Leonid Meteors

Hercules is a large and prominent constellation. It is visible from the Northern Hemisphere from April to November. Despite its large size, Hercules does not have any bright stars. As a result only one or two of the stars of Hercules are visible from cities. I chose Hercules because I have heard his story before, but I did not know it well and wanted to know it better.

The Perseids are thusly named because they occur within the constellation Perseus, in the northern part of the horizon. The constellation rises above the horizon just before 10 P.M., and will reach its highest point a few minutes before dawn. This means the best hours to view the show will be between midnight and morning twilight.

A discrete focus of alternating colors with or without an associated-color comet-tail artifact (Figure 31) (Chen Q, Zagzebski J A., 2004).

Scientist have discovered that a meteor, has been lost for 25 years after losing orbit has finally been found headed toward Clare High School. Most of the people in Clare, Michigan were all freaking out, while the student of Clare High were calm and collective. “We say it will hit in approximately 5 days,” one scientist said, “So we shall head to the Smithsonian Institute of Science and Technology in Washington D.C.”

As a matter of fact, Hale Bopp was so close to earth you could see it’s brightness with your own eye for roughly eighteen months. Given that you can see Hale Bopp with your naked eye, the closest it’s ever been to earth was 1.3 AU’s. This is interesting because of the fact that most comets you can’t see unless you have a telescope or binoculars. Some researchers have reported it is almost as bright as the star Sirius.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower ranks as an all-time meteor shower of the year. Every year, from approximately July 17 to August 24, Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle, debris from the comet litters onto the comet’s orbit. The debris from the Comet Swift- Tuttle invades into the Earth’s atmosphere lighting up the nighttime with fast-moving Perseid meteors. To watch the Perseid Meteor Shower there is no need for special equipment to enjoy the night time spectacle, and no necessary education about meteor showers, constellations, debris, are needed to enjoy the nighttime excitement of the Perseid Meteor Shower.

For amateur stargazers, September through March are the optimal months for spotting Cassiopeia. In the southern hemisphere, the constellation is visible from May to August at locations north of the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 degrees south latitude). The easiest way to identify this constellation is to find the North Star (Polaris), which is at the end of the Little Dipper’s tail. The Little Dipper is the most noticeable feature of the constellation Ursa Minor.

When a meteor entered Earth's atmosphere, air in the atmosphere caused friction which made the meteor glow. The glowing meteors are called a meteoroid. A meteorite would be a meteor that fell to Earth. Antarctica would be the best place to find meteorites. All of the rocks in Antarctica are frozen in the ice layer. The rocks on top of the ice layer are meteorites. The meteorites are not broken up by weather.

Canis Major can be seen at latitudes somewhat between +90° and -75° It is visible in the Northern Hemisphere from December through March, and visible in the Southern Hemisphere between November and April. Canis Major is being bordered by Monoceros and so as Canis Minor. It is near Orion.

There are a couple of important factors in order to clearly see the Aurora Borealis. The first and most important is the location which matters to witness this spectacular event. According to Eric Donovan, who is an Aurora expert, the distance from the shifting atmospheric ring around the magnetic north pole, which is the Aurora oval, the visibility of the Aurora can then exactly be

In the late evening auroras are usually form a long diffuse arcs and then move on to rayed arcs or bands that show increasing activity. Usually as the night progresses, the bands and arcs become rippled and folded, eventually breaking into rays which is called the carona and this is most spectacular of all.

The first set of showers are the Orionids. These showers are seen because of the dust Hailey's comet left behind as it passed the area. It takes 76 years for the comet to make it around the sun, so seeing remnants of its path is pretty amazing. The best day to check these out are on October 21, but you can see them until the first part of November. At that point, the next meteor shower, the Leonids, will begin appearing.

The best time to look at Mercury is in the evening, because when its the evening the sun starts to come down and it starts to get dark, and at that moment you can get a glimpse of Mercury. If you look for Mercury

When to see them? During the winter times, when there’s low light pollution and when it gets dark around 10 pm-1

I spent as much time as I could observing the stars and constellations for this project, despite the fact that we had several days of bad whether which left us with cloudy, cold skies. There wasn’t any degree of difficulty to this project and I found it rather enjoyable and very informative. I am giving serious consideration towards purchasing a telescope as a result of this project