Meteor shower question

[bobdabiulder]

Hi, I would've loved to have been able to get pictures of the meteor shower this week, however, it has been stormy near me recently.  Tonight looks to be ideal, but it's past peak.  So, my question is, how good would it be tonight?  What would the hourly rate be, would it even compare to the ~200/hr a couple days ago?

[Omon_Ra]

I don't know what the hourly rate would be, but there should still be more than your average night. Last year was epic where I live. Unfortunately I couldn't stay up to the wee hours of the morning due to work this year. I did see a couple big ol' fireballs when I was out earlier in the night though, so I was happy.

[bobdabiulder]

Ok, thanks.  There's an outburst this year, so it was predicted to reach160-200/hr at peak, but it's past peak so that's why I'm wondering.

[Omon_Ra]

1 minute ago, bobdabiulder said:

Ok, thanks.  There's an outburst this year, so it was predicted to reach160-200/hr at peak, but it's past peak so that's why I'm wondering.

Different meteor showers have different 'decay' (that's my term, I don't know if that's proper astronomical terminology) rates. I think it was the Orionids that died off really quickly after the peak this year. The Perseids, at least in my experiences, tend to fall off over a period of days, or even up to a week. Keep in mind the meteor showers are basically Earth passing through a debris field so it really depends on how much junk is up there that we're going through. The bigger fireball/streaky 'HOLY SHIT!' meteors may be fewer, but you'll still probably see plenty of others. Check the moon-set time for your area, as the (somewhere close to) quarter moon right now makes seeing some of the fainter ones harder to see.

[bobdabiulder]

Thanks,  heading out now.

[bobdabiulder]

Update: I saw two meteors and a couple hundred mosquitoes.  The combination of facing half towards the city to view the radiant and not waiting for moonset made is very difficult.