Well, the Perseids have come and gone for the year. The night was beautifully clear and dark. One of the best I have seen this year. The Alpaca Farm set up a wonderful location for the star party, dark skies and plenty of space to sit or lie down and watch the sky. About 100 people, including children, were in attendance. Ziv lead the Hebrew tour and I led the English tour. We were out from about 8:00pm to 3:00am. The meteor shower got off to a slow start, and we didn't start seeing lots until after midnight. But then the show picked up and we were sometimes seeing several every 10 seconds. But meteors fall in bursts, not continuously. I don't think we ever reached the maximum rate of 100 per hour but around 2:00am, near the peak time, we were probably averaging around 30 per hour. Most were short, bright bursts of light.
I held my meteorite raffle lots more than once per hour, and many happy people went home with their own meteorites. I'm already looking forward to next year's show. In the mean time stay tuned for the next star party on December 13 (Thursday night) when the King of the Meteor Showers, The Geminids, peaks.
The best meteor shower of the year, the Perseids, peaks this year (2018) on Sunday night August 12 into early Monday morning August 13. The shower has peak rates of over 100 meteors per hour, and since it occurs in the warm summer months is a popular summer star gazing activity. To help celebrate the event Mitzpe Ramon is turning off all its town lights after 10:00pm and hopefully the other lights from military bases in the area to create an especially dark sky. The darker the sky, the more meteors we see. Mitzpe also holds a town star party which this year will be located in the Machtesh to avoid over crowding the town with the thousands of people who usually come to see the event. During the day up to 20:00 there will be various astronomical events and free lectures around town. Details here. Hotels fill up quickly so if you are coming you should reserve your rooms immediately.
Astronomy Israel will be having its own star party on August 12 with special star party pricing of 75nis/person over the age of 6, no charge under 6. This is a big discount from our regular star tour prices, but we want every one to be able to come and enjoy the show. We will be out most of the night from dusk until whenever. This is an especially good year for the Perseids since there is no moon in the sky, as the moon is new on Sunday night and sets with the sun. A bright moon severely interferes with seeing the dimmer meteors in a shower. This year we will be doing both Hebrew and English tours of the night sky during the star party, with my co-pilot Ziv handling the Hebrew tour.
We are pleased to be holding this year's star party in conjunction with the Alpaca Farm of Mitzpe Ramon who will be hosting the star party and providing camping accommodations to guests. They will also be selling drinks, snacks and, food. Camping at the Alpaca Farm is 120nis, including Alpaca Farm entrance fees. (Bring your own sleeping bags and tent, the Alpaca Farm is just providing the space.) A super-special discount for the star party: 25nis/person (6 years old and up, no charge under 6) if you sign up for the star tour together with camping at the Farm. Contact the Alpaca Farm to arrange for camping with them, not me. Mention the star party if you want to sign up for the special Alpaca Farm star party price. Those staying elsewhere should sign up directly for the star party at my booking site. The cost is 75nis/person (6 years old and up) if you are staying elsewhere. No entrance fee to the Farm if you book the star party directly at my booking site. To contact the Alpaca Farm:
Phone: +972-52-897-7010
Email: office@alpaca.co.il
Web site: www.alpaca.co.il
The Alpaca Farm is just 5 minutes behind Mitzpe Ramon, down Ben Gurion Boulevard, the main road into Mitzpe Ramon.
To book the star party directly if you are staying elsewhere, click the button below:
Meteors are what most people call "shooting stars" or "falling stars", but they are neither. They are bits of rock and debris from outer space that fall to earth and burn up from the heat of friction with the earth's atmosphere. It's their light generated by friction with the earth's atmosphere that we see. Usually these rocks from space just fall randomly so we only see a few per night. But sometimes the earth passes through the orbit of an ancient comet, which disintegrates as it orbits the sun and leaves a debris trail behind. As the earth passes through this cometary debris trail scores of particles fall to earth simultaneously creating a meteor shower. Really good showers like the Perseids can have peak rates in excess of 100 meteors per hour. Of course most of these are quite dim, but many bright ones are also visible creating "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" from the onlookers.
As the earth passes through the orbit of an ancient comet debris rains down of our planet creating a meteor shower.
Israel is ideally placed this year to view the shower as the peak falls during the early morning hours of August 13 in this part of the world. Meteor scientists are also predicting a mini-peak around 11:00PM on August 12 as the earth passes through a small stream of particles left behing by Comet Swift-Tuttle, the comet that is the origin of the debris that makes up the Perseids Meteor shower. Make sure to be out by then.
Most meteors are quite tiny, minuscule even, about the size of a grain of sand. Of course, we don't see an object that small in the sky, we just see the tremendous light generated as they burn up from friction. They begin to become visible at heights of around 50 miles to 175 miles high. But sometimes enormous objects fall to earth. Most recently the Great Chelyabinsk Meteor fell to earth on February 15, 2013, over the town of Chelyabinsk Russia. It was 60 feet in diameter and weighed over 12,000 tons when it entered the earth's atmosphere at a speed in excess of 100,000 MPH. It was the largest meteor to fall to earth in over 100 years and was captured by numerous dashboard cameras. I put together a compendium of the videos on YouTube, and it is one of the most dramatic astronomical events of recent memory:
If meteors are large enough they can survive their fiery fall through the earth's atmosphere and hit the ground, as the Chelyabinsk Meteor did. They then change their name to meteorites and can be found, collected and researched. They are primordial pieces of the solar system, over 4 billion years old. As usual I will have my large bag of magic "rocks from space" with me, and you will be able to hold real "shooting stars" in your hand. Also, as usual, we will be raffling off free meteorites every hour (retail value 50nis), and Yes, if you don't win one and really want to take one home we will sell them to you if you insist.
Two of the meteorite pairs we will be raffling at the star party: A Tektite (left)) and a fragment of the Campo del Cielo (right).
Meteors can be observed from any dark sky location and no optical equipment is needed or even desirable. They can appear anywhere in the sky so the best place to see them is a dark sky location with open horizons. Just lie down on the ground and look up. That's why Mitzpe Ramon is such a popular location for viewing them. People often ask me where is a dark sky location besides Mitzpe and my answer is, "I don't know." I do almost all my observing from Mitzpe. You know your own area better than I do.My impression is that in the center of the country along Route 35 and 38 there are a number of parks where the sky may be suitably dark, but I've never observed from there myself.
If you trace the path of meteors in a shower back from their source they appear to emanate from a single location in the sky, a particular constellation, called the "radiant" of the shower. The Perseids appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, just below Cassiopeia. as the radiant rises higher in the sky more meteors are seen. That happens after midnight in August which is why the early morning hours are usually the best for viewing the meteor shower.
Time lapse photo of meteors appearing to emanate from the "radiant" in the constellation Perseus.
Although the peak of the shower is very sharp there is also a great increase in the number of meteors a few days before and a few days after the peak. This chart is an illustration of the the prediction of the rates for the shower in 2016:
Predicted Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of the Perseids in 2016
As you can see from the above chart while the peak is quite sharp, which is why people try to come on the night of the peak, these is still quite an uptick in meteors 3-4 days before and after the peak and sometimes even longer than that, with rates in the 30 or so per hour, still far more than are seen on an average night. Of course most of these are quite dim, but there are still a few bright ones, fireballs, that make the night memorable, so it is also worth coming for a look at the shower a few days before or after the peak, although predicting what you will actually see then is impossible. But the sky will still be quite dark as there will still be no bright moon in the sky.
You can book our Perseids Star Party Tour by clicking this button:
We had an exhilarating time this evening with S_ and K_ (anonymity requested) from Vienna. S_ grew up in Chicago and is now teaching in Vienna. K_ trades commodities there (should I buy gold?). It was a dark and stormy night. No, really it was. But S_ and K_ really wanted to see the stars and after many hesitations we went up despite the clouds.
As we were driving up it began to rain, which made me feel pretty stupid. But by the time we reached our observing plateau it had stopped, and of course the desert drinks it up immediately anyway. We dodged clouds for most of the night, together with the occasional shower, but enjoyed ourselves. We had enough breaks in the cloud cover to do a good tour of the constellations, and Saturn stayed uncovered long enough for some dedicated observing. S_ and K_ were quick studies and were soon piloting the telescope on their own.
After dropping them off at Chez Eugene, we had the thrill of seeing a striped hyena at the dumpster near the industrial district. These are amazing animals, wild and feral, with a bent, threatening, and loping gait. This was my fourth hyena sighting in Mitzpe Ramon. I saw a family of 3 last summer when I was out observing near the Alpaca Farm.
One of the places I like to observe from in Mitzpe Ramon is the parking lot of the Alpaca Farm, the only such farm in the entire Middle East. There are several hundred alpacas and llamas, together with a large variety of other animals including horses, wild asses, camels, and dogs. But what makes it interesting for astronomy is the large parking lot just outside the gates.
Entrance to the Alpaca Farm
The Alpaca Farm lies in a hidden valley which blocks alot of the light from Mitzpe Ramon and also some of the wind from the desert. The parking lot is empty after dark and is large and expansive. The main problem lies in the fact that the Alpaca Farm is also a Bed and Breakfast, so they keep some of their outdoor lights on after dark. You can still easily see the Milky Way from here, and your back is usually to the lights, but still they spoil some of the desert dark sky ambience.
Panoramic view of the surrounding desert and valley from the Alpaca Farm parking lot.
What's that you say? You're afraid of dogs? Did I mention the guard dogs that patrol the area after dark? Actually, I've never seen them before midnight or so, but I can't promise they won't be around before then. The farm has a mixed pack of Turkish Mountain Dogs, Australian Shepherds, and other very large creatures that are there mostly to protect the live stock from predators like foxes and hyenas. (Yes, I once encountered a family of hyenas not far from where I was observing.) But they are very curious about humans, and it is somewhat intimidating to have a dozen or so very large dogs come up to you in the middle of the night, sniffing your crotch. After they get to know you some wander off but others lay down nearby, some under my telescope tripod. They make quite a ruckus when they rise in alarm at some unseen threat and race away over the deert, knocking their great tails against my tripods and generally disturbing an otherwise quiet observing session. Although harmless, the dogs have kind of convinced me to take most of my observing elsewhere. I think that's the general idea.
An Australian Shepherd asks for attention during our observing session.
The Alpaca Farm and its parking lot, marked by the yellow pin, as viewed on Google Earth.
