Meteor Showers
From the beginning of mankind's observations of the heavens, meteors have both mystified and terrorized people.
These chunks of rock and debris have been striking the earth, moon and every other planet for eons. Most everything is small and burns up as it goes through the atmosphere.
A very large one is believed to have struck the earth about 65 million years ago and was the principal cause for the die off of the dinosaurs. It blasted up enough debris into the atmosphere to cause the earth to cool for a number of years and affect both life and plants.
There are a lot of big chunks of rock out there that astronomers watch all the time. None have been predicted to hit the earth any time soon. Meteors can be seen at any time, but there are times of the year where you can see hundreds of them in a short while.
The Small Stuff
Meteors are quite common. Almost every night, if you watch enough, you will see some bright streak of light fly across the sky and evaporate suddenly. Every size of debris from a grain of sand to something about the mass of a golf ball will cause this.
There have been a few objects large enough to survive the blazing heat and actually strike the earth. Most of these are also relatively small. None have ever caused any one any damage, so far as we know.
Slightly Larger Ones
Some larger ones, such as the one in the photograph, have survived and struck land. This one is composed of Iron and could possibility have broken off of a larger asteroid at some point in time.
We know the earth has been hit many times in its history. Over time, the evidence of these craters has been eroded away by the effects of our weather and atmosphere.
Our moon is heavily cratered.
But having no atmosphere to either burn up the smaller incoming rocks and no weather to erode anything, the craters lay there for millions of years.
71% of the earth is covered by water so some will strike the oceans.
A Big One
One of the best examples of a large impact is in Arizona. The pictures will somewhat demonstrate the tremendous impact. It is estimated the meteor struck about 5,000 years ago. This is a rather young impact, by geological standards, thus the crater is very evident.
When the meteor impacted the earth it was estimated to be about 40 yards in diameter. It left a crater 4,000 feet in diameter and 570 feet deep.
Meteor Crater is now a National Park.
It is not far from Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, so it is a great place to visit for a few hours when you are in Northern Arizona.
There is a great visitor's center that will provide all of the information about the event and yes you can go inside the crater itself. There is an RV park nearby if you choose to stay a while.
Viewable Meteor Showers
There are several meteor showers that hit the earth's atmosphere regularly and put on quite a show.
There are more than 30 regular ones but one of the best ones to see during the summer camping season is the Perseid showers. The Perseid showers are made up of small pieces of a comet that broke up on a journey around our sun.
The Perseid showers can appear from late July to mid August. You need to check with newspaper accounts or astronomy articles for the best dates to view every year. You can witness up to hundreds of hits each hour.
In January the Quadrantids shower can produce strikes over 100 per hour. They are usually early in the month and because of the direction they come from can only be seen in the Northern Hemisphere.
Leonid showers are in mid November most everywhere. The rate is slower than other showers but can still produce a great show.
You can visit www.meteorshowersonline.com for a complete listing. They list all of the showers throughout the year, their dates and best viewing hours.
Photographing these showers makes for a wonderful picture and memory.
If you have a camera with an exceptionally long exposure time, or if you can lock the shutter open for a few minutes, the results can be striking. Set your camera up on a tripod. It must be absolutely steady for the long exposure time.