Hi folks,

I managed to twist (my fiancée) Dee's arm last night to come out and have a look for a few meteors. While out looking at the stars after 11pm last night, as I watched on, she got a little more than she bargained for!

She saw her first Iridium Flare, a -7 mag, very impressive. She saw a Perseid Fireball pass between Perseus and Ursa Minor, fragment and leaving a brilliant smokey ion trail for about 3 seconds (estimated magnitude of -8 or -7). 2 satelites almost 'collided' as their paths crossed. 5 more satellites going round. And in total about 11 Perseid (or near to) meteors.

For the record, we saw all this between 23:07 and 23:22 hrs! She was well chuffed, and I was delighted!

As Murphy Law states, there was no one else around, no astronomy club meeting, no camera, and no one else seems to have seen them!..



Typical... Brilliant, but typical!

Has anyone else watched for Perseids lately? Fill in your observations here! It would be nice to see how activity has increased/decreased around the 12th maximum.

AND, it would make great practise for your Observing Challenges! :wink:


Seanie.

Went out for 20 minutes from 01:40 to 02:00 last night and I was quite dissapointed really. Only one bright meteor and even it was not spectacular. Saw about 4 othres but some were so dim that I'm nt really sure I saw them!

Hopefully it picks us a lot over the next few days.

Bart.

hi all

i didn't see them, but my daughter did at around 11.30pm, only three she said. thats more than what i seen :cry:

she showed me where in the sky, and they came from cassiopiae, not certain if that was them :roll:

but tonight i will be out, if the thunder stays away.

but tonight i will be out, if the thunder stays away.

The forecast seems good for the next ferw hours in Dublin anyway, so off to dark skies for the evening!

Cheers,
~Al

Does anyone have any digital camera setting suggestions for an attempt to capture a meteor streak? (aperture, and shutter speed etc.)

I was thinking 4 seconds should do it... Now, if i'm just patient enough to sit there for an hour taking 4 second shots....

You'll need either amazing reaction speed or one hell of a compactflash card!

Michael

Hi,

I was out at 1:00 last night and saw 4 perseids and one sporadic in 20 minutes before the clouds closed in the clear patches. Three were very bright, mag 1+ and two left trails, so the quality was good if not the quantity. The limiting magnitude was about 4.8ish. Looking forward to the peak(s)...

We here at


Kerry Astronomy club have three observing sessions planned around the county tomorrow night. I hope we get clear skies!

Michael Scully

Hi All,
Went observing last night and saw a nice persedi going through Cygnus.

John, is that the best way of catching metoers?, have you tried it on the sky yet, to what magnitude can you record with that exposure?

You'll need either amazing reaction speed or one hell of a compactflash card!

I managed to photograph a lightning fork using this method - Just took a lot of patience....

John, is that the best way of catching metoers?, have you tried it on the sky yet, to what magnitude can you record with that exposure?

I think I'll try a few different settings. I got a photo of the aurora (wasn't 100% happy with it, but it wasn't too bad) - The only trouble is that if I'm lucky enough to have the camera pointing in the right direction, and the shutter open at the right time, it'll be a pity if a meteor streaks past, and I have the wrong aperture setting!

Just in from observing here in Maynooth. Was out for the guts of an hour with one of my house mates and in that time we only saw about 5 perseids and 2 sporadics in all that time. One cool thing did happen though, we saw a perseid treak accross the sky from right to left through UMi and then literally 10 seconds later a sporadic followed what seemed to be the identical path only from left to right, i.e. an exact anti-perseid!

Fingers corssed for clear skies tomorrow and for a major increase in activity!

Bart B.

I was out again last night from 11:10pm to about 11:25pm. Dee's brother, Joe, called me up after I told him earlier that day about the stuff we had seen on Monday night, so he was very curious. We were talking to each other on our mobiles.
He lives about 15 miles as the crow flies from me. We both saw the same meteors, the same satelites. 2 planes also went into our fields of view.
But when I saw 1 plane cut through the bottom right of the bowl of The Plough, he saw it pass almost directly overhead! It seems the 15 statute miles on land between us, and the plane, made up for about 25 degrees of celestial distance apart! It was pretty neat, and I suppose it was a working example of a parallax effect!

Oh, we saw 4 satellites, 4 Perseids, and 2 sporadics. Conditions were almost ideal, and I'd say limiting magnitude was almost +6, as the Perseus arm of the Milky Way was clearly seen.

I'm going to his house tonight to view more and give him a 'lesson' in basic observing. He has even darker skies than where I live, so it should be good!


Seanie.