Comments on: How big is the Parent Comet Swift-Tuttle that causes the Perseids each year?

By: chris

chris — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:29:58 +0000

was in Ocean City, MD last week and saw a huge fireball streak accross the entire sky. It was the best meteor i have ever seen. Pieces of it broke off and made their own seperate streaks. Would this have been related to Swift-Tuttle?

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:19:07 +0000

Agree on watching peak night moon or not. As a matter of fact I saw 5 in an hour of viewing last night with the moon glaring at my back. One was a nice -4 fireball that shot through the Cass/Ceph border.

By: Meteor

Meteor — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:45:41 +0000

Meteor Enthusiast,

The Perseids is coming soon. Keep your head up!

- Meteor Mark

By: Meteor

Meteor — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:26:27 +0000

Jacquie,

I wouldn’t be inclined to say Fireballs are common, but they don’t happen very often. I would consider them a moderately rare occurrence. You may have a chance to see a lot more of them on the 12th of August.

- Meteor Mark

By: jacquie

jacquie — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:19:26 +0000

Thanks Meteor Mark

I have a video clip – although not brilliant.

Do these fireballs happen often. I have not seen one previously although have sat out in August last year to watch a meteor shower over Wales.

By: Meteor

Meteor — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:17:58 +0000

Jacquie,

No you didn’t. Comets do not streak across the sky in the same manner as meteors or fireballs. I think you saw a fireball from your description.

There was a comet named Lulin that was visible in February 2009 check out this post COMET LULIN to see what a comet can look like in your night sky. You will notice it looks stationery. It is moving really fast, but it is just really far away from Earth.

Keep your head up!

- Meteor Mark

By: Jacquie

Jacquie — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:53:50 +0000

Did I see Swift Tuttle or just a meteor over Birmingham on 76 August at about 23:00 GMT?

By: Meteor

Meteor — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:23:46 +0000

Bill,

I agree, but don’t sacrifice missing the peak date to view other the dates. I like your comment and I would agree with all of it, 20 to 30 per hours is still very good.

- Meteor Mark

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:56:14 +0000

Thanks for the information, Mark. Hopefully lots of that debris will intersect our orbit this year!

Point of consideration – two or three early-mornings past-peak may be a good time to observe, as the moon will rise later and will be moving toward new moon. The morning of the 14th the moon will rise around local midnight and will of course be low on the horizon for a while. The following nights it gets even better. Of course, Perseid rates will be falling from the peak but 20 to 30 meteors per hour under dark skies (including sporadics and other showers) is still a pretty good show.