This is an extremely unpredictable shower, which in the past has given us a show of up to 180 meteors an hour down to a mere 20 or so. No one can really predict it's activity; it's been around for over a thousand years.

The best time to view is approximately midnight CDT, 1 a.m. Eastern, 11:00 p.m. Mountain, and 10:00 p.m. Pacific times (0500 UT). Look to the east between the star Vega and the constellation Hercules; Vega is the brightest, "uppermost" star in the Summer Triangle, which you can't miss: IT'S BIG. Orient yourselves to the Summer Triangle by using Cygnus the Swan, also known as the Northern Cross. That too is self-explanatory; the "tail" of the swan, or the "top" of the cross is the star Deneb, which is part of the Summer Triangle. Look "upward" (ie: toward the zenith) to find BRIGHT Vega; this is a star in the constellation Lyra, which in turn looks like a tiny parallelogram.

Anyway, there you have it. A point between Vega and the constellation Hercules is the "radiant" of this particular shower (where they appear to be coming from); as with all meteor showers, one can usually see associated meteors a day or so surrounding peak time as they "straggle" in and out-- or to be more correct, as the earth approaches and enters into their orbiting "cloud."

WATCH THE SKY!!!

[ 04-20-2005 01:44 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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