Starship Asterisk*

Night of the Perseids

Explanation: This weekend, meteors will rain down near the peak of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. Normally bright and colorful, the Perseid shower meteors are produced by dust swept up by planet Earth from the orbit of Comet Swift-Tuttle. They streak from a radiant in Perseus, above the horizon in clear predawn skies. Despite interfering light from August's waning gibbous moon, this year's Perseids will still be enjoyable, especially if you can find yourself in an open space, away from city lights, and in good company. Frames used in this composite view capture bright Perseid meteors from the 2016 meteor shower set against a starry background along the Milky Way, with even the faint Andromeda Galaxy just above center. In the foreground, astronomers of all ages have gathered on a hill above the Slovakian village of Vrchtepla.

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Nice picture, but can someone help me? The Milky Way seems strangely "upside down" to me, and I can't see all of Cassiopeia. I think I have found Gamma Cas, a nice blue and very hot star, but I don't know about Alpha and Beta Cas, Schedar and Caph.

Here is another portrait of the northern Milky Way which is similarly "upside down", and that one is annotated, too. But I still can't see the full outline of Cassiopeia in today's APOD!
Here is a picture of constellation Cassiopeia. I hope the picture isn't too large, but I fear it might be.

The stars I can't find in today's APOD are the two leftmost ones.

Ann

Ann,

I did a quickie labeled version of the picture...

http://wasociety.us/2016_08_06_Perseids ... -label.jpg

Joe Stieber wrote:Ann,

I did a quickie labeled version of the picture...

http://wasociety.us/2016_08_06_Perseids ... -label.jpg

Thanks, Joe!

Ann

I can't quit make out what the array of things are in the lower right foreground. It looks like an array of light patterned by lantern struts or something among a trash heap of oversized beer cans strewn about on the ground but... then again I don't see what might be causing the interference pattern and I've never seen beer cans that large.
Oh... the meteor trails are nice too.

This is just irresponsible. It perpetuates the myth that meteor showers are like fireworks displays. How many people go out expecting to see something like this and conclude that science doesn't know what it's talking about?

Steven I Dutch wrote:This is just irresponsible. It perpetuates the myth that meteor showers are like fireworks displays. How many people go out expecting to see something like this and conclude that science doesn't know what it's talking about?

This is a wonderful image which clearly demonstrates the concept of a radiant. I see no reason that APOD should aim for the lowest common denominator of viewer, unable or unwilling to read the caption and think about what is being shown.

Steven I Dutch wrote:This is just irresponsible. It perpetuates the myth that meteor showers are like fireworks displays. How many people go out expecting to see something like this and conclude that science doesn't know what it's talking about?

Before I read that remark I looked at the APOD and I thought about what it showed, and about what it doesn't show. It shows an inconceivably biased image of "what's really there" - above all, no trace whatsoever of the dark matter (not to mention the dark energy!). Why would anyone waste time looking at this utterly trivial froth, much less go out in the dark, just to see a few pathetic streaks of light across the sky, caused by tiny grains of dust disintegrating? Hey, Dutch, we do it because we are human, and it is neat! Wake up and smell the roses!

Really nice.... too smokey here...hard to even see Saturn. The Moon is a bit "Orangy" even high in the sky.

The Dark Matter Squirrels conspire against my viewing pleasure....
:---[===] *

maybe they can be called " iguanas "