Rare non-periodic meteor shower

[textivore]

Ok, for anyone with skywatching interests, there's going to be a shower tonight, visible in the western US and Canada, that's not part of the usual annual cycle. The Augurids are caused by the dust trail of comet Kiess, which last passed this way in 1911 after an orbit of about 2000 years. It's not common for Earth to pass through its dust trail

Comments

[elhoff]

I woke up about 4:20 this morning (not intentionally), so I got up and went out to watch for a while. I just sating my backyard, and found a spot where the very bright moon was behind an object, so my eyes could adjust better. I had a somewhat impaired view of the eastern sky, but a good very overhead and to the south east, south and north. In 40 minutes I only saw 4 meteors. Not what I would classify as a spectacular display, but more than I saw during the Perseids last month. Three of the four that I saw were just white streaks, albeit, quite bright and fairly slow moving. One was larger, burning with a definite yellow color, and left a lasting trail in the atmosphere. Even though it was not a great display, it was cool to think that these specs of dust were left there in our path in 82BC!

[temperance14]

Maybe I need to set an alarm tonight.

But knowing my self-discipline, I'd be getting up to watch pigs fly along with meteors. Dang.

(If I have a fortunate incident of insomnia, I'm thinking either farm roads between Vacaville and Dixon, or Grizzly Island would work best for me.)

[textivore]

Too late, I posted that yesterday. So it was last night. ;P