Perseids On The Increase

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!..

:lol:

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!


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

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.... :lol:

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

Michael