Archives for the 'meteors' Category
Leonid Update
Published on 20 Nov 2006 at 2:34 pm.
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Filed under meteors, skywatching.
Well, the data seems to be coming in. The Leonids were pretty pitiful this weekend. Preliminary data from the International Meteor Organization suggests that the peak was about when expected, but at best less than half of the expected strength. But, after the peak, the activity just dropped off to next to nothing. We saw […]
2006 Leonids
Published on 15 Nov 2006 at 5:52 pm.
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The Leonid Meteors are famous among meteor observers. For much of my life in astronomy, I have heard about the 1966 Leonid storm. The entire sky was lit up with meteors, perhaps a dozen per second. Even that paled compared to the 1833 Leonid storm, which is what really started astronomers looking at meteors. Until […]
October’s Orionid Meteors
Published on 12 Oct 2006 at 1:11 am.
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October of every year brings meteors. Actually there are several meteor showers in October, but the biggest one is the Orionid meteor shower. The Orionids aren’t the biggest, nor the best meteor showers of the year, but they are predictable and quite reliable. Another nice thing about the Orionids is that they are associated with […]
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The Odessa Crater
Published on 17 Sep 2006 at 12:17 pm.
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Filed under meteors, travel.
If you are travelling through west Texas on I-20, there’s a great place to stop just west of Odessa. It is a hole in the ground. While that might not sound exciting, this hole was made by a meteorite impact some 50,000 years ago. This crater is really pretty easy to get […]
The Perseid Meteors
Published on 11 Aug 2006 at 12:22 am.
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Filed under meteors, skywatching.
Saturday, August 12, is the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. The Perseids always put on a good show, but this year is likely to be pretty washed out by a very large, bright moon. In fact, this hasn’t been a great year for meteor showers. It seems that the Moon has […]
