alpha Monocerotids

Well I'm writing this at 2am with rain tipping down and no end in sight, so if anyone is going to see this supposed outburst in two hours time it will have to be somewhere other than Co Limerick. Looks like all of Ireland and Britain under a grey pall actually. Time will tell if anything happens.

Finbarr.

Hi Finbarr, 

I feel for you. I set the alarm for 4:30am hoping for some clear skies. Took one look out the window and all I could see were clouds. So, Dublin was not any better. Shame really as there was talk of a great display this year.

Clear skies, 

Darren. 

Just checked other reports. By all accounts, we didn't miss much. Seemed like a fairly uneventful display.

Visual observers reporting no outburst although radar detections did apparently experience a very short-duration spike. Probably not enough precise data available for this shower anyway, so predictions were always likely to be uncertain.

Finbarr.

It is such a sad time for Irish astronomy right now.
All we get is cloud, cloud, cloud.
Then rain and more rain - followed by cloud, cloud, and even more cloud.
I haven't a clue as to when we are going to have a clear night again.
I check all the websites and there appears to be no hope for a clear night occurring soon.

And even when we do get a clear sky for one of two hours, our scopes suffer truly terrible dew on our optics, because of the recent rain.
(Refractors suffer more than reflectors).

Last Tuesday evening, I found Vega 8 minutes after sunset through both telescopes. and 15 minutes later I was nearly splitting Epsilon Lyrae into 4 components at 40X. I kid you not!
All 4 stars were scintillatingly beautiful at 112X.

I had been longing for to check out some doubles and multiple stars in Cassiopeiae before that constellation reached the zenith. But the dreaded dew started attacking my reading glasses and my small 70 mm f/6 apochromatic refractor.
So at 6 pm, it was time to put all my equipment away.
At 7 pm, high cloud had arrived anyway.
And that was my only observing session since the Mercury Transit.

Boohoo.

By the way, I too looked out quite a few times to see these meteors.
All to no avail. Just cloud, cloud and more cloud

Clear skies??

Aubrey.

Well that was quite a depressing read Aubrey! Next event is Venus passing 1.4 degrees south of Jupiter on Sunday... behind the clouds.

Finbarr.

You painted a very accurate (and comical) image of what things are like at the moment for us Aubrey. Paradoxically, it broke my heart, yet made me smile. 

I love Lyra! Not only does it have some wonderful objects (the Ring Nebula, and Epsilon Lyrae etc) for all types of scopes, but the Mythology surrounding Lyra also gets me everytime. 

Thanks Finbarr, I hope the clouds clear for the event you describe. Considering, how poor our observing sessions have been lately, seeing Venus so close to Jupiter would be a treat. 

Here's to clear skies...I'd even settle for an hour or two at this stage. 

Darren.