If you are fortunate enough to get clear skies over the next few nights don’t forget that it’s time for the Perseids meteor shower – it’s a regular event. Best viewing will be early on Tuesday morning but there should be plenty of meteors visible either side of that time. Astronomy.ie are running a Perseid Watch 2008 and the Royal Observatory is predicting a larger number of meteors than usual as the Earth ploughs through the dusty debris left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet last dropped by our neighbourhood in 1992, it’ll drop by again in 2126 – passing within 15 million miles of Earth – there’s an [java req] orbital diagram here. Fortunately we probably won’t be around in 3044 when it’s been estimated that it’ll pass within 1 million miles of Earth. That’s roughly just 4 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon..
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