Speaker 1: Welcome to the Doctor Sky Experience with a special news
Speaker 1: update Percy a Meteor Shower twenty twenty three with me
Speaker 1: Steve Kats Doctor Sky, as we're talking with you on
Speaker 1: America's iconic radio station, seventy seven Talk Radio WABC, the
Speaker 1: iconic radio station that's beaming out from New York City,
Speaker 1: around the nation, around the world, and I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: out to the Cosmos. Stay tuned on our special Perseed
Speaker 1: Meteor Shower twenty twenty three update to give you only
Speaker 1: information necessary to enjoy this most amazing spectacle of Mother Nature.
Speaker 1: We begin with the source of the meteor shower, Comet
Speaker 1: Swift Tutal. It's a large periodic commet with a nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety five orbital period of some one hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: three years that of course fits a classic definition of
Speaker 1: a Hali type common and that indeed is.
Speaker 2: The source of the Persian meteor show.
Speaker 1: It was discovered by two individual astronomers, Horace Parnell Tuttle
Speaker 1: and Lewis A.
Speaker 2: Swift.
Speaker 1: The discovery date of July sixteenth, eighteen sixty two, and
Speaker 1: mentioned before. The comet's orbital period is one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty three years. The comet itself is rather large. Most comets,
Speaker 1: which are debris left over from the creation of the
Speaker 1: Solar System, orbit out far beyond that of the dwarf
Speaker 1: planet Pluto and the other objects known as trans Neptunians
Speaker 1: out in the deep dark brass of the Solar System.
Speaker 1: The gravity of the Sun pulls in these objects. Most
Speaker 1: comets nuclei are approximately three to five miles in diameter
Speaker 1: on average, but in this particular case, the comet's diameter,
Speaker 1: that of Comet Swift Tuttle, is probably on the order
Speaker 1: of at least twenty miles in diameter. Some side, as
Speaker 1: this particular comet has been orbiting around the Sun for
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of years, if not longer, it does
Speaker 1: indeed put on a most spectacular metior show if the
Speaker 1: conditions are right here with the orbital plane of the comet,
Speaker 1: and of course the position of the Moon and your
Speaker 1: local observing environment. Basically, many people say that Comet Swift
Speaker 1: Tuttle is an object that comes closest to the Earth
Speaker 1: on a regular basis, and they would be right over
Speaker 1: the course of time. But sadly, if the comet would
Speaker 1: have strike this Earth, the impact energy of comet swift
Speaker 1: tuttle would be about three hundred times that of the
Speaker 1: asteroid collision that was thought to have caused this most
Speaker 1: horrible event some sixty five million years ago, the demise
Speaker 1: of the dinosaurs. In professional opinions, they say, quote it
Speaker 1: would be a very.
Speaker 2: Bad day for the earth end quote.
Speaker 1: But on the bright side, the comet and the meteor
Speaker 1: shower usually produce an e spectacular shower. This year twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three is a good one. The moon will hardly
Speaker 1: be visible at all, and thus if you're in dark locations,
Speaker 1: you should be able to get to see the best
Speaker 1: of what this comet and meteor shower offered. Yours truly
Speaker 1: has been observing this meteor shower for at least forty years,
Speaker 1: and I can tell you with great accuracy proud to
Speaker 1: report that this meteor shower can be very figal. In
Speaker 1: the mainstream media we hear reports of great numbers of meteors,
Speaker 1: but don't be fooled. Sometimes these particular showers produce little,
Speaker 1: if any meteors, and sometimes more spectacular events.
Speaker 2: What can we see in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: My suggestion is the meteor shower will ramp up and
Speaker 1: peak on the evening hours of August the twelfth into
Speaker 1: the morning of the thirteenth, That is, if you look
Speaker 1: into the northeast sky after sunset, you might catch a
Speaker 1: few of what we call earth grazing meteors. These are
Speaker 1: more brilliant objects that are much larger than the average
Speaker 1: pebble size of the debris.
Speaker 2: From the Persian meteor shower.
Speaker 1: Not to be funny or ridiculous, but most of the
Speaker 1: debris that comes from these particular meteor showers are on
Speaker 1: the size order of the post cereal grape nuts.
Speaker 2: If you're familiar with that.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of eating it, but if
Speaker 1: you happen to know anybody who does, those grape nut
Speaker 1: little food clusters, those little pebbles are about the average
Speaker 1: size of what these meteor particles are like. Again, the
Speaker 1: debris from the tail end of a comet. You know,
Speaker 1: comets have tails. And one of the great cometary discoverers
Speaker 1: of the twenty first century is David Levy out here
Speaker 1: in Arizona, and he said, and I quote comments, are
Speaker 1: like cats. Why is that they both have tails and
Speaker 1: they do exactly what they want to do?
Speaker 2: End quote.
Speaker 1: But on a more serious note, if you look into
Speaker 1: the northeastern sky more precisely from midnight.
Speaker 2: Till about sunrise.
Speaker 1: Wherever you're listening to the Doctor Sky experience, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're in the northern hemisphere, the higher the latitude,
Speaker 1: the less of a night you have because of the
Speaker 1: ever amount of sunlight that creeps through. These medias can
Speaker 1: come in swarms. Sometimes we have brighter ones known as
Speaker 1: bolides or fireballs. These may be a much larger sized
Speaker 1: part of not the size of what we described before.
Speaker 2: As the little rape nut particles.
Speaker 1: But folks, if you do look into the nighttime sky,
Speaker 1: we encourage you to pay particular attention to the radiant
Speaker 1: point in the sky, and that happens to be in
Speaker 1: the northeast sky from the constellation Perseus, the great hero
Speaker 1: who severed the head of Medusa, as we all know
Speaker 1: from mythology, as he looked at her from a sidewood
Speaker 1: gland so he himself wouldn't be turned as stone. What's
Speaker 1: interesting about the perseads is that sometimes you can see
Speaker 1: well over forty or fifty an hour. The darker the
Speaker 1: location you are away from city lights, naturally, the.
Speaker 2: More meteors you're going to see.
Speaker 1: And we encourage you to have patients over the forty
Speaker 1: years that I've observed it. I recommend a nice long chair,
Speaker 1: face the direction of northeast because meteors come out of
Speaker 1: the radiant but they can be seen in all different
Speaker 1: directions at all different times. And it's also important if
Speaker 1: you have a small pair of binoculars. Why some of
Speaker 1: these bright meteors leave these little iridescent trains like aircraft.
Speaker 2: Cons trail, but they're not.
Speaker 1: They'll be fooled, albeit for a fraction of a second
Speaker 1: or maybe a few seconds, you'll get to see if
Speaker 1: you pair the binocular there, you may get to see
Speaker 1: what looks like this incandescent tube of light as the
Speaker 1: mediors are traveling at about one hundred and thirty three
Speaker 1: miles per hour through the Hertz atmosphere. Good luck in
Speaker 1: your perced viewing. If you have questions or comments, send
Speaker 1: me an email. It's doctor Sky's show at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Here at the Great Talk Radio seventy seven WABC, the
Speaker 1: iconic radio station broadcasting as I mentioned before, out from
Speaker 1: the New York region, out across the nation, around the world,
Speaker 1: and I'm.
Speaker 2: Sure well out into the cospers.
Speaker 1: And on a brighter note, in case there's not a
Speaker 1: good display of perse It just don't held me accountable.
Speaker 2: I'm just the reporter. But remember this.
Speaker 1: Astronomers say that as we move to the year twenty
Speaker 1: twenty eight, by about the night of say the twelfth
Speaker 1: or the thirteenth of August, then some five years away,
Speaker 1: we may get to see an incredible meteor storm. Why,
Speaker 1: these comets produce big filaments of material, just like say,
Speaker 1: swarms of bees. I'm a more concentrated summer thinner. As
Speaker 1: far as the number we may be getting through this
Speaker 1: particular filament by a distance of only thirty seven thousand miles,
Speaker 1: and that would be incredible because twenty of these meteors
Speaker 1: will roar and it won't just be a regular meteor shower,
Speaker 1: but it will turn into a meteor storm. So good
Speaker 1: luck once again on your observations of the perseas. This
Speaker 1: is one of the best enclosing meteor showers as you
Speaker 1: know of the entire year, and this year. It occurs
Speaker 1: during the warmer time of the year, hopefully with clear
Speaker 1: skies and the best you can see away from well
Speaker 1: city lights, but even city dwellers can get to see
Speaker 1: a few. Patience is a virtue when it comes to
Speaker 1: meteor showers. Don't forget if you'd like to email me.
Speaker 1: It's not just guys show at gmail dot com. And
Speaker 1: we do appreciate being on with John Katzimatites as we
Speaker 1: continue to talk about the great realms of astronomery, space, aviation,
Speaker 1: and weather occasionally on and Cosby, but every Sunday you
Speaker 1: can hear my reports and updates on these great realms
Speaker 1: to open.
Speaker 2: Up our minds on the Cat's Round Table.
Speaker 1: And then every other Wednesday on with the Great Frank
Speaker 1: Morano on the Other Side of Midnight. He gives me
Speaker 1: the permission to transform the show into the infinite side
Speaker 1: of midnight. Every other Wednesday, one am Eastern Time. Doctor
Speaker 1: Scott reminds you to always remember to keep your eyes
Speaker 1: to the skies, as I'm your navigator
Speaker 2: On the highway to the Habs clear Skies.