the meteorite shower

[mata hati]

Hi there,
Can anyone tell me if we should be able to see the Perseides shower over middle France? We looked out for the last two nights but didnt see much just 1 lonely one!

[Mortartube]

They will appear to come from the direction of Perseus. This is a star map from England but you should see similar. Look for a W shaped constellation. Look down and slightly right, there is an upside down Y shape. This is Perseus.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/science/space/myspa ce/nightsky/observingnotes.shtml

Sadly the best was last night and it will diminish from now on

[mata hati]

Super Mortaretube!! Very informative!
We will be out afresh tonight looking!!
regards, Mata

[jake-the-peg]

As with many Astronomical events people sometimes expect dramatic sights than you get.

You'd probably expect to see something like one a minute at peak, and most often the best time to see metors is after midnight so if you just casually look out you may be disappointed.

Meteors are most often the dust and debris from comet tails so just occasionally we go through the path of where one has been recently and there is a truely amazing show in 1966 the Leonids gave us 40 a second! but those are few and far between

[mata hati]

thanks everyone for all the responses!
We took a drive out into the countryside to a layby with panoramic vista's (well in daylight anyway) settled ourselves down to wait, and what do you think? Of course the sky clouded over!!!
So still no luck. Will just have to wait for the september showers!
many thanks,
Mata

[Mortartube]

There are loads of meteor showers still to see this year. Don't expect great things from all of them, but occasionally they are better than expected.

http://www.imo.net/calendar-2007.html

Just look at a Northern hemisphere star map to find your way about, like the one I posted the link to