Friday, November 16, 2012

Why This Will Be a Good Night to Have Insomnia

Between midnight and dawn tonight (the morning of 11/17/12), those who can't sleep can watch the sky for meteors. A "shooting star" is expected to be visible every minute or two. Most will be small and faint; click here (I apologize for the annoying pop-up) to read how big a chunk of space debris it takes to make a meteor look like a real "star."

http://www.space.com/18434-leonid-meteor-shower-peaks-this-week.html

No use to hope that even at 3 a.m. the meteor shower will be quite as dramatic as the National Geographic time-lapse photo here...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/11/121112-leonids-meteor-shower-shooting-stars-space-science/

The "Leonid" meteor shower, which occurs in mid-November every year, was first documented in 1833, a year when the fireworks were especially dramatic. The religious revivals of the 1840s were spurred partly by a belief that these "falling stars" heralded the end of the world! More history here:

http://shine.yahoo.com/green/2012-leonids-meteor-shower-live-005200516.html

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