First capture of Meteors and great nites observing!

Last night we observed from about 11:30pm and the skys were great! There was some really nice meteor activity as well, just when i went to talk to martin a lovely perseid grazed the sky which was green and had a lovely train which sat there and glew up for about 3 or 4secs. When i got out i did a meteor watch and looked at the amazing sky while martin searched and showed me many objects in the sky. At 1:30am we went out to the football pitch to obsereve meteors as the activity was soo good. At that time we were on a count of around 22. As the night went on i kept taking exposures of the sky hoping to a catch a meteor with 30secs. An hour or so later i pointed the camera over head and clicked but nothing appeared . As i checked my image i couldnt believe it! I caught a meteor which i hadnt even picked up with my own eyes, i had done it, mission complete We stayed out until 4am and pushed the dark skis to there very last min. Over all we seen 63 meteors! After just checking my images to day i have got another 2meteors on camera 2 Perseids and 1 Southern Delta Aquarid ! What a night






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As Conor mentioned in his report we had another excellent nights observing from 23.30 - 04.10LT. The trans was 10 and stars to mag 6.5 where easy with the naked eye. The mlikyway was amazing and i seen M33 without any optical aid!

This was a night for hunting. I spent over 2 hours comet hunting with the 16" while Conor was completing a photograpghic meteor search. I found MANY Messier and NGC objects during the search and everytime i picked up a faint fuzzy Conor and i would observe it together and comment on the objects physical appearance which was very educational and fun. We both saw the spiral arms within M51 which was a real beauty. Later i was amazed to see a bright telescopic meteor zip straight through the central bulge of the edge on spiral galaxy M108!!!!!!

We headed out to the pitch and did a meteor watch both visually and with the camera. Conor was taking exposures of the sky. It was good fun discussing exactly where we should point the camera to increase our chances of catching one. Overall we seen 63 Meteors.

18 Delta Aquarids
38 Perseids
3 Sporadics
2 Ursids
2 Alpha Capricornids

Before dawn Conor got rewarded for his meteor searching big time. He captured a nice Delta Aquarid meteor that appeared in the SW section of the 'square' in Pegasus travelling up from the SE horizon!!!! ( M31 was also in the image) Then as he processed his images today he discovered 2 more Perseids. One of them was a nice white object that shot above Mars through Aries, the 2nd was caught as it moved through a thin cloud formation that was lit a slight red colour. I am so glad he captured these meteors as Conor has been trying hard at it for several nights and tonight he was imaging from dusk to dawn while fighting with cold and battery drainage...his dedication and persistance paid of. Congratulations to you Conor

What a night....cant wait to the time of the Persids maximum! ...clear skies all

And what a beautiful night it was!! I was out too doing my usual nova hunt, but I only saw 1 perseid meteor, bright & fast, I could'nt see anymore because the clouds kepy coming and going. The milkyway was excellent again, and tonight is looking good too!!

Keith..

Nice one keith. I had a feeling you would be Nova hunting

Good luck with your search