Wednesday 12 August 2009

Perseid meteor shower tonight - UPDATED

Tonight should be the peak of the Perseid meteor showers so if you, or any children you may or may not have spawned, have never seen a shooting star then tonight's your night.

Those members of the Brinkster clan who can stay awake will be camped out in hope of clear skies although the unpromising London light pollution is invariably a drawback on occasions such as this. Last year we spent a long weekend in Cornwall and late one night after others were in bed I lay out on the picnic table gazing at the multitude of stars that the clear Cornish skies were happy to reveal and although it took a while I was determined to stay out until I saw a shooting star and was rewarded by seeing a few of these distant travellers.

I'm no astronomy geek so I'll have to use the BBC article to remind myself where Perseus is but by my calculations the view from Brinkley Road might make it look like that meteors will be raining down upon the Hamptons, which might appear like some form of cosmic retribution...

BBC News - Perseid Meteor Advice
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8193769.stm

UPDATED: Twitter user BillPinnell has posted an amazing picture of last night's Perseids taken at 4.33am from his garden in Worcester Park. Looks like the show's worth staying up for! http://twitpic.com/dl4a9

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