Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks early Sunday

[Fansome]

latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-eta-aquarid-meteor-shower-20130503,0,5048365.story
latimes.com
Look up! Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks early Sunday

By Deborah Netburn

7:00 AM PDT, May 4, 2013

Pull out the reclining lawn chairs and get yourself to the darkest area you can find: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is peaking this weekend, and if you get lucky, you can catch up to 30 "shooting stars" per hour.

You may also want to set your alarm clock: Sky watchers say the best time to catch the light show is in the hour or two just before dawn on Sunday.

Here in Southern California that means you'll want to start your meteor hunting around 4 a.m.

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower occurs each year in late April or early May when the Earth passes through a stream of dust and debris left in the wake of Halley's Comet.

These little bits of what the Jet Propulsion Laboratory calls "comet stuff" crash into our atmosphere at 44 miles per second, and burn up about 60 miles above the Earth's surface.

The streaks of light that we call meteors are kind of like those streaks that a bug makes on a windshield when you are speeding down the freeway.

The meteors will appear to radiate from the constellation Aquarius, but if you don't know where that is, don't sweat it. Just lay back, give your eyes time to adjust and keep an eye on the whole sky.

There will be a thin crescent moon this weekend, so moonlight shouldn't get in the way of your sky watching enjoyment.

Astronomers at JPL note that the Eta Aquarids have a broad peak, so meteors may be active for a few days after the 5th. That means that if you get inspired, you can keep looking early Monday morning too.

Happy sky watching!

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

[RCCI]

If memory serves me right, about 25 years ago I had somewhere read an article about having the ability to "hear" meteors (during a meteor shower) faintly over your shortwave radio as they entered the ionosphere and made slight alterations with your antenna reception in the form of either a ping or unusual static noise. The article referred specifically to the Perseid meteor shower in August.

Anyone else remember this?

[ChrisSmolinski]

If memory serves me right, about 25 years ago I had somewhere read an article about having the ability to "hear" meteors (during a meteor shower) faintly over your shortwave radio as they entered the ionosphere and made slight alterations with your antenna reception in the form of either a ping or unusual static noise. The article referred specifically to the Perseid meteor shower in August.

Anyone else remember this?

This is usually done by listening to distant FM or TV stations that appear for a few seconds when the meteor ionizes a path of atmosphere, allowing reception. IIRC there's a site online where you can hear this real time, via a receiver with a high gain antenna pointed at a distant station that normally cannot be heard.

[Fansome]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_burst_communications
http://www.meteorscatter.org/backscatter.html

I recall, maybe 30 years ago, reading about the use of "meteor backscatter" for fairly long-distance communications. The article was about it how it was used to provide a service to long-haul trucking companies to allow their vehicles to stay in touch with company HQ. I'm sure that application is long gone, what with satellite and cell-phone comms.

The Wikipedia article on this form of communications is pretty interesting.