Watch Perseid Meteor Shower With Sky Map
Every August, the Earth plows through the remnants of the comet Swift-Tuttle, and those lucky enough to be in areas of with little or no light pollution are in for a treat… the Perseids. So if you find yourself camping out in the wilderness this week or at least away from the city lights, we’ve got the Android app to help point you in the right direction.
Sky Map for Android
The best of the bunch (and one of our Android Apps of the Month) is the app formerly known as “Google Sky Maps” and now just plain ‘ole “Sky Maps.” It’s an old favourite around here at TMA (space nerds).
1) First off, you’ll need to grab Sky Map from Google Play (free).
2) Open Sky Map and enter the menu
3) Tap “Toggle night mode.” Changing to night mode will change the screen to be black and red, and enable you to keep your night vision while staring up at the stars.
4) Back in the menu, choose search. Type in Perseids in the search box.
5) Follow the arrow on the screen as it guides you and your lucky eyes toward the center of the action.
6) The circle will enlarge when you arrive in the right area. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean that all meteors will emanate from this exact spot, but from this general area in the sky.
So although the peak of the meteor shower has passed early Sunday, you can still see up to 40 per hour this week. So find a dark place, put on some spacey tunes and stare into the sky.
One of the editors of Too Many Adapters, Dustin just can’t get enough travel or technology.
When not directly feeding his above insatiable habits, you can probably find him at some far away ice cream shop taking pictures and tweeting of all the flavors to jealous followers. That, or on top of a mountain somewhere shooting panoramas with his DSLR.
