APOD: Meteor Shower: Perseids from Perseus (2023 Aug 09)

[APOD Robot]

Meteor Shower: Perseids from Perseus

Explanation: This is a good week to see meteors. Comet dust will rain down on planet Earth, streaking through dark skies during peak nights of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The featured composite image was taken during the 2018 Perseids from the Poloniny Dark Sky Park in Slovakia. The dome of the observatory in the foreground is on the grounds of Kolonica Observatory. Although the comet dust particles travel parallel to each other, the resulting shower meteors clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky in the eponymous constellation Perseus. The radiant effect is due to perspective, as the parallel tracks appear to converge at a distance, like train tracks. The Perseid Meteor Shower is expected to reach its highest peak on Saturday after midnight. Since a crescent Moon will rise only very late that night, cloudless skies will be darker than usual, making a high number of faint meteors potentially visible this year.

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[daddyo]

Really nice composite.

Is anyone familiar with software or script that’s good for detecting meteors in a captured video?

[randomuser]

Hi
Try UFO capture soft
https://sonotaco.com/soft/e_index.html
BR
Martin

[Bartolo]

The meteor shower seems to radiate from a central point, but actually radiates towards a central point: Earth's.

[johnnydeep]

The meteor shower seems to radiate from a central point, but actually radiates towards a central point: Earth's.

What do you mean by that? The Earth's gravity attracts the cometary debris particles when they get close enough, but the debris itself is in orbit around the Sun.

[orin stepanek]

There's a lot of junk in orbit from these comets that come and visit
the solar system! I'm just glad that they are very small!

[Bartolo]

What do you mean by that? The Earth's gravity attracts the cometary debris particles when they get close enough, but the debris itself is in orbit around the Sun.

I'm only talking about the debris entering the atmosphere. Do the trajectories tend to be parallel to each other, or perpendicular to Earth's surface? Slight difference.

[Chris Peterson]

What do you mean by that? The Earth's gravity attracts the cometary debris particles when they get close enough, but the debris itself is in orbit around the Sun.

I'm only talking about the debris entering the atmosphere. Do the trajectories tend to be parallel to each other, or perpendicular to Earth's surface? Slight difference.

The trajectories in the atmosphere are largely parallel to each other. There is some effect of Earth's gravity on the body, bending it slightly toward the Earth, which shifts the apparent radiant slightly (called zenith attraction). It's something we correct for when working backwards from meteor trails to parent body orbits. But the substantial component of the meteor path lies fairly close to its original path. So to a first order and reasonable approximation, we can consider all the meteors to be in parallel paths until they burn up. Their angle with respect to the surface depends on where they intersect the atmosphere- perpendicular for meteors centered on the planet, parallel for grazing meteors.

[Ann]

I very much appreciate the learned discussions between Johnny and Chris, but I have nothing to add there, so let me add the pretty pictures!

Meteor Shower: Perseids from Perseus. Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava

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Like I said, pretty!

Does anyone know what that bright orange light near bottom left could be? Is it by any chance Mars?

Ann

[daddyo]

Hi
Try UFO capture soft
https://sonotaco.com/soft/e_index.html
BR
Martin

Thanks!! Going to try it on this weekend’s shower.

[Rauf]

I very much appreciate the learned discussions between Johnny and Chris, but I have nothing to add there, so let me add the pretty pictures!

Meteor Shower: Perseids from Perseus. Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava

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APOD 9 August 2023 annotated.png

Like I said, pretty!

Does anyone know what that bright orange light near bottom left could be? Is it by any chance Mars?

Ann

Using Stellarium again, I went to Slovakia in August 2018.

So yes, It is Mars!

[johnnydeep]

I very much appreciate the learned discussions between Johnny and Chris, but I have nothing to add there, so let me add the pretty pictures!
...
Ann

Well, Chris' contribution was indeed learned, but mine was merely to add more context to further the dialog.