Stargazers were preparing for the second night of a meteor show in skies over the UK - as thousands of people tweeted their discoveries on Twitter.
A meteor is captured on camera using slow exposure
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Many Britons stayed up well into the early hours with binoculars and armed with mobile phone cameras to capture the first night of the spectacle.
One even tweeted: "I'm being attacked by foxes but I'm staying up."
And while the shower was less spectacular than some had predicted there were still hundreds of tweets every hour from across the world.
Astronomers say that the showers will be most visible tonight, though cloudy skies across much of Britain will affect visibility.
Picture posted on Twitter by SJ Griffiths shows meteor in left top corner
Sky weather presenter Lucy Verasamy said the best places to see the shower were in counties bordering The Wash, especially Lincolnshire.
One UK group of skywatchers - the Newbury Astronomical Society - has set up "Twitter Meteorwatch" to allow gazers to log their sightings.
NAS member Ann Davies told Sky News Online: "Last night wasn't as spectacular as some of the experts had predicted but there's always tonight.
"Hundreds of people tweeted and there were some good images. Twitter is a great way to get people interested in this sort of thing."
One of last night's tweets read: "A massive fireball just went across the sky from Perseus to Jupiter."
A gazer marks a meteor in green and two planes in red - picture by Parax on Twitter
Another read: "Keeping awake with strong tea and anticipation."
And another enthused: "I've just seen a bright iridium satellite flare up."
The Perseids shower shoots across the sky every August when the Earth passes through dust debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Public astronomer Marek Kukula from The National Maritime Museumsaid the meteor shower will be at its strongest in Britain from Wednesday afternoon until Thursday morning.
But he warned: "Light pollution from artificial sources such as street lights, bulbs and cars reflects off cloudy dust in the atmosphere which gives it that orange glow, and makes it hard to see faint objects."
A Perseid meteor streaks towards the horizon
The meteors - made up of small particles the size of a grain of sand - collide with the Earth's atmosphere at high speeds, creating up to 80 streaks of light per hour.
Mr Kukula points out, however, that light from the last quarter moon will drown out the meteor shower's brightness.
And there are other factors which can reduce its impact.
"This means you will be unlikely to see 80 per hour," he said.
"You may see the few brightest ones. It's best to see the meteor shower at night in rural areas."
Another read: "Keeping awake with strong tea and anticipation."
And another enthused: "I've just seen a bright iridium satellite flare up."
The Perseids shower shoots across the sky every August when the Earth passes through dust debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Public astronomer Marek Kukula from The National Maritime Museumsaid the meteor shower will be at its strongest in Britain from Wednesday afternoon until Thursday morning.
But he warned: "Light pollution from artificial sources such as street lights, bulbs and cars reflects off cloudy dust in the atmosphere which gives it that orange glow, and makes it hard to see faint objects."
A Perseid meteor streaks towards the horizon
The meteors - made up of small particles the size of a grain of sand - collide with the Earth's atmosphere at high speeds, creating up to 80 streaks of light per hour.
Mr Kukula points out, however, that light from the last quarter moon will drown out the meteor shower's brightness.
And there are other factors which can reduce its impact.
"This means you will be unlikely to see 80 per hour," he said.
"You may see the few brightest ones. It's best to see the meteor shower at night in rural areas."
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