Hi Stevie,
Very many thanks for your message.
Congrats to your colleague on spotting seven... That's great!
I've heard great things about the Skellig Star Party. One year I'll get down to it, and I'm hoping I won't have to wait too long.
I suppose it could have been worse, at least I saw one good meteor. Also, I had a quick look at Albireo, so that was a nice way to close the evening.
Clear skies,
Darren.
stevie wrote: Hi Darren
I'm also sorry to read of your difficulties with the Lyrids. Our society chair was out last night, and she said she saw seven in total, which is not too bad in the appalling light pollution of Belfast.
I agree with Aubrey, the term shower is obselete, and indeed misleading, but, it is possible to see a good display. The Skelligs star party of 2015 was held just after the height of the Perseids "shower", and quite a few went down a couple of days early just to see them. And we got a really good display, most saw well over 100 meteors within the space of a few hours. The total number seen for any given person probably had a lot to do with the amount of liquid refreshments consumed.
It has often been said that the three big disappointments in amateur astronomy are Mars, comets and meteor showers, but, don't give up and you might just get lucky.
