back to article Bloody Moon stuffs the Perseids

Tonight is the night for the best view of the Perseids – the annual meteor shower caused by the debris trail of comet Swift-Tuttle. Or rather it would be if it weren't for the bloody Moon, which has timed its near-fullness to perfection to "interfere significantly" with the chances of copping a decent view of the lightshow. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Adam Cooper
    Facepalm

    Twitter?

    Of course this assumes the Government haven't shutdown Twitter in fear of the afore-mentioned clouds of smoke right?

  2. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Go

    Tweeting about the Perseids...

    ...is like thinking the unwrapping of the condom is the best part of sex. Drop the cell phone, get your butt outside and see it for yourself!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      umm.....

      You just ruined my sex life.

      And I only wish I were kidding.

  3. Caff

    style guide

    When will thereg follow in the footsteps of other great publications such as the economist and publish its style guide to allow mere mortals to emulate its literary prowess?

  4. davemcwish
    Headmaster

    These Kids Today

    "since the sky looks likely to be entirely obscured by the traditional cloud, augmented by smoke from still-smouldering inner cities".

    Where's Mr Bronson where you need him ? Shouts of "YOU, BOY" - that'll learn 'em.

    1. Cameron Colley

      I thought you meant the death wish guy.

      Or Michael Gordon Peterson (AKA Charles Ali Ahmed). If you could persuade him I'm sure he'd have a go at stopping the riots -- though, I suppose, he's better known for being involved in them.

  5. Grendel
    Thumb Up

    Luckily the moon doesn't affect radio!

    Luckily the moon doesn't affect radio reflections from meteors (strictly speaking the plasma trail from meteors) so if you cannot see much of the night sky you still might take a 'listen' for Perseids...

    If you have an FM radio and an outside aerial facing north east through to south east and tune to a quiet part at the bottom of the band (around 87.5-88MHz) you may be able to hear "bursts" of foreign radio stations lasting from a fraction of a second up to 20-30 seconds or so...

    Mike

    1. Thomas 4
      Happy

      Oh?

      Sounds fascinating. I'd love to know the science behind that.

      1. Rob Dobs
        Happy

        IANAS (I am not a scientist)

        but I would hazard a guess that its simple physics.

        Radio waves radiate off into the atmosphere where they (having no object to block them) float away into the ether.

        When a comet is there, you get a solid object in place (for a moment) for the signals across the globe to bounce off of.

        just a guess though

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Stop

          Except...

          the reflection just might have more to do with the trail of ionized gas left behind by the falling object and less with the objects themselves.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Foreign radio

      I wouldn't for a moment suggest that's a pointless exercise, but these days listening to foreign radio stations is pretty easy using the interwebs. If you need to do it whilst on the move, I have an app called ootunes on my jesus phone which enables me to listen to thousands of radio stations from around the planet, including some pleasingly weird (to me) spoken word stuff from Japan.

      1. TheRealRoland
        Happy

        Free world-wide radio!

        Wouldn't that be great? Free world-wide radio! Now, if only we could have a meteor storm that lasts long enough... Can you imagine the bandwidth you would be saving for people listening to internet radios?

        I think you missed the point there, sir. But that was probably the point of your post anyways :-)

    3. Peter Mount
      Boffin

      Thats what I'm planning this year

      First I'm going to try what you've already said, tune in to the bottom of Band II. Don't be tempted to try the upper part of that band, meteor's work better the lower the frequency and the burts last longer.

      I've also picked up a cheap £15 radio which supports Band I (50-88Mhz) so might try that - there are some stations actually broadcasting around the 69MHz range (BBC R2 strangely) so trying to figure out a good spot might be tricky.

      Another alternative is online: http://www.meteorscan.com/meteor-live.html has a 24hr display of radio meteor detections

      1. Spoobistle
        Boffin

        Cheap radios

        R2 at 69 MHz - sure that's not image response? (69 + 2 x 10.7 = 90.4)

    4. Andus McCoatover
      Windows

      Isn't this like 'troposcatter'?

      It's the method I remember from years ago of communicating by over-the-horizon microwave to offshore oil rigs. In their case, chuck shedloads of RF in their general direction, there'll be enough particles floating about to establish a connection.

      Remember building a specialised noise measuring tool to test the connnection for this when I was at BT.

  6. TeeCee Gold badge
    Pint

    Well that's just great.

    So if a miracle occurs, it stops pissing down and the skies clear a bit I still won't be able to see anything?

    There's an icon for these situations.

  7. Armando 123
    Devil

    Don't worry

    I just saw a little guy with a helmet on his brush who said he could fix it with his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

    1. Steve X
      Alien

      Well....

      Where's the Kaboom??

      1. Graham Marsden
        Mushroom

        "No boom today...

        "...Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow."

        - Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5.

    2. Armando 123

      Sorry

      [facepalm] That should be "with a brush on his helmet". Yes, I'm a drinker with a programming problem.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    (untitled)

    Shrug

    If it weren't th moon, it'd be the clouds. Always something.

    1. Andus McCoatover
      Windows

      Nah.

      It'll be leaves on the line, or the wrong kind of snow.

  9. jake Silver badge

    I wandered outside about 3.5 hours ago ...

    Stared at the sky for about twenty minutes, 3 AMish.

    Nothing to see here. Might have been the fog ;-)

  10. Stevie

    Bah!

    Ban the Moon!

  11. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Standard rules for astronomical spectacles

    In roughly most-to-least likely order

    1) It will occur during daytime

    2) It won't be visible in this hemisphere/latitude

    3) It'll be cloudy - as usual

    4) The full moon will obscure it

    5) Light pollution will render it invisible (unless you live in the wilds of Scotland/Wales, then see #3)

    6) It'll be the night of your child's school play (they're in the lead role)

    7) You'll be stuck underground/in a basement/in jail

    8) You'll be looking in the wrong place

    9) Or on the wrong night

    10) You'll be struck blind just prior to the event

    11) You'll forget to take your sunglasses off and miss it all

    12) It coincides with Armageddon and you're too busy worrying about that.

    1. Blue eyed boy
      Thumb Down

      @ It will occur during daytime

      The opposite problem will result in us missing most of the Transit of Venus next June. It's scheduled to take place at night. We might catch the tail end of it at about 4.55am on 6 June.

      Next one after that is in December 2117.

  12. boothamshaw
    Happy

    Nyahh nyahh

    Just spent a happy couple of hours watching from a garden in SW France. Bloomin marvellous, despite Moon. Green ones, smoke trails and an Iridium flare for good measure. Have a nice evening back in Blighty...

  13. Wize

    Brittish cities?

    The media has been corrected and are saying English riots instead of British riots. Nothing smoldering across the border.

  14. Purlieu

    re: British cities

    so that's Cardiff in England, then

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