SAASST News

Wednesday, 12 August 2020 14:22

SAASST Participation in the Slooh Observations of the Perseids Meteor Shower

The Slooh online observatory streamed live views of the Perseid meteor shower on Aug. 12, 2020, beginning at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT). 

Hosted by Slooh astronomer Paul Cox, the show featured live views of the annual "shooting star" display at its peak as experts discuss the astronomical event.  The live session used special low-light video cameras from the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space sciences & Technology, and several other locations.



The Star Party commenced on Wednesday, Aug. 12, starting at 7 p.m. EDT (23:00UTC). The general public watched on Slooh's Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels. Slooh members personally joined the Star Party at Slooh.com using Zoom to interact with Slooh's experts.  Slooh Astronomer, Paul Cox, said: "The Perseids are usually the most popular meteor shower of the year. Slooh members gather together from around the globe to watch the live feeds in awe and wonder as fragments of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle vaporize spectacularly as they enter Earth's atmosphere traveling at an astonishing 133,200 mph (60 km per second)!"

The figure bellows shows the number of meteors, as observed by the SAASST UAEMMN system composed of three towers, specially dedicated to observing meteors. Despite the cloudy sky and the presence of the Moon, the three towers recorded a good number of meteors.