Looking for an RSS Feed For Meteorological Events

August 14, 2008 12:00 PM

Looking for an RSS Feed For Meteorological Events

I'm a meteor shower watcher, but also a busy Daddy/husband/geek/whathaveyou.

I've been Googling around for an RSS feed that I can drop into my Bloglines (or whatever I may move to in the future) that will remind me that the Perseids are right around the corner, or the Orionids, or what have you.

I guess I wouldn't mind Phases of the Moon and Eclipses and stuff in there too, but I really just want meteor showers. And I'm not keen on a whole lot of commentary.

Ideal:

Shower Name (a week or two in advance) - Dates - Peak - Best Viewing Locations - Other Stuff (like moon phase during shower)

Obviously, I could do this for myself in a Google Calendar or some such, but if I wanted to work that hard for it, I wouldn't be asking here. :)

I've seen lots of questions around here about meteor showers in the past, so hopefully there will be lots of parties interested in a good answer.

Thanks!

posted by SlyBevel to Science & Nature (6 answers total)

Those aren't meteorological events (despite the 'meteor' part). Meteorology is weather.

What you're looking for are astronomical events. This previous AskMe might be relevant (although it doesn't hold the answer).
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 12:41 PM on August 14, 2008

(I think the word you're looking for is meteoritics)
posted by scruss at 12:42 PM on August 14, 2008

Response by poster: Aw dang, you're right, Dead Bea Arthur! I wondered if I was having a terminology problem with meteorology.

Thanks for the tip.
posted by SlyBevel at 12:43 PM on August 14, 2008

While not as detailed as you'd like, there are Public Google Calendars that feature major Meteor Showers. You can easily subscribe to these as you would a typical RSS.

Go to www.google.com/calendar and search Public Calendars for 'meteor showers'. Strangely, it won't let me link to the results.

You can probably find phases of the moon, etc as well.

I'll be awaiting a better, more detailed option presented here too.
posted by blastrid at 12:50 PM on August 14, 2008

It's not an RSS feed, but SpaceWeather will email you about activity like that, including aurorae.
posted by o0dano0o at 1:26 PM on August 14, 2008

Plus, there's always services that'll make an RSS feed out of any web page that lacks a feed. I've tried Page2RSS, though I can't speak to the quality.
posted by philomathoholic at 5:40 PM on August 14, 2008