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Radio
05-23-2014, 04:22 PM
For those with insomnia this evening...

http://www.accuweather.com/en/features/trend/viewable_for_the_first_time_ne/27352068

Would it do any good to pull the car into the garage? :whistle:

NN5I
05-24-2014, 09:54 AM
Me, I'd drive it in, rather than pull (or push) it in. Easier.

W7JZE
05-25-2014, 02:38 AM
Well, I gave it a shot last night. Just about this time 24 hours earlier.

A high, heavy haze was covering the sky at my home QTH. I got in my car and went South on I-5. First about 6 miles to a close by vista point, then another 10 more miles south to a second vista point. No good at either. Still that high, heavy haze that obscured all but the brightest of stars.

I did see about a dozen folks all prepped in their lawn chairs with blankets hoping the sky would clear... BOY! Were they ever optimistic (and disappointed)!

As it turns out, even perfectly clear skies would not have yielded much. I read that only a couple dozen total meteors were spotted world wide over the 3 hours centered on the peak time. Sort of a dud for a meteor shower, regretfully :mad:.

(PS: Sorry for absence. Crazy, sick like dog for 2 weeks :(, then my laptop died. All better now :D)

NN5I
05-25-2014, 07:55 AM
Glad you'r better anyway. Cheers!

Radio
05-25-2014, 07:55 AM
Well, I gave it a shot last night.

Sort of a dud for a meteor shower, regretfully :mad:.

(PS: Sorry for absence. Crazy, sick like dog for 2 weeks :(, then my laptop died. All better now :D)

Glad you and your laptop are feeling much better... :sick:

I wondered about the outcome of turning a comet tail into a meteor shower. We have been taught comets are mostly dust and ice. I have seen chunks of metal become white hot, but I've never seen an ice cube do that.

NN5I
05-27-2014, 09:21 AM
We have been taught comets are mostly dust and ice. I have seen chunks of metal become white hot, but I've never seen an ice cube do that.

Maybe it could, before melting and vaporizing, heat to incandescence some of the air through which it is passing? It's going pretty fast, and would compress air ahead of it. Compressing air is an effective way of heating it.

Anyway, I'm glad I didn't go to any trouble to witness this dud.