Perseids Meteor Shower 2009 - August 12th

The weather is not playing ball as usual here. So frustrating.

yea, no surprise, I've been watching this damned meteor shower since the 1980s and without exaggerating, the amount of clear night I've seen for it I could count on one hand!
This time of the year never plays ball weatherwise, hence the usual exodus to Spain for 2 weeks in August for me.

I think the amount of clear skies we got here in the north west so far this year I could count on one hand :laugh:

Nephin wrote:

I think the amount of clear skies we got here in the north west so far this year I could count on one hand :laugh:

I can only remember one in the last few weeks and it was a friday night,

so i didnt take out the scope, you no friday night and all :laugh:

was sorry after, so ya sligo seems to be constantly covered in clowd,

so now, where to move to!

So, I had the chance having a clear night. Long time ago for a whole night observing meteors. I was ready from 21h30 UT till 3h UT. My location here over the Channel near Bruges is 3.1 E and and 51.2 N.

In total 54 meteors seen, 4 sporadic and 50 perseids.

On 21h40 UT mag. -1 through CVn.
On 23h01 UT mag. -1 through Lyr, and a -1 on 23h14 through Umi.

Constantly looking north. A good choice since moon was climbing in south. Not a great disturbing object, since it rose in east in the beginning, the limited mag. didn't drop much, it stayed between 5.2-5.4

On 01h31, -1 through Dra.

Wega going downwards bit by bit to the west, the earth's rotation can be stunning sometimes, and also 4 tumbling satellites with waving flashes were visible in this night.

On 2h08 UT mag. -1 through Cas. Finally a bright mag. -2 through Cyg on 2h25 UT. Followed by a mag. -1 four minutes later 2h29 UT in Per.

The last bright one was a -2 again on 2h42 UT through Cep. Perseids of mag. -3 or -4 were not present this time.

Suddenly clouds came in from the west for a quarter, nicely lit by the moon, but still able to look through it. It was already 3h UT then, the heavens became bluish, and with the enormous Venus in the east waking up, it was time to finish.

Amazingly the skies are clearing from the west, seen 2 perseids already : cheer: