DarkSlinky

Posts Tagged ‘Astronomy’

So yesterday Alex met Nicki and Lynette for the first time. We had a whale of a time playing Beetle Adventure Racing and Mario Kart 64 on Nintendo 64 and Mario Party 6 on Gamecube.  It was fantastic.  We even managed to have a rather bizarre debate on abortion or the meaning of life or something; I don’t think any of us really knew what we were talking about.  Lynette also decided to put potato chips in her noodles. Very interesting to watch.

After everyone had left me and Nicki had a fortune cookie each.  It went like this:

Jayne:  “What does yours say?”
Nicki:  “Remember your mother’s advice.”
Jayne:  “What’s your mother’s advice?”
Nicki:  “I don’t know… what does yours say?”
Jayne:  “All your hard work will soon pay off.”

Then we laughed for quite a while.  Hahahaha.

Moral of the story, I totally need to work harder.  Stresssss.

I didn’t sleep last night.  Like, not even a little bit.  Not a wink.  It’s madness!  So I’m feeling rather tired today.  Very tired in fact, I should get some sleep soon.

Oh yes, speaking of today – I had a wonderful day!  Liam and I firstly went to visit his sister, her husband and her three beautiful children.  We then went to Liam’s place to make home-made pizzas and as a surprise he took me to a nearby secluded little beach-type-thing for a stroll and a chat.  It was so beautiful.  There weren’t many lights around so a lot of stars were visible, and I love astronomy.  I was able to pick out one of the dark clouds that are visible from earth with the naked eye, though I’m not sure exactly which one it is.  I’ll have to check sometime.  After that we watched the first half of the Hogfather.  Excellent movie, I’m looking forward to seeing the second half.

What else.

Oh Liam took this photo of Mars and I tonight, I thought it was really cute.  She was very relaxed so she was happy to lie back in my arm, haha.

Jayne-Louise and Mars

<3 DarkSlinky.

The comet, Swift-Tuttle, takes 130 years to orbit the sun.  When it passes closer to the sun, it leaves behind a trail of rock and dust particles.  It last swept through the inner solar system in 1992.

Twice every year the Earths path crosses with the trail of rock and dust left behind by Swift-Tuttle (See picture below: ‘Perseids meteor shower’).  The particles of the trail, most of which are smaller than a grain of sand, create a spectacular display when they burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.  This is called the Perseids meteor shower.

Meteor showers usually get their names from their ‘radiant’, which is the point they appear to come from in the sky.  The Perseids meteor shower appears to come from the constellation Perseus (See picture below: ‘Perseids meteor shower’), hence, it was named accordingly.

This particular meteor shower has been observed for about 2,000 years.  Most of the debris the Earth passes through every year is about 1,000 years old.

The Perseids meteor shower can be seen from all over the world from mid-July to mid-August every year.  Due to the orbit of Swift-Tuttle, the Perseids meteor shower is easier to see from the Northern hemisphere and is most active from 8 August to 14 August, usually peaking on 12 August.  During its peak, you may see 60 – 80 meteors per hour.

Perseids meteor shower.

For more information, check out these websites:

Perseids:  2009.
Perseids:  NASA.
Perseids:  History.
2009 Meteor Showers.

References:

Wikipedia:  Perseids.
ScienceRay:  Perseids.
ScienceRay:  Meteor showers.