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Anticipating the Perseids
The 2001 Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 12th.
Will it be an extraordinary sky show like last year --
or a moonlit disappointment?

Wake up early and find out.



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July 31, 2001
Summer nights and shooting stars. They're an unbeatable combination. That's why northern sky watchers look forward so to the annual Perseid meteor shower in August. During the shower's peak, which happens this year on August 12th, dozens and sometimes hundreds of meteors shoot across the sky every hour. Dark-sky observers who stay out all night sometimes count more than a thousand!

The much-anticipated Perseids, as reliable as clockwork, rarely fail to please. Around this time last year, however, enthusiasts were bracing for something unusual: Perseid disappointment. On the night of the shower's 2000 maximum, the Moon was to be nearly Full. It would outshine all but the brightest shooting stars.

Jimmy Westlake captured this photo of a Perseid meteor
streaking through Northern Lights on Aug. 12, 2000.
In the foreground is Hahn's Peak, an extinct volcano in Colorado.
(Click The Pic)
(More)

Undaunted, sky watchers went outdoors in great numbers. Perhaps it was simply habit. After all, the Perseids have been putting on their annual show for more than two thousand years. Veteran meteor watchers call the shower "Old Faithful" and many figured it might be worth watching in spite of the Moon's glare.

They were right. Indeed, it was a night that no sky watcher was likely to forget -- ever!

Just as hopeful observers were settling in for a long spell of meteor watching, the sky erupted in color. A billion-ton cloud of electrified gas from the Sun (a "coronal mass ejection") had crashed into Earth's magnetic field and ignited widespread auroras. All across North America sheets of red and green and purple light danced across the sky, stunning onlookers.

That's when the Perseids showed up.
(Full Story Here)

Cheers,
Dan