. Grant (@rpg7twit) and Karen James (@kejames). They discovered that watching ISS passes is even more exciting when done together with other humans, whether they are standing right next to you or watching from afar. To know that you are not the only one looking up in awe at this spectacle of human ingenuity and cooperation speeding across the night sky creates a special connection between us.

“The first time I watched an ISS pass I was surprised by how much it affected me,” said Karen James. “‘We made that’, I thought, ‘there are humans up there!’ All of my worries just seemed so tiny in the face of this symbol of human achievement and cooperation. I want to share that experience with other humans and also show my support to the ones living and working aboard the station.”

‘“I’d always wave up at the ISS if I saw it pass overhead,” says Lucy Rogers. “Someone laughed and said the astronauts wouldn’t see me.” So she asked on Twitter if anyone else waved – a lot of people did – and the communal ISS waving began.  “When Karen moved to the USA she saw the ISS at a different time to us in Europe – which prompted the idea of a round-the-world wave,” she says.

We see the ISS because it is lit by the Sun. Sunlight reflects off it’s solar panels in the same way it glints off windows here on Earth. As the ISS travels round the world, the reflection can be seen in a broad sweep across the Earth. Due to the angles involved between the Sun, ISS and our location on Earth, sometimes we see bright, high passes and sometimes we can’t see it at all. During the week 24th – 31st December, most places on the Earth should get a good view of it at some point.

The three formed the Twitter account @ISSwave to coordinate, promote and provide updates on  the event. Their hope is that seasoned and novice ISS watchers alike will experience the startlingly emotional experience of an ISS pass, amplified by solidarity with thousands of others watching around the world.

Additionally, the team hopes the buzz around ISSwave will persuade those who have never watched an ISS pass to participate, marking an increase in awareness about the International Space Station and the existence of a community of space enthusiasts on Twitter (“spacetweeps”).

The wave also celebrates the 10th anniversary of continuous human presence in space (ISS10years) on 2 November 2010 and the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space — the first human spaceflight — on April 12th 2011 (www.YuriGagarin50.org).

 

ISS Wave Info:

• The International Space Station has been orbiting the Earth over 15 times a day for more than ten years.
• Although it is about 390 km (~240 miles) high, we can still see it from the Earth, thanks to the Sun reflecting off the solar arrays. The solar array wingspan is 240 feet (73 meters). This is longer than that of a Boeing 777 model at 212 feet (65 meters).
• Currently on the ISS are Oleg Skripochka, Alexander Kaleri, Dmitry Kndratyev, Paolo Nespoli, Catherine Coleman and Scott Kelly (Commander).
• Photos of the ISS passing overhead are available at http://www.isswave.org/ISSWave/Media_Photos.html
• There are various ways you can work out when it will be possible to see it from where you are, including Heavens Above, Twisst, NASA, ESA and Orbiting Frog.
• As of 19 December, @ISSwave had over 600 followers from across all continents.
• Dr Karen James (@kejames) is Director of Science for The HMS Beagle Trust, a UK charity aiming to rebuild the famous ship that carried Charles Darwin around the word on his seminal voyage of discovery. Through the Beagle Project she collaborates with NASA Astronaut Michael Barratt a long-duration spaceflight veteran and member of the crew of the upcoming STS-133 mission to the ISS aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. She is a former postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum in London and has recently repatriated to the United States. For more information visit http://kejames.com/.
• Dr Lucy Rogers (@DrLucyRogers) a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, aims to infiltrate the public’s consciousness by writing scientific stuff in plain English. She has published a book about space flight, “It’s ONLY Rocket Science”, which doesn’t contain any equations. She lives on the Isle of Wight where she can see the Milky Way from her back garden. For more information visit http://lucyrogers.com.
• Dr Richard P. Grant (@rpg7twit) is a biological scientist turned writer, editor and poet. He currently lives and works in London, and has a habit of taking on far too many projects.  For more information visit http://rg-d.com/rpg, or his blog at Occam’s Typewriter.

 

PRESS CONTACT:

For more information or to arrange an interview:

UK:    Dr Lucy Rogers

Twitter: @DrLucyRogers

Skype: dr.lucy.rogers

Phone: +44 1983 731 759

Email: lucy@lucyrogers.com

USA:    Dr Karen James

Twitter: @kejames

Skype: karenejames

Phone: +1 207 669 2663

Email: drkejames@gmail.com

Originally posted on the 10th December 2010 by AstroGuys

http://astroguyz.com/2010/12/10/astro-event-don%E2%80%99t-miss-the-geminids/

Looking Northeast at about 10 PM. (Photo by Author).

   This year, believe the hype; this month’s Geminid meteor shower is a sure bet. This shower is one of the few dependable ‘old faithful’ meteor showers of the year. Peaking on the night of December 13^th-14^th, this year’s apparition sees a well placed northern radiant rising high in the northeast as the first quarter Moon sets about midnite local. The Geminid stream radiates from very near the bright star Castor in the zodiac constellation Gemini the Twins and typically produces up to 100 to 120 meteors per hour. If you are placed in mid-northern latitudes, you may see some activity shortly after sunset, but the real meteoritic action will begin after midnite. Think of a car driving at night in a snowstorm, not a stretch in the depths of the northern hemisphere winter. Looking forward into your high beams you get the cool vintage “Star Trek” effect, as you and your vehicle plow headlong into the stream of snowflakes. Think of the flakes as meteors and the car as the Earth; we face headlong into the meteor stream after midnight, and hence see more flashing meteor trains. The Geminids present several swift movers and fireballs, and the darker skies you have access to, the more you’ll see. Be sure to dress warm (it is winter out there!) and make a point to count and record your observations. Meteor shower observing is one of the few remaining scientific endeavors that remains low tech. Also, don’t forget to participate in the #meteorwatch via Twitter! This shower has a broad peak, and will be active the week of December 12th until the 18th, when the solstice-centered Ursids become active. In fact, there are some indications that the Geminids have been increasing in activity over the past decade, and certainly there’s a lot of material out there. The predicted peak centers on 5:00 AM UTC, just past midnite Tuesday morning from the US East Coast. And if that weren’t enough, it’s one of the last meteor showers with the Moon placed below the horizon until 2012; only the Quadrantids and Giacobinids have the same favorable geometry in 2011. Good luck, and be sure not to miss this unique meteor shower!         

The astro-term for this week is the Yarkovsky Effect. The parent body that produces the Geminids, 3200 Phaethon, harbors somewhat of a mystery. Discovered in 1983, this space rock has been identified as the source of the Geminid meteor stream.NASA researchers estimate a massive amount of material exists, more than 100 times that of the average meteor stream. Unlike most streams that emanate from comets, however, 3200 Phaethon is an asteroid. Or is it an inactive comet? The mystery deepens, as the color of this strange rock is very similar to another asteroid, Pallas. 3200 Phaeton’s path sees it passing within Mercury’s orbit every 1.4 years, which brings it well within the realm of the Yarkovsky effect. This is the tiny bit of momentum imparted on a rotating body as it re-radiates photons absorbed from the Sun. On large bodies the effect may be negligible, but on tiny asteroids it can produce major changes in orbit over time. In fact, employing the Yarkovsky Effect by changing the reflectivity of an Earth-crossing asteroid is one way of possibly deflecting a lethal space rock. Is 3200 Phaethon a dormant comet or the remnant of an asteroid belt break up? This is one worldlet that definitely begs future exploration.      

Reports are coming in that people from all over the UK saw a very bright object streak across the sky!

The Object was reported to be incredibly bright with a flash which lit up the ground and then the object streaked across the sky, leaving a bright green tail in its wake!

Unfortunately I missed this amazing spectacle(drat!!!) and the first I herd of it was from a call I received from the BBC.  BBC Radio 5 Live have had hundreds of text messages and calls from people who saw the event, and called me to ask if i new what it was?

The object was most definately a Meteor and would be refered to as a fireball or bolide (an incredibly bright fireball). What also makes me say this was a bolide is the apparent brightness duration (over 5 seconds) and its green tail. Typical of past bolide sightings from around the world.

Many people who saw the object reported a green tail and the reason for this is, the material the meteor is composed of oxidizes as it burns up. Most meteors are metalic and composed of iron with other trace metals. In tonights meteor's case it more than likely contained copper which is green when it oxidizes.

Reports of direction are sketchy, some people say south to North and Some say East to West, so we are unsure of its point of origin at present. Could it be an early chunk of the Geminids Meteor shower which peaks in the morning of the 14th December and is best seen the night before on the 13th through to the small hours? or is it a sporadic meteor? (please see below for mor explanations on what are meteors)

Please report your sightings on twitter using the hastag #meteorwatch or #meteor and join in with the Geminid Meteorwatch on Twitter on the evening of the 13th December 2011 Will it be a shower to remember?

I may be on BBC Radio 5 live at 11 – 11:30pm and will be discussing tonights fireball live from the Astrobunker.

What are Meteors?

Meteors are usually dust or sand grain sized pieces of rock which speed through space up to tens or hundreds of kilometers a second and when they enter the Earths atmosphere they burn up, creating bright or brilliant streaks across the sky.

Often referred to as "Shooting Stars" they can be seen randomly on most clear evenings and can be few or far between, these are called "Sporadic Meteors". A sporadic meteor can appear anywhere in the sky and from any direction.

You may be lucky enough and by chance to see larger sized pieces of debris burn up in the atmosphere causing very bright and enduring meteors, often referred to as "Fire Balls" or "Bolides". These are quite a sight and can last for several seconds in some cases.

Several times a year and on specific dates we have "Meteor Showers". A meteor shower is usually the left over debris from the tail of a comet which has in the past, passed through the Earths orbit or orbital plane around the sun. Because we know where and when these encounters happened we can accurately predict when the Earth will pass through the debris trail.

Some meteor showers only produce a hand full of meteors per hour and some produce up to a hundred or more meteors per hour. This is known as a "Zenithal Hourly Rate" or ZHR. We can also predict where in the sky or from what direction the meteor shower will come from, this is called the "Radiant".

A meteor shower will get its name from the constellation of stars the radiant occurs in, e.g. Perseids (Perseus), Leonids (Leo) and Geminids (Gemini) etc. A meteor is not to be confused with a "Meteorite" which is a meteor which has struck the surface of the planet, often very small pebble or stone sized.

Meteorites in extreme cases can be large, anything from the size of a football to many hundreds of Meters or Kilometers across. The Meteorite suspected of wiping out the Dinosaurs 65 million years ago, is estimated to have been 6 kilometers in diameter!

When @VirtualAstro asked me if I could share with you some impressions or tips and tricks about Meteor Shower observations, I did my homework and had a look at the previous blog entries. So I discovered that Astroguyz offered a concise, yet comprehensive overview of the most important tips to keep in mind when looking for meteors, complemented by Mark Zaugg’s post, while Deirdre Kellaghan shared with you the beauty of seeing such celestial show. So there I was in trouble, with both the technical and emotional parts already fully covered.

 

It is at this point when I decided to look at Meteor Showers from the most familiar point of view to me – outreach, the very core of #MeteorWatch, but taking into account a rather often situation: lay people whose selective memory only makes them recall that during a particular night – the peak – they can go out and see hundreds of shooting stars with their naked eye. As easy as that.

 

When I was back in Bucharest, at my astronomy club, this translated into visitors coming at the Astronomical Observatory, which is placed rather in the middle of the city, to see the shooting stars they had read about in the newspapers. With the light pollution around us and the limited time for visiting, you can imagine that most of them left the observatory rather disappointed and most certainly discouraged if this was the phenomenon astronomers proudly rated as top 3 next to eclipses and auroras, as Astroguyz correctly points out.

 

So I thought of a few ideas for observatories, planetariums, science centres etc. Ideas which I’m hopping will encourage you to share some of your Perseids outreach experiences with the public.

 

Close the observatory/planetarium and move to a dark area

 

You are not going to need instruments anyway so here’s your chance of not being dependent on a certain location. Plan to set up your observing station in a darker area, like a bigger park or somewhere at the outskirts of the city. Make sure you consult with public authorities and have their permission as well as security arranged.

 

Check your selected location during several nights and see if problems occur, like lighting from neighbouring areas. If it’s a park, arrange with local authorities to reduce the lighting during that night. If it’s an area next to the city, inform the locals in the area of the event, stressing the importance of dark skies and, better off, encourage them to join the event.

 

Invite people

 

Make an announcement inviting people to join you for a star party to hunt meteors together. Give precise details of location, directions and map how to get there, but also establish a meeting point from where to go together.

Include a list of things to have like warm clothes, sleeping bag and blankets, red light, recording devices (and obviously internet connection to join the global community at #MeteorWatch )

 

Open a single communication channel where people can register and keep in touch until the event and make sure you point this out in the announcement.

 

Send the announcement to the press, place it on your website, tweet it, put it on Facebook, make a poster, distribute flyers to visitors in the prior nights. Basically, use all available channels as best you can.

 

Apart from the general announcement, invite some key people to whom you would like to impress with your activities for future collaborations: journalists from newspapers or online portals, bloggers and, why not, even local authorities.

 

Create a community

 

Use a communication channel, whether it is your Twitter account, Facebook page, a discussion group, a forum etc. to bind these people into a community. After all, they will be sharing one amazing experience.

 

Invite people to subscribe there and encourage them to bring their families and friends or share cars with other participants if they have free places.

 

Get people ready by telling them more about meteor showers, presenting them how the observations should be done, sharing tips and tricks, do’s and don’ts. Develop resources like maps to download or direct them towards the MeteorWatch website. Explain them how they can actually make science if they submit their observation to #MeteorWatch with location details which you can provide.

 

Run the event

 

Meet your community, hope for good weather and go observe the shooting stars, enjoying this wonder of the night sky.

 

Go around the groups of people and make sure everything is alright, see how they are submitting information, explain more if the case, but be discrete. After all you want them to look up the sky.

 

Evaluate, reward and keep in touch

 

After a good day’s sleep, have a look and see the impact of your event: how many people attended, how many tweets were there, how the event was covered in the media before and after the event. Write down what went well and what went wrong and make sure you improve next year.

 

Spot the most active or enthusiastic participants and give them a free entrance to your observatory/planetarium. They might be one step away from becoming amateur astronomers.

 

Keep your community active. Thank people for joining, encourage them to share their impressions and to give you feedback. Continue sending them information to keep them interested.

 

 

Do it again next year. Bigger. Better.

 

Oana Sandu is working as Community and Outreach Support at ESO’s education and Public Outreach Department and she’s an amateur astronomer affiliated to Astroclub Bucharest.

 

@oanasandu & @ESO_Observatory

When @VirtualAstro asked me if I could share with you some impressions or tips and tricks about Meteor Shower observations, I did my homework and had a look at the previous blog entries. So I discovered that Astroguyz offered a concise, yet comprehensive overview of the most important tips to keep in mind when looking for meteors, complemented by Mark Zaugg’s post, while Deirdre Kellaghan shared with you the beauty of seeing such celestial show. So there I was in trouble, with both the technical and emotional parts already fully covered.

 

It is at this point when I decided to look at Meteor Showers from the most familiar point of view to me – outreach, the very core of #MeteorWatch, but taking into account a rather often situation: lay people whose selective memory only makes them recall that during a particular night – the peak – they can go out and see hundreds of shooting stars with their naked eye. As easy as that.

 

When I was back in Bucharest, at my astronomy club, this translated into visitors coming at the Astronomical Observatory, which is placed rather in the middle of the city, to see the shooting stars they had read about in the newspapers. With the light pollution around us and the limited time for visiting, you can imagine that most of them left the observatory rather disappointed and most certainly discouraged if this was the phenomenon astronomers proudly rated as top 3 next to eclipses and auroras, as Astroguyz correctly points out.

 

So I thought of a few ideas for observatories, planetariums, science centres etc. Ideas which I’m hopping will encourage you to share some of your Perseids outreach experiences with the public.

 

1.    Close the observatory/planetarium and move to a dark area

 

You are not going to need instruments anyway so here’s your chance of not being dependent on a certain location. Plan to set up your observing station in a darker area, like a bigger park or somewhere at the outskirts of the city. Make sure you consult with public authorities and have their permission as well as security arranged.

 

Check your selected location during several nights and see if problems occur, like lighting from neighbouring areas. If it’s a park, arrange with local authorities to reduce the lighting during that night. If it’s an area next to the city, inform the locals in the area of the event, stressing the importance of dark skies and, better off, encourage them to join the event.

 

2.    Invite people

 

Make an announcement inviting people to join you for a star party to hunt meteors together. Give precise details of location, directions and map how to get there, but also establish a meeting point from where to go together.

Include a list of things to have like warm clothes, sleeping bag and blankets, red light, recording devices (and obviously internet connection to join the global community at #MeteorWatch )

 

Open a single communication channel where people can register and keep in touch until the event and make sure you point this out in the announcement.

 

Send the announcement to the press, place it on your website, tweet it, put it on Facebook, make a poster, distribute flyers to visitors in the prior nights. Basically, use all available channels as best you can.

 

Apart from the general announcement, invite some key people to whom you would like to impress with your activities for future collaborations: journalists from newspapers or online portals, bloggers and, why not, even local authorities.

 

3.    Create a community

 

Use a communication channel, whether it is your Twitter account, Facebook page, a discussion group, a forum etc. to bind these people into a community. After all, they will be sharing one amazing experience.

 

Invite people to subscribe there and encourage them to bring their families and friends or share cars with other participants if they have free places.

 

Get people ready by telling them more about meteor showers, presenting them how the observations should be done, sharing tips and tricks, do’s and don’ts. Develop resources like maps to download or direct them towards the MeteorWatch website. Explain them how they can actually make science if they submit their observation to #MeteorWatch with location details which you can provide.

 

4.    Run the event

 

Meet your community, hope for good weather and go observe the shooting stars, enjoying this wonder of the night sky.

 

Go around the groups of people and make sure everything is alright, see how they are submitting information, explain more if the case, but be discrete. After all you want them to look up the sky.

 

5.    Evaluate, reward and keep in touch

 

After a good day’s sleep, have a look and see the impact of your event: how many people attended, how many tweets were there, how the event was covered in the media before and after the event. Write down what went well and what went wrong and make sure you improve next year.

 

Spot the most active or enthusiastic participants and give them a free entrance to your observatory/planetarium. They might be one step away from becoming amateur astronomers.

 

Keep your community active. Thank people for joining, encourage them to share their impressions and to give you feedback. Continue sending them information to keep them interested.

 

 

6.    Do it again next year. Bigger. Better.

 

Oana Sandu is working as Community and Outreach Support at ESO’s education and Public Outreach Department and she’s an amateur astronomer affiliated to Astroclub Bucharest.

 

@oanasandu & @ESO_Observatory

    

The Perseid meteor shower is named for the constellation Perseus, from where the meteors appear to originate. The Perseid meteor shower is one of the most prolific showers of the year, with an average peak rate of 50- 80 streaks per hour, in darker skies. Meteors are the visible paths of vaporizing space debris as it encounters our planet’s atmosphere.

This debris, known as meteoroids, ranges in size from dust particles to small pebbles, and occasionally larger stones. As a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it is heated by friction, which vaporizes the debris and causes the gases (both atmospheric and meteoritic) to glow. Most meteoroids disintegrate at about 30-60 miles above the surface, but become visible at about 40-75 miles.

Meteoroids orbit the Sun just like planets, comets, and asteroids. They travel at speeds of about 26 mps, but, when combined with Earth’s orbital speed of about 18 mps, enter our atmosphere at a velocity rate of about 44 mps. The meteoroids associated with the Perseid meteor shower enter the Earth’s atmosphere at about 37 mps. Our planet encounters space debris every day, thus meteors are actually visible all year long.

Occasionally, Earth passes through thicker patches of debris, known as streams or swarms, resulting in a meteor “shower.” Meteoroid streams, or swarms, have orbits similar to those of comets, thus are believed to be fields of comet debris resulting from a comet’s closing approach of the Sun.

The Perseid meteor shower has been associated with the ancient debris field of Comet 109/Swift-Tuttle. Comet Swift-Tuttle leaves new debris each time it passes our planet – every 130 years. This debris field has the appearance of several streams, each measuring millions of miles long.

The Swift-Tuttle debris streams are comprised of small widely-spaced particles. Most of the meteoroids are about the size of sand grains, but some may be as large as small pebbles. With a core diameter of about 26km, comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest known object, and one of the oldest comets, to regularly pass closely to our planet.

Comet Swift-Tuttle was originally recorded by Chinese astronomers in 69 BC and 188AD, but was formally discovered in 1862, by Lewis Swift on July 16, and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on July 19. Three others also independently discovered this comet: Dudley Observatory’s Thomas Simons; Antonio Pacinotti and Carlo Toussaint from Florence, Italy; and Danish Astronomer Hans Schjellerup. Comet Swift-Tuttle was “rediscovered” in 1992 by Tsuruhiko Kiuchi, ten years after its expected return of 1982.

That year, the comet reached 5th magnitude, making it easily visible through binoculars. Comet Swift-Tuttle will pass within 14-million-miles of our planet when it next returns in 2126. Scientists believe that the comet will be even brighter than the 1992 pass, and likely readily visible to even unaided eyes.

Astronomers once believed that comet Swift-Tuttle might, in the relatively near future, pass close enough to actually impact Earth or the Moon. While continued observations and recalculations have dispelled that concern for at least the next 2,000 years, this comet remains one of the greatest known solar system threats to our planet.

Source Material: NASA Worldbook JPL’s Solar System Dynamics Gary Kronk’s Cometography Astronomical Society of the Pacific Space.com Wikipedia

See more from Tavi at her site A Sky Full of Stars and follow her on Twitter @TaviGreiner

 

There is nothing in this world that captures the imagination the same way as a meteor.  It's an experience that is embedded in our very psyche.  We all know to wish upon a falling star.  Think of how often you see a painting of a star with a swooping tail – it's theme that is found in advertising, on video games, in movies, or anyplace you want to show the beauty of a star with the energy of motion.

 

Seeing the streak of a meteor rapidly flashing across the sky is not the same as what is usually displayed in popular culture.  A meteor can be such a quick flash that you may not be sure you really saw it, or it can be a fireball that is unmistakable and beautiful.  It is a sight that is best seen live.

 

I've looked forward to the 12th and 13th of August for years – the Perseid meteor shower peaks on those days.  Being able to predict a high number of meteors over a short period of time gives us a big advantage of having a successful night observing meteors.  My local weather tends to be nice with warm nights, and the shower is big enough you have extra chances in case one the first night is cloudy.

 

I want to make an invitation to everyone world wide to join me and thousands of others for Meteorwatch.  The event will officially run from the 11th through the 14th of August.  The objective of Meteorwatch is to give you the best chance possible to see a meteor in person.  If your area is clouded over, we will share our photographs and observations from around the world.

 

Observing meteors is very simple to do – find the darkest place you can find and be prepared to look up for a while.  No extra equipment is required, you don't have to leave the city – although it will certainly help if you can.  If you are in a very dark area it is likely you'll see a meteor at least every half hour or so and much more if you're experienced or up later at night.  If you've never seen a meteor before, we will share plenty of tips to help you discover one live.  If you're an experienced observer, please share your experiences, observations and photos.  You can begin as soon as it gets dark, but for best results you'll want to be out late – I've had best success between 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning.  With Meteorwatch being a world wide event, there will always be someone online to help out.

 

Best of all, Meteorwatch is a fun event where you'll find hundreds of people having a great time together in person and online.

 

Watch for more news on http://www.meteorwatch.org or follow http://twitter.com/VirtualAstro for more details.

 

 

Mark Zaugg is an amateur astronomer and enthusiast who has introduced dozens of people to the excitement of seeing a meteor in person.  You can find him at http://twitter.com/Zarquil

The interactive Twitter Meteor Map is Here.

Now you will be able to tweet if you have seen a meteor straight from twitter, On your computer or from your phone, just like you would for any normal tweet and see your observations appear on the "Meteor Map" in real time.

 

 

The meteor map couldn't be simpler to use: Just send a normal tweet with a little bit of information (More instructions at the bottom of the map page) and your results will appear on the map.

As well as looking up, enjoying the night sky with us and seeing meteors, maybe for the first time? We encourage everyone to send tweets telling us when they see meteors (shooting stars) and contribute to science and have some fun at the same time.

The results of the meteor map will be shared with organisations such as the British Astronomical Association and your results will contribute to serious science, so we can learn more about our solar system.