The most meteor night: the astronomer explained how best to observe the Perseids

Senior Researcher at the Pushchino Astronomical Observatory of the Astrospace Center of the Physical Institute. Lebedev Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Vladimir Samodurov, told why scientists are interested in meteors, how these “stars” can be used to determine the speed and direction of their flight, and also when we can expect one of the most powerful cosmic “showers” in modern stories.

How often do you see meteor showers a year? – I ask Vladimir Alekseevich.

– Every year we observe up to 60 meteor showers, but the brightest of them so far are, of course, the Perseids, which fly at a rate of 100 per hour, that is, a little less than one meteor per minute. I must, however, disappoint: this number is calculated for an absolutely moonless night, for an absolutely dark sky, which happens in the mountains. We can say that in fact, under normal city conditions, we see three to four times fewer meteors on a “peak” night than we could. It turns out about one every 5 minutes. Other streams are even less: some can please only five meteors per hour.

All “star showers” are associated with old comets that spin in their orbits and “scatter” small dust particles over them. When the Earth enters these dust tails, meteors enter our atmosphere about a few thousand kilometers apart. At the moment of their death, they burn up in the atmosphere, leaving us a bright trail as parting – “hello” from the comet.

– What is the value of meteor research for scientists and ordinary people?

– Cometary matter is, in fact, primordial matter. When a meteor falls, consider that you see a speck of dust that was born about 4 billion years ago.

We tied our Pushchino Astronomical Festival to the Perseids in order to gather as many people as possible and enjoy the beauty of the sky together with them. In this we are helped by amateur astronomers who come with their telescopes, tell about the stars and show them to everyone else.

– Tell us about the most striking cases associated with meteor showers.

– Imagine: a clearing 100 by 200 meters, about the size of a football field. There are several hundred people on it, all standing in the dark and looking at the sky. And when the meteor flies by, there is a collective sigh of the crowd: “Wow!”

– Is your field something special in this sense? How do you attract observers to it?

– We are standing in a clearing near the buildings of our observatory, which is located on the outskirts of the city. Our small town itself is not very illuminated at night, but in addition, on the night of observing the Perseids, we turn off all the lights in our buildings. Therefore, our sky is a little darker than anywhere else, especially in Moscow.

– What recommendations would you give to those who do not have time to get to Pushchino to admire the Perseids from there?

– You need to go to a dark, dark field, away from the city, sit in a deck chair, take an almost horizontal position in it and look at the sky. The meteors are flying from the constellation Perseus, but because they leave a long trail, making their strokes across the sky, you will see everything. Just keep a few wishes ready…

Help “MK”: Where to look for the Perseids? Their maximum concentration usually falls on the constellation Perseus. Find Ursa Minor. To the right of it you can see Cassiopeia – a constellation in the form of the letter W, under it – Perseus.

Why do professional observers watch meteors?

– Professional observations are needed in order to accurately determine the radiant from which meteors fly. Knowing where the radiant is located, you can refine a lot of additional data about the meteor – for example, calculate the orbit of its comet. In general, according to the rules, it is necessary that six people lie down in deck chairs in the form of daisies and look each into their own sector of the sky, recording the time of arrival of each “star” and making sketches.

– Why exactly six and not seven, for example?

– It is easier to divide 360 ​​degrees of the celestial sphere into six: each “holds” a sector of 6 degrees.

Is it worth watching meteors through a telescope?

Most of the time it’s pointless. This is one of the few types of objects that we recommend observing with the naked eye. But sometimes meteors are caught on wide-angle telescopes that monitor the sky.

– Have you seen flying fireballs?

– A fireball is a very bright meteor, brighter than Venus – the brightest planet in the sky. Imagine something like a falling Venus… Sometimes a crash is heard during the fall of the fireball. This is a rather rare phenomenon, whoever saw it can consider himself a lucky person.

– What do the different colors of meteors and fireballs say?

– The more pigeons they are, the faster they fly into the atmosphere, the warmer the color, the slower. For example, orange meteors travel at a speed of 20 km per second, they tend to catch up with the Earth. If you see a greenish, white or blue meteor, its speed is about 50-70 kilometers per second. So, it flies towards the movement of the Earth.

– I heard that in 1992 the Perseids were even more powerful than now: the stream reached a density of 400 meteors per hour. When can we expect from them the same “star shower”?

– Since the Swift-Tuttle comet has a periodicity of 135 years, the next time it will fly close to the Sun and put on a “sky show” will be only in 2127. But you should not lose heart – in a few years we may be pleased with a very powerful Leonid stream – a meteor shower with a frequency of 33 years with a radiant in the constellation Leo. The last time its parent comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle passed close to the Sun in 1998, the stream’s zenith hourly number was several thousand meteors per hour.

The next time this will happen very soon – in 2030-2033. We are expected to see up to 2,000 shooting stars per hour. We just need to live.