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Space Science

Bootid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight 51

Posted by timothy from the very-cheap-date dept.
beanerspace writes: "It's a crap shoot, but some time around 3:00am EST tonight, put down the mouse and take a lookup the Big Dipper's tail. CNN, in an article entitled Meteor shower could be feast for eyes and ears reported that tonights display might be worth your while."
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Bootid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight More

Bootid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight

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  • Shame on /. for not proofing the post..
    Shame^2 on me for not reading the article and looking outside like a moron..

    The moral here is, RTFA
  • but some time around 3:00am EST tonight, put down the mouse and take a lookup the Big Dipper's tail.

    At 3:00am there's more than a mouse in my hand.


    Murphy's Law of Copiers

  • This is why we need W's star wars system up there looking for anything that enters our space-space (like air-space...) - so we can be told when there is enough crap heading our way to be worth going out to look at.
    I've spent too many nights looking for leonids, bootids, taurids, you-nameit-ids on the advice of New Scientist, Sky at Night and /. without seeing more than a few shooting stars and some bats to have bothered with this one.
    Now don't get me wrong - bats are cool - but when you've been promised the best free firework display in the history of the earth they don't really cut it.
    Roll on the ultimate spook machine! and guarantee we see something worthwhile. And if there are no natural ones to see this month - it could just shoot down some commie satelites to give us something to see!
  • Wow, I knew that the University of Arizona's astronomy department was world famous, but who would have thought their computer science deaprtment's website would be so informative on the Bootids. Thanks!
  • The big showers coming up are going to be due to the leonids around November 18-19. Scientists have developed methods that allow for the accurate prediction of showers and storms for these meteors by looking at the perturbations of dust trails.

    Check out this [arm.ac.uk] link to the Armagh observatory.

    The method they use successfully predicted the peak to within about 5 minutes last year.

    The estimates for the Americas this year are 2500 per hour and something like 30,000 per hour at peak in 2002!

  • Howdy All! just came in from outside, didn't see any meteors, but was visited by many friendly lightning bugs (fireflies) =^.^=
  • ...am I the only one that read the title of this article and saw Boot ID? And wondered if Meteor was some new file system for Linux?

    I gotta get out more...

  • Dammit...I was only 23 hours late because of that EST bullshit. Still not close enough.
  • Well, this article may be late so most of us probably missed that meteor shower, but fortunately there are 3 more meteor showers [skypub.com] later this year. The next one is, of course, the annual Perseids shower in August.. Too bad I'll most likely be on a plane August 12, but until then, I'll hopefully have a nice view from the middle of the ocean, the weather permitting. (:

    --

  • No, the shower actually peaked Wednesday night / Thursday morning. See this page on the Bootids [amsmeteors.org], which explains that the maximum of activity falls on the 28th.

    It would have been nice if the article had given more than a few hours' notice but it was not 24 hours out of date as was claimed.

    -- SE

  • Oh no!!

    Tiberium!!!

    If anyone wants me I'll be hiding from the return of Kane.

    Beware all those that mocked the C&C universe!

  • "...entitled Meteor shower could be feast for eyes and ears..."

    And I thought in space no one could hear you scream.....

  • Just that this morning (0300EST,06/28/01) is in the range of activity. The article states: Although the shower peaks on June 27th, it takes place at lower intensities from June 26th until July 2nd.

    Standing north of Pittsburgh, PA about 20km, I was able to spot one 'meteor' that I'm certain of (sudden point of light with tail appearing for a moment) to the upper-left of Big Dipper, and a few others that seemed really faint, so I'm not sure.

    So, if you didn't watch it last night, keep your eyes fixed on that region. You may be lucky enough to catch at least one - which is a treat well worth the effort. :-)
  • "Astronomers expect it to reach its peak Wednesday around 3 a.m. EDT"

    Don't know about you, but in the midwestern USA that was just about 24 hours ago. Little late on the draw there, Tex..
  • I'm in the middle of nowhere and all I have to blame for bad viewing of this kind of thing, not to mention the Northern Lights or the sun, is God. When you yell at society for polluting your air, at least it won't get you on the early train to hell.
  • It was pleasant to see a story on CNN that did more than tell me to go to AOL for more info, or tell me what movies are playing on AOL-Time-Warner-owned channels tonight. Hell, it was a story aimed at getting people away from their TVs for a while. If only for that, I'm going to look for it.


    "You know, the golf course is the only place he isn't handicapped."

  • the seeds of life (Score:3)

    by deathcow ( 455995 ) on Wednesday June 27, 2001 @10:25PM (#123802)
    The interesting thing about meteor showers is that they occur when we pass through the tail of comets. Successive orbits of the parent comets leave more meteorites for us Earthlings to enjoy on future Earth orbits.

    Some people theorize that the very seeds of life are left in these trails, and are thereby delivered to the planets which orbit through them. There are and thousands thousands of comets in our system alone, each trailing their own brew of materials behind them.

    Interesting no?

  • .. oh wait that's just iridium flash.
  • Of course, I missed the ealier post from someone on the same plane of reality as I am... Feh. Someone needs his beauty sleep.

  • Leonids will be the big show (Score:5)

    by imipak ( 254310 ) on Thursday June 28, 2001 @02:19AM (#123805) Journal
    The Leonids are likely to produce a really spectacular show this November. You may recall that there's been considerable hype over this shower in the last few years. This is because the Earth's orbit intersects the densest part of the stream once every 33 years, and we're at that point roughly now. In addition, every few hundred years the Leonids produce a truly awesome outburst - rates of the order of 100,000 per hour. The last few years' results have allowed various models of the stream dynamics to firm up their numbers; the best model's predictions for last year were spot on. This same model predicts a large outburst in 2001.

    NAMN [infoave.net] (the North American Meteor Network) or the IMO [imo.net] (International Meteor Organisation, which is actually amateur - same as NAMN) are good starting points, or try the Google Directory [google.com] or DMOZ Open Directory [dmoz.org] meteor sections for much more background reading. I strongly, strongly recommend doing some research before November, getting a bit of practice in, then do what I've done - book some time off work! :-)


    --
    "I'm not downloaded, I'm just loaded and down"

  • Read the book! The movies were crap.

    - Steeltoe
  • I only spent 10 minutes observing before the mosquitos started eating me alive. I must have about 10 bites already...

    Anyway, despite this not being the peak hours, I was able to see a couple comets. Not a complete bust, but I probably should have read the article before heading out...
  • Bummer. If you didn't see the original, the line sung by the lips at the beginning of Rocky Horror makes no sense (unless, of course, Jeanette Scott was also in the BBC version).

    "... and I really got hot when I saw Jeanette Scott fight the Triffid that spits poision and kills"

  • Successive orbits of the parent comets leave more meteorites

    meteorite: an object which reaches the ground
    meteor: an object which enters the atmosphere
    meteoroid: an object which is still in space

    Some people theorize that the very seeds of life are left in these trails.

    Planets themselves are made of the same stuff; these bits just happen to accrete later.

  • Smog isn't the problem so much as light. It does have an effect, but most places that have smog have a lot of light pollution [skypub.com] as well. I remember a friend who grew up in L.A. who freaked out the first time he went out to the desert at night and actually saw the Milky Way.

  • Things to look up for (a whole month in advance) (Score:3)

    by eXtro ( 258933 ) on Thursday June 28, 2001 @04:52AM (#123811) Homepage
    What's Up This Month [learnwhatsup.com] is an up to date guide to astronomical events. It's got a daily to do list of things to look for as well as seperate areas for comets and meteors etc.

    I noticed that the bootid shower isn't listed, which is odd, but its really a very good service.

  • There's a review of The Day of the Triffids here [rosettabooks.com]. Another great vegetation-out-to-get-us movie from the same era is The Thing, [scifi.com] a precursor to all the Alien movies.

    Keep watching the skies!
  • Don't worry about looking for the "tail of the big dipper." You can see meteors all over the sky, so it doesn't matter where you look. The radiant point is just where they all appear to come from -- if you traced their lines back, you'd see them intersect in Bootes.

    Your best bet for meteor watching is to find a comfortable chair and a place where you can watch a large part of the sky. And make sure to find the darkest skies possible. [darksky.org] (Insert rant about light pollution here.) You might also want to make sure it's not cloudy.

  • Anybody else's initial reaction to this news the same as mine?

    Until I recognized that it was referring to Bootes the constellation, my first impression was that it had somethhing to do with the MBR or maybe LILO or init processes...

    Would that make the BootID shower something like a fork bomb?

  • For those of you in Southern California the local astronomical groups have been able to cordon off a huge section of land in the Joshua Tree state park that is a light pollution free zone. I've been out in the park before and the night sky is great. Being able to see all of the stars on star charts is quite the experience for a city dweller like me. Joshua Tree is a ways from LA but it is worth the drive if you're at all interested in seeing a pretty awesome light show for free. I've seen a Leonid shower from the park and I lost count at 142 meteors. If you do go out there remember it is a desert and contains all the sorts of things deserts contains and lacks what deserts usually lack, namely water. Most of my 25 kilo bag was water and I took a purifier with me because there's a few streams in the area I was hiking. Run away from pulsating cacti and bushes that rattle.
  • youre retarded if youre serious and witless if youre not
  • I'm a huge Rocky Horror fan. You don't really need to see the movie to know what the line means.

    Now to go put on my black stockings and do the time warp...

    ---

  • .

    Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted.

    Reason: One character. Hmmm. Gee, might this be a troll?

    Um, no. It's a message that doesn't need a body, you fuckhead.

  • Smog (Score:1)

    by clinko ( 232501 )
    This would be great if there wasn't any smog....

  • Scared (Score:3)

    by Goldberg's Pants ( 139800 ) on Wednesday June 27, 2001 @09:43PM (#123820) Journal
    Every time I hear about things like this, I can't help but think about Day of the Triffids.

    ---

  • It would have been nice to know this YESTERDAY! (Score:5)

    by Julius X ( 14690 ) on Wednesday June 27, 2001 @09:47PM (#123821) Homepage
    ...when the shower actually was.

    Astronomers expect it to reach its peak Wednesday around 3 a.m. EDT

    Which was 24 hours ago people......the article is dated two days ago. Someone's asleep at the wheel.

    -Julius X

  • Here's some background info (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sort of a man page [arizona.edu] on the Bootid meteor shower, you geeks will love it.
  • What, you think we have nothing better to do at 3AM in the morning? What, are we just a bunch of pathetic geeks who never venture out from behind our computers until the night has fallen and dead have risen?

    Er...hm...uh....

    Ah crap, you win. I'll be outside looking at the stars if anybody needs me.
  • yup.. EDT is standard time... and tonight = last night
  • 3:00 am EDT. Daylight Saving Time is not Standard Time!

  • Space Weather (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    See the SpaceWeather [spaceweather.com] page for more details. There's a link to live radar echos there also.
  • All is not lost...

    Although the shower peaks on June 27th, it takes place at lower intensities from June 26th until July 2nd.

    Although, yeah,, a little proof reading would go a long way on this site...
  • yawn. Its 2:35am...but I can't stay awake any longer.


    Here come the mods to give me -1 thank you.

  • Not to poop... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    on anyone's parade here, but it seems this year's Bootid meteor show has already hit peak, and basically the show was lame. There were a few slow movers but otherwise, it sucked.

  • BootID Exploit cracks Earth's defenses! (Score:3)

    by maxwells_deamon ( 221474 ) on Wednesday June 27, 2001 @10:27PM (#123830) Homepage
    Chicken Little Discovers New Exploit Attempt

    Famous for her tales of "sky falling", Chicken Little today announced that her team of experts has discovered a new security threat: The BootID DOS Attack.

    Users should wear strong headgear and avoid looking up while this attack is occuring. A patch for the hole in the sky that this attack is aiming for is in development.

    The hacking community responded that basing security of any planet on blue sky and clouds was fool hardy. "We have been waiting for someone to notice the holes we have been punching in the sky over the last few years", rebutted Foxy Loxy.

    Click here for background material! [explorezone.com]

  • As I write this, the fortune at the bottom of the page reads:

    Better late than never. -- Titus Livius (Livy)

    So, not only is somebody alseep at the wheel, that somebody also thinks he's a clown.

    (Yeah, I know the fortune is random.)

    b&

  • Now we know where Pink Floyd came from (Score:3)

    by BierGuzzl ( 92635 ) on Wednesday June 27, 2001 @10:28PM (#123832)
    Damn, you gotta listen to the audio stream (which clearly indicates that the meteor shower already happened and that this article is a day late). Would be neat to clean it up a bit -- sounds like a flute in the background.
  • I disagree wholly with the idea of bootids; they're a way for manufacturers to tell when you've booted your computer. They'll probably log your OS, too, and check to see what porn you're viewing. It's an invasion of privacy. Down with Boot IDs! Who's with me! Let's march to Intel's front door, torches in hand, and burn the place down! YEAH!

    But not right now; there's a meteor shower going on I want to check out. And y'know, Slashdot ought to be reporting about it.

  • I'm not doing too badly! (Score:4)

    by OpCode42 ( 253084 ) on Wednesday June 27, 2001 @11:51PM (#123834) Homepage
    Its only June and this is my second shower of the year :)
  • Howdy all! just came in from outside, didn't see any meteors (pretty hazy here) but did see lots of friendly lightning bugs
  • Actually the BBC version they did in the early 80's. Scared the crap out of me, so much so that I never watch things like this, on the million to one shot that Wyndham was actually a prophet and not a sci-fi writer.

    ---

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