AMATEUR ASTRONOMY:

THE PERSEIDS ARE HERE TONIGHT- BUT WE SURE WON'T SEE THEM IN WINNIPEG:

Yes, the Perseid meteor shower will be peaking later this evening in the early hours before dawn tomorrow, but we sure won't be able to see them here in Winnipeg. Speaking of showers it's been raining cats and dogs since last night, and the weather reports (both Environment Canada and the Clear Dark Sky organization) say that this will persist until shortly before dawn on Wednesday morning. Maybe you'll still be able to catch a few meteors on that day, but at least for Winnipeg this years Perseids will be a "wash-out". The viewing conditions including cloud cover, transparency, visibility, etc. can be seen for Winnipeg by clicking the strange looking long rectangle divided into boxes at the bottom of our links section.

For people living elsewhere on the North American continent, however, conditions may be far better especially if you live on the west coast where the peak occurs when it is still dark. The Clear Dark Sky link reports conditions for 3,497 different locations in North America, from Mexico and the Bahamas in the south to Alaska, Yukon, NWT and Nunavut in the north. It's a great site and Molly encourages visitors to it. So, may you have better luck than we do here in Winnipeg.