Perseids anyone?

Last night I went up to the saddle at 5600 ft near the top of Mt Mooney
and set up our 6" reflector. Views of Jupiter were very nice before the
moon rose. I also viewed M31, M6, M7, M8, M20, M22, and M11 before I
settled down to watch for meteors.

Unfortunately it was about 1am and I think things had settled down by
then. I guess I was mislead by an article I read last week that the
peak should be around 9:00 UT. From 1am to 2:30am PDT I only saw 2 or 3
meteors that left good trails but earlier at 9:00pm while we were still
driving around I saw a huge fireball and trail, that ended up being the
best one I saw last night.

Greg
--
"All my time I spent in heaven
Revelries of dance and wine
Waking to the sound of laughter
Up I'd rise and kiss the sky" - The Mekons

G.T. wrote:
Last night I went up to the saddle at 5600 ft near the top of Mt Mooney
and set up our 6" reflector. Views of Jupiter were very nice before the
moon rose. I also viewed M31, M6, M7, M8, M20, M22, and M11 before I
settled down to watch for meteors.

Unfortunately it was about 1am and I think things had settled down by
then. I guess I was mislead by an article I read last week that the
peak should be around 9:00 UT. From 1am to 2:30am PDT I only saw 2 or 3
meteors that left good trails but earlier at 9:00pm while we were still
driving around I saw a huge fireball and trail, that ended up being the
best one I saw last night.

Greg

Given that the nearly full moon was up in the sky most of the night,
this was not a good night for Perseids, which seem to be back to their
behavior before the mid 1990s; up to 100 per hour (that's only a couple
per minute mind you) and faint, so all that light wash from the moon
would have reduced your chances of seeing anything to near zero.

--- Dave

On Sun, 13 Aug 2006 16:29:29 -0700, "G.T."
wrote:

Last night I went up to the saddle at 5600 ft near the top of Mt Mooney
and set up our 6" reflector. Views of Jupiter were very nice before the
moon rose. I also viewed M31, M6, M7, M8, M20, M22, and M11 before I
settled down to watch for meteors.

Unfortunately it was about 1am and I think things had settled down by
then. I guess I was mislead by an article I read last week that the
peak should be around 9:00 UT. From 1am to 2:30am PDT I only saw 2 or 3
meteors that left good trails but earlier at 9:00pm while we were still
driving around I saw a huge fireball and trail, that ended up being the
best one I saw last night.

I imaged about 100 over three nights (most the night of 11/12), despite
the Moon and some seriously poor weather. A composite image and some
fireball videos are at http://www.cloudbait.com/science/perseid2006.html

Without the Moon this would probably have been a very good year.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

"Chris L Peterson" wrote

Without the Moon this would probably have been a very good year.

Such as it was when I was seventeen....

;-)

"G.T." wrote:

Last night I went up to the saddle at 5600 ft near the top of Mt Mooney
and set up our 6" reflector. Views of Jupiter were very nice before the
moon rose. I also viewed M31, M6, M7, M8, M20, M22, and M11 before I
settled down to watch for meteors.

Unfortunately it was about 1am and I think things had settled down by
then. I guess I was mislead by an article I read last week that the
peak should be around 9:00 UT. From 1am to 2:30am PDT I only saw 2 or 3
meteors that left good trails but

earlier at 9:00pm while we were still
driving around I saw a huge fireball and trail, that ended up being the
best one I saw last night.


I saw the same one way east of you. Magnificent long bright decomposition
trail.
I may have caught it on my 35mm film camera. I have a grating on my 35mm slr

and was out hoping to get some meteor spectra. (Traffic on a nearby road and

planes overhead almost put me out of business).




Greg
--
"All my time I spent in heaven
Revelries of dance and wine
Waking to the sound of laughter
Up I'd rise and kiss the sky" - The Mekons

"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
snip
I imaged about 100 over three nights (most the night of 11/12), despite .
. . http://www.cloudbait.com/science/perseid2006.html

Wow. That one's APOD worthy. You can really see the "flashlight" spread.
Great work Chris.

I stood out in the backyard here in Pennsylvania under light polluted
skies before moonrise. It was quite cool & relatively clear sky.
Caught one faint one out of the corner of my eye & saw a pretty decent
one towards the ENE traveling towards the south, about 20 degress above
the horizon. Nice red trail. That was it. Really pitiful overall.
Maybe the Leonids will be better.

Ralph W.
41 15N 75 51W

On 16 Aug 2006 06:07:47 -0700, "kb3jqj" wrote:

I stood out in the backyard here in Pennsylvania under light polluted
skies before moonrise. It was quite cool & relatively clear sky.
Caught one faint one out of the corner of my eye & saw a pretty decent
one towards the ENE traveling towards the south, about 20 degress above
the horizon. Nice red trail. That was it. Really pitiful overall.
Maybe the Leonids will be better.

Except for an intense burst of activity every 33 years, the Leonids are
a pretty minor shower- only a fraction of the activity of the Perseids.
Watch for the Geminids in mid-December, though; they are a dependable
performer with activity similar to the Perseids throughout the night
(not just after midnight), and a good producer of fireballs. The
Orionids around October 21 are also a good shower. The Moon is favorable
for both the Orionids and the Geminids this year.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com