Perseids Meteor Shower 2009 - August 12th

All clouds here, both Wed and Thurs nights. Thurs started to clear around sunset, but by the time it was dark the clouds were back.

-- Jeff. (mid-Louth)

I have combined the video still images of meteors using Mira PRO software taken from my north video camera and the west video camera from my location in Meath from 10th august to 12th august (11th was clouded out for me).

The north cam is centred on Polaris while the west cam has elevation of ~60 degrees, you can see the star trail of Vega. Hopefully next year won’t be as clouded out for the Perseids.

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Clear skies
Mike

Cool pictures Mike, thanks for putting them up.

Interesting pics Mike!
I'd be interested to learn more about your setup.

Michael.

No Problem Dave, glad you liked them.
Sure thing Michael, you can me PM for more details, I would be glad to share information.

Clear skies
Mike

Mike,

Well done! thats a very useful composite of the meteors. Have you checked out if the radiant is in the same position as last year? Or may be, you weren't up and running in 2008.

I can see this is an opportunity for the IFAS AOP to attempt a wider distribution of cameras around the southeren part of Ireland. The only meteor stations I know of are Larne, Armagh, Rathmoylan (Co. Meath) and Kingsland (Co Roscommon). Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera system operational in time. There needs to be a better distribution, in particular, the Munster area have no cameras operating as far as I know. Locations like Cork,
Wexford, Tipperary and Limerick are needed. The reason for having a distribution is for overlap, triagulation for fireballs and meteors, etc

The meteor's position against the stars can be plotted by two or more observing stations at sites at least 40 km or so apart,in fact the wider the better, it may be possible to calculate the meteor's height above the surface by triangulation. This can also be done far more accurately if the meteor has been imaged, and if at least one image was taken by video, or another method allowing a velocity estimate, it may be possible to compute the meteoroid's orbit before it entered the Earth's atmosphere. With fireballs, if enough observers record accurate positional information for the meteor, it is sometimes possible to calculate an approximate atmospheric trajectory, and because these very bright meteors can drop meteorites, it may even be practical to try to recover any such fallen objects, if an atmospheric path can be worked-out. Hence having a wider distribution of stations around Ireland.

I know that the BAA Meteor section has a lack of data from the west of the UK. This data can be collated and then published. All meaningful scientific information. It's so inexpensive now to set up cameras linked to your own computer.

Eamonn A

www.kingslandobservatory.com J62