WHERE: Fairfield Elementary, 26960 County Road 96 Davis.

EXPLORIT SCIENCE CENTER/DAVIS ASTRONOMY CLUB PRESENT:

Perseid Meteor Showers!
Friday, August 12, 2005
8:30 p.m. to midnight at Fairfield Elementary, Davis
26960 County Road 96, Davis
(at the intersection of Russell Blvd. (Road 32) and Country Road 96)
Hosts: Vinita & Calvin Domier (530) 756-0191, vcdomier@yahoo.com

Join us Friday, August 12th starting at 8:30 p.m. to watch fireworks in the night sky due to the annual Perseid meteor shower. We will gather at Fairfield Elementary School (in West Davis) to get away from Davis city lights. To watch the meteor shower, all you need are dark skies, a reclining chair or blanket to lie on, and a jacket or blanket to keep you warm. Point your toes northeastward and look half way up the sky. Make sure you have an unobstructed view of the sky and look in all directions. The first quarter moon will set before midnight, enhancing the darkness of the night sky.

If you bring a flashlight, please make sure it has a red filter. A good substitute is to use a brown paper bag. Also please note: There are no restrooms available at Fairfield Elementary.

There are 10 different annual meteor showers. The Perseid meteor shower are most familiar as they occur in August (when the nights are relatively warm) and there are lots of meteors per hour (average 60/hr). During its peak (on Aug. 11 and Aug 12 nights) some of them will streak across the sky leaving long and colorful trails Even though meteors are visible anywhere in the sky, their apparent direction of motion is away from a specific area in the sky called the radiant. Meteor showers are named after the constellation the radiant appears to be in. Perseid meteor showers radiate from the Perseus Constellation in the NE sky

The best times to see meteor showers are between midnight and sunrise closest to their peaks. Meteor showers are visible a few nights before and after their peaks. While some meteors are visible between sunset and midnight, more meteors are visible after midnight as the radiant is higher in the sky and an observer on Earth is able to see meteors that are coming 'head-on' at Earth and the ones 'overtaken' by Earth. Before midnight, an observer can only see meteors that are overtaken. Meteors seen near the radiant have short trails, as they seem to be coming straight at the observer. Those seen far from the radiant have longer trails as they are observed broadside.

Meteors are often mislabeled as shooting or falling stars. Astronomical speaking, meteors are the luminous streaks in the sky caused by debris particles. Meteoroids are the dust and rock particles in space, and meteorites are any parts that survive Earth's atmosphere and land on the ground. As meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere from interplanetary space at high speeds, they are vaporized because of friction with air molecules. The light caused by these glowing vapors moves through the sky like a fast moving star forming visible trails and streaks.

Meteor showers occur when the revolving Earth passes through a stream of debris left in the wake of a comet during its perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) when it gets heated. As a comet is a 'dirty snowball', some of its gases vaporize into a tail carrying dust and tiny fragments. These particles continue to orbit around the sun in the same orbit as the parent comet. When Earth goes through the point in space where the two orbits intersect, it results in annual meteor showers. Perseid meteors are attributed to Comet Swift-Tuttle (period 130 yrs.)

As comets comprise mostly of ice, they may have brought water (essential for life) to Earth through repeated collisions. NASA has recently launched spacecrafts to rendezvous and study comets. Deep Impact released an impactor and photographed it crashing into Comet Tempel1 on 7/4/2005. Stardust passed through the tail of Comet Wild2 on 1/2/ 2004, collecting comet particles to bring back to Earth on 1/15/2006. ESA's Rosetta will land on a comet in 2014.

In addition to observing the Perseids, there will be telescopes to look at Venus (mag. -3.8 in Leo, setting at 9:49pm), Jupiter (mag. -1.7 in Virgo, setting at 11.07pm), and the Moon (1st Qrt. in Libra, setting at 11.43pm). Saturn (mag. +0.2 in Cancer, sets at 7:54pm) and Mars (mag. -0.5 in Pisces, rises at 11:59pm). Moon phases: New: 8/4, First Qrt: 8/12, Full: 8/19, Last Qrt: 8/26.

Contact Vinita Domier at vcdomier@yahoo.com to receive these bulletins via e-mail.

The Astronomy Club is for everyone - adults, children, knowledgeable or ignorant. Come to listen, look and learn, or to share your expertise or experience.