Perseids On The Increase

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.