If you’re at all inclined to go outside and stare into the great beyond, now’s the time to do it.

The annual Perseid metoer showers are peaking over the next few days and by all accounts, this has been a great year for the late summer stardust.

One estimate of peak meteor activity, in the early hours of Friday, predicts 60-100 meteors an hour. That’s a lot and it’s worth the trip.

The view to see the Perseids is toward the Northeast. While peak activity is predicted after midnight, astronomers are also saying that meteors can be visible as early as 1o p.m. It’s a great thing to do with your kids,  if you don’t mind pulling them out of bed.

The always excellent Sky and Telescope magazine points out this viewing this year will be especially good because the crescent moon will not be spilling light into the sky.

And, if you can’t get out there late, take a look right after sunset when four planets, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury join the crescent moon on the western horizon.

Things are still in the testing stage, but according to reports from the Gulf, the well head clampdown stopped oilflow into the Gulf.

Still image captured at 4:30, taken from Hos – ROV 1 — video feed provided by BP.

Link to BP’s underwater video page.

An abrupt stop was ordered today to the testing procedures of BP’s new cap on the undersea oil gusher. Federal authorities questioned whether or not shutting down the oil flow, and thus increasing pressure inside the well-pipe, could cause the well to blow out at another location.

This is a dramatic turnabout to stories late last week proclaiming that BP’s 60,000 barrell per day oil leak could be shut down this week. There is press conferences scheduled at 4 p.m. today on the latest development.

Birds resting on oiled shrubs and oil containment boom on Cat Island, protecting it from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the coast of Louisiana on Tuesday, July 13.

You may have noticed that Green World is a little stuck on the issue of media access as it relates to press coverage of the Gulf oil spill.

Oil billows from the damaged Deepwater Horizon wellhead Tuesday this morning in the Gulf of Mexico.

Previous coverage:

USCG buffer zone keeps media 20M away from boom, clean-up operations

and,

Scientists delivering more data on underwater oil plumes

That’s because the feeling here is that there should be a presumption of media access. Period. A place where the media is not allowed should be the exception. Credentialed media should be able to access beaches, state parks and and waterways get into proximity of clean-up operations in order to cover this disaster.

Well,  things may be moving in that direction. The Coast Guard just changed the 20M setback zone established earlier this month. The new policy establishes a process for credentialing media and sets ground rules for frontline coverage - like don’t run over the boom, for boat operators. But, it allows credentialed media to get in close without daily, location-specific permission. At least that’s how it is being presented.

Exceptions are still made to keep media away where safety or security are concerned. Both these reasons provide ample cause of contractor security to interfere with media coverage, as this account by a photo-journalist on assignment in Texas illustrates.

To be fair, you don’t have to be a BP enforcer or Texas police officer to harass photographers working in public space.

The MBTA does it all the time, despite their own policy. (Hat tip to Universal Hub, which tracks these incidents as they occur.) Check out these exanples: MBTA stops me again and, Threatened with arrest.

This is why the presumption must be that media has access. Contractors, police officers and local officials are all in a position to squash media coverage of the devastation and response to the oil gusher. Providing everyone in that group with a blanket stay-back policy of 20M to enforce was bad decision from the outset. Only time will tell if the new policy translates to a practical improvement on the ground.

If the experience on the Gulf Coast is even remotely similar to that on the MBTA, then the liklihood is that message will take a long time to filter down and that media will continue to get resistance from local, mid-and-low level officials collecting paychecks from BP and its contractors.

Incidentally, Green World had some contact with the Biloxi-Sun Herald photographer who captured the oil scooping image here.  Amanda McCoy said she was photographing from a jetty and that the clean-up crew working in the boat was not threatened by her, that they exchanged pleasantries and everyone went about doing their job.

Headlines:

WDSU: Fired BP Contractor Claims Photo Flap Led To Dismissal

AP via Boston Herald: Another BP partner refuses to help pay for Gulf spill

AP via Boston Herald: BP prepares to test new cap installed on oil leak

AP via Boston Herald: Prez orders halt to offshore rigs

AP via Boston Herald: Senators seek probe into alleged BP-Lockerbie link

There is a rush of oil flowing into the gulf, up to 60,000 barrels a day presently, and a flurry of activity a mile deep as the effort to install a new collection cap on BP’s ruptured Deepwawater Horizon well proceeds.

This live view of the undersea gusher also offers a chance to watch the robot submarines install a new collection cap. This is a fascinating and complex operation. Click here to watch a BP video explaining and animating what’s happening in the next few days.

This view is coming from Skandi ROV1 - video provided by BP.

BP says the new collection cap will be in place by Monday and the goal is- with the new cap and collection boat the Helix Producer in place - to capture all of the oil flowing out of the breached well riser. Business Week, incidentally, reported Tuesday, that Houston-based Helix offered use of the massive Helix Producer back in April. BP, according to the report, declined the offer until June, when the need for additional collection capacity was clear.

Collecting 100 percent of the oil from the leaking well would be great. However, BP is also the company that said publicly that a reasonable estimate of the leaking oil was 5,000 barrels a day when their own estimates ranged more than double that amount and which knew the total potential leak was on the order of 100,000 barrels a day.

Additional headlines:

Chief Operating Officer for BP Exploration and Production Doug Suttles, right, and Kevin Costner, left, during a tour of the “Ella G”, a skimmer ship fitted with Costner’s centrifuge designed to separate collected oil from water, in Port Fourchon, LA, 8 July 2010.

AP via Miami Herald: Kevin Costner’s oil skimmer to work in fouled Gulf

Boston Herald: Ed Markey eyes lasting Georges Bank oil-drilling ban

AP via Boston Herald: Sea turtle egg evacuations begin along oiled Gulf

McClatchy-Tribune: Mississippi marine official sees quick return for coast

As the sun sets, workers continue to remove tar balls and patties that washed ashore in Long Beach, Mississippi on Wednesday, July 7 2010. (Amanda McCoy/Biloxi Sun Herald/MCT) See more photos here.

A ground crew rests in the shade underneath the Navy’s MZ-3A Airship as it prepares to begin training flights for the Coast Guard to assist with the Gulf oil spill response on Friday, July 9, 2010, in Mobile, Ala. Officials say the slow-moving blimp will be used to spot oil slicks and distressed wildlife during flights over the Gulf. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)