Have you ever seen a shooting star or a comet or a meteorite shower?

Question

I haven't seen any of those but I bet it would be beautiful!

No Paloma but thanks. Do you live in a hole?

Answer 1

I imagine you must live in a city. If you get the chance, plan for a long evening in the country, pop in a CD, and lay back and watch the sky. I average about ten an hour during normal view, and too many to count during a shower.

Answer 2

seen a meteor shower in 1994, walking along the coast of anglesey with my bro at about 3am, the whole sky just lit up with fiery red streaks for about half an hour, which was pretty damn amazing

then I saw the hale bop comet, over the space of a week or so, from manchester it looked like a faint smudge of light, but when I got down to the woods behind my fathers house in north wales, you could see about 30 times more, the tail stretched across the sky, and even thought here was no artificial light, you could still see reasonably clearly (normally you couldn't see anything except stars, and that in itself is quite impressive, the sky above manchester is so chiked with smog you can only see a handful of stars, out there you can see millions...

Answer 3

They're gorgeous! Meteor showers are a fun excuse to stay up late. I've never seen a comet (it was cloudy here the entire time Comet McNaught was visible in the Northern Hemisphere!) but I did catch a good-sized meteor burn up overhead one night not too long ago. It had a rather large orange streak and you could see smaller bits break off as it got closer, glowing the whole time.

Answer 4

2007 Meteor Showers and Viewing Tips
The next meteor shower is the Lyrids on April 22.

Name Date of Peak Moon Phase
Quadrantids January 4 Full Moon
Lyrids April 22 Evening crescent
Eta Aquarids May 6 Morning gibbous
Delta Aquarids July 28 Full Moon
Perseids August 13 New Moon
Orionids October 21 Evening gibbous
Leonids November 18 Evening gibbous
Geminids December 14 Evening crescent

What are meteor showers?

An increase in the number of meteors at a particular time of year is called a meteor shower.

Comets shed the debris that becomes most meteor showers. As comets orbit the Sun, they shed an icy, dusty debris stream along the comet's orbit. If Earth travels through this stream, we will see a meteor shower. Depending on where Earth and the stream meet, meteors appear to fall from a particular place in the sky, maybe within the neighborhood of a constellation.

Meteor showers are named by the constellation from which meteors appear to fall, a spot in the sky astronomers call the radiant. For instance, the radiant for the Leonid meteor shower is located in the constellation Leo. The Perseid meteor shower is so named because meteors appear to fall from a point in the constellation Perseus.

What are shooting stars?

"Shooting stars" and "falling stars" are both names that people have used for many hundreds of years to describe meteors -- intense streaks of light across the night sky caused by small bits of interplanetary rock and debris called meteoroids crashing and burning high in Earth's upper atmosphere. Traveling at thousands of miles an hour, meteoroids quickly ignite in searing friction of the atmosphere, 30 to 80 miles above the ground. Almost all are destroyed in this process; the rare few that survive and hit the ground are known as meteorites.

When a meteor appears, it seems to "shoot" quickly across the sky, and its small size and intense brightness might make you think it is a star. If you're lucky enough to spot a meteorite (a meteor that makes it all the way to the ground), and see where it hits, it's easy to think you just saw a star "fall."

How can I best view a meteor shower?

If you live near a brightly lit city, drive away from the glow of city lights and toward the constellation from which the meteors will appear to radiate.

For example, drive north to view the Leonids. Driving south may lead you to darker skies, but the glow will dominate the northern horizon, where Leo rises. Perseid meteors will appear to "rain" into the atmosphere from the constellation Perseus, which rises in the northeast around 11 p.m. in mid-August.

After you've escaped the city glow, find a dark, secluded spot where oncoming car headlights will not periodically ruin your sensitive night vision. Look for state or city parks or other safe, dark sites.

Once you have settled at your observing spot, lay back or position yourself so the horizon appears at the edge of your peripheral vision, with the stars and sky filling your field of view. Meteors will instantly grab your attention as they streak by.

How do I know the sky is dark enough to see meteors?

If you can see each star of the Little Dipper, your eyes have "dark adapted," and your chosen site is probably dark enough. Under these conditions, you will see plenty of meteors.

What should I pack for meteor watching?

Treat meteor watching like you would the 4th of July fireworks. Pack comfortable chairs, bug spray, food and drinks, blankets, plus a red-filtered flashlight for reading maps and charts without ruining your night vision. Binoculars are not necessary. Your eyes will do just fine.

Answer 5

Yes, I have seen all of those things. It takes effort though. You need to know when to look and you need patience, especially for meteors, which are usually most visible after midnight. A really dark sky helps too. It is really hard to see these things from the brightly lit city, where the sky is so bright you can't even see the Milky Way.

Answer 6

yes, no, and yes.

When I have been out in the open ocean and at the oppostite extreme, the desert in South West Asia you would see shooting stars and meterorite showers quite often. More so than you would on land or near heavily developed areas.

The lights of our modern world in developed areas block out most of the stars that are up there. When you are in the desert at night, particulary when there is no moon it is incredible how many stars you can see.

Answer 7

All the above and the northern lights. A real good display of the Aurora Borealis tops any natural phenomenon I have personally witnessed.

A nuclear detonation is something to see but it is man made, not natural.

Answer 8

YES, i've seen 2 shooting stars, the last one was 2 years ago and yes it was pretty and really neat to see.

Answer 9

I have, I saw like 15 shooting stars in one hour, it was pretty cool.

Answer 10

Do you live in a box? Of course I've seen them -- I watched a meteor shower in August -- and yes, it is something to watch.