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This past weekend was the annual Perseid meteor shower. Every August 11-12 is the peak of the shower where the Earth passes through the dust cloud left by comet Swift-Tuttle. This year it was also a year without the moon shining, making for a nice dark sky. It is also the only "warm" meteor shower as it is in August.
I wanted to try to get some photos of this event. Naomi and I went outside around 11:30 PM on Sunday night and I stayed out until about 2:30 AM. It was very enjoyable and we saw many good meteors, sometimes seeing two or three a minute. God's creation is amazing!
Unfortunately, I had the ISO turned down too low on my camera to really capture many on the night of the shower's peak. I only got one of good shot of a meteor flash in the sky. I tried again the next night and saw many more meteors, but only a few happened to go where my camera was pointed.. oh well. Who needs sleep?
Meteoroid: a small object in space, usually from the size of sand up to a boulder.
Meteor: said object hitting our atmosphere. Most meteors that we see in the sky are a the size of a grain of sand or smaller.
Meteorite: one of those objects that has made it through the atmosphere to hit the ground.
I actually own two meteorites. I wish I could say that I witnessed a dramatic bright streak in the sky and followed it to the impact crater where I discovered the meteorite fragments. Instead I found them in a cardboard box with silly trinkets at an auction.
I was waiting for something else to come up that I wanted to bid on so I was poking around looking at some boxes of junk when I discovered a couple of rocks. I was curious as to why their previous owner had wanted to keep these rocks and why they ended up in a box of trinkets. Upon further examination, I saw several tell-tale features of meteorites: fusion crust, "thumb prints" (the large hole), signs of melting, slight magnatisim, and an unusual weight for small stones. I then hovered over the box until it came up for bid. There was no bidding war, and I picked up two meteorites (and some junk) for $1. An elderly gentleman wanted one of the trinkets I was going to toss and paid me $2 for it! So I actually made a buck!
Labels: astronomy, Photography
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