Perseids 2013

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Someone has to start the Perseids thread as we have now entered this stream. So it might as well be IIS's most northerly active member (I would love it if you can contradict me on that )
Anyhow, the Perseids have been in the space news already with NASA's announcement that they have the highest rate of Fireballs of all the recognised meteor showers. Early fireballs have already been spotted !
I have found this to be the most consistent & appealing Meteor Shower of the year & the further North you are the better it is.
This year I will be in Cairns for the peak and I am hoping a few other keen Meteor Shower watchers will join me in the cool morning air to observe this shower.
Even if you are not lucky enough to be in FNQ at this delightful time of year, It would be great to hear of your Perseids experience here
If you have never got up in the early hours of the morning to watch a meteor shower, I can highly recommend it (even better with a thermos of hot coffee)

[waterrat (Greg)]

I'm always down for some Perseid action. About 03:30 start time this far South always worth it though. Might go to Mt Coot-tha this time and see what can be seen from an elevated spot.

[RobF (Rob)]

Would love to able to get there.
Correction - I think you're our most northerly Australian active member Ian?

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

LOL ...thanks for the correction Rob :-)
I am just hoping someone pops up from Bamaga up on Cape York or Perhaps Bathurst Island Nth of Darwin !
You should still get a pretty good look from Brisvagus, at least you will get to see 1/2 of them !

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Originally Posted by waterrat

I'm always down for some Perseid action. About 03:30 start time this far South always worth it though. Might go to Mt Coot-tha this time and see what can be seen from an elevated spot.

I recon you have the right Idea there Greg, the lights of the city might be a bit of a bugga though ? I normally view over the water to the North of Nhulunbuy and get a nice dark sky. Maybe Manly or Sandgate or Mt Cotton might give you the same down there ?

[Suzy]

baaaaaah! I just came on here to post about and you beat me to it by a matter of hours.
I've done a jam packed informative article on the IIS facebook page this morning, so if you don't mind I'll just pop it in here.

I always look forward to hearing your meteor shower obs, Ian, so I look forward to hearing about how you go with this one .
Crikey, I still remember how well you did up there with last years Geminids!

I've never seen the Perseids before so I'm really looking forward to this one. Not sure how I'll go though as it's quite low on my horizon, from memory I think Algol sits about 20-ish degrees. I'll give it a go anyway! I'd just stepped outside a few days ago and within a minute I saw a really bright one NW so I'm guessing that was a Perseid. It pays to empty the rubbish .

[Suzy]

The Perseid Meteor Shower on the night of August 11th/ morning of August 12th.

The Perseids are classed as the best meteor shower of 2013, and new research from NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office identifies the Perseids as the "fireball champion" of annual meteor showers.
Richard Talcott of Astronomy Magazine says,"you can expect to see up to 100 “shooting stars” per hour".
The Delta Aquariids Meteor Shower is still active so combined with the Perseid Meteor Shower peak, and the bonus of the moon being out the way, hopefully it'll turn out to be a meteor shower extravaganza!

ScienceCast: Perseid Fireballs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO83KP54YXs

From Astronomy Magazine .....
"If predictions hold, observers across eastern Europe and northern Asia could witness 100 meteors per hour if they watch under clear dark skies. Viewers in North America should see up to 80 meteors per hour — still an average of more than one per minute — in the hour or two before twilight starts to break shortly after 4 a.m. local daylight time. If cloudy skies prevail on the 12th, look on the morning of the 13th, when rates will be somewhat lower but still impressive."
Loads of info here: http://bit.ly/17urZyr

Check out the handy Fluxtimator- a Java applet that allows you to calculate the expected shower rate for a given date and a given location: http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html

"Top 10 Meteor Shower Facts" from Space.com:
http://bit.ly/13fEvxZ

From Universe Today .....
"The Moon reaches New phase on August 6th at 5:51 PM EDT/ 9:51 Universal Time (UT) and will be a 32% illuminated waxing crescent around the anticipated peak for the Perseid meteors on August 12th. And speaking of which, the Perseids are infamous for presenting a double-fisted twin peak in activity. This year, the first climax for the shower is predicted for around 13:00 UT on August 12th, favoring Hawaii and the North American west coast, and the second peak is set to arrive 13 hours later at 02:00 UT, favoring Europe & Africa.
Nodal crossing for the Perseid stream and Earth’s orbit sits right around 18:00 to 21:00 UT on August 12th for 2013. The shower derives its name from the constellation Perseus, and has a radiant located near Gamma Persei at right ascension 3 hours 4 minutes and a declination of +58 degrees. Atmospheric velocities for the Perseids are on the high end as meteor showers go, at 59km/sec."
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/103826/the-2013-perseid-meteor-shower-an-observers-guide/#ixzz2axOs7x5q

If you are a registered member, Sky & Telescope are offering a free e-book, "Shooting Stars" to enhance your experience.
http://bit.ly/1bUNbj2

Want to have a go at photographing the event?
David Kingham Photography has written "Complete Guide to Photograph the 2013 Perseids Meteor Shower".
http://bit.ly/1bMp0Df

Get the viewing times (& loads of info) for your location here:
http://www.spacedex.com/perseids/

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Originally Posted by Suzy

baaaaaah! I just came on here to post about and you beat me to it by a matter of hours.
I've done a jam packed informative article on the IIS facebook page this morning, so if you don't mind I'll just pop it in here.

I always look forward to hearing your meteor shower obs, Ian, so I look forward to hearing about how you go with this one .
Crikey, I still remember how well you did up there with last years Geminids!

I've never seen the Perseids before so I'm really looking forward to this one. Not sure how I'll go though as it's quite low on my horizon, from memory I think Algol sits about 20-ish degrees. I'll give it a go anyway! I'd just stepped outside a few days ago and within a minute I saw a really bright one NW so I'm guessing that was a Perseid. It pays to empty the rubbish .

Good on you Suzy it is great to have another keen meteor observer out there willing to dish up such good information !
I was inspired by a great showing of meteors at last nights observing night up here in Nhulunbuy. Radiant appeared to be around the region of Centaurus ?

[ath (Andrew)]

^^^Awesome post Suzy, thanks for the links and the info! Despite being in Vic I'll be out looking next weekend for sure. I have been outside looking at the skies the last few months on most clear nights where I can and have noticed more Meteors than usual in the last few days. I saw the 2nd most intense meteor I've ever seen in my life on Thursday night close to the NE horizon at about 7.50PM EST. I had my camera out but wasn't exposing at the time Damn... Thanks again.

Edit: Oh and thanks for the email updates Ian, I didn't realize that I'm on your mailing list until now.

Small world!!

[waterrat (Greg)]

Or if I could get onto somewhere like Mr Nebo or somewhere a bit further out and kind of norwest of the city. Although Mr Cotton sounds like a good idea! Few days to pick the spot yet

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

I'm looking forward to this greatly. For the first time I'll have decent skies to observe from at home.
Maybe I'll buy one of those floaty mattress' for the pool with a beer holder.

I've seen a few each night last week too so hoping to get a couple on camera before the peak. We'll see.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

While out photographing the conjunction this morning I saw several bright Perseids along with some southern Delta Aquarids !

[waterrat (Greg)]

Originally Posted by gaa_ian

While out photographing the conjunction this morning I saw several bright Perseids along with some southern Delta Aquarids !

That's cool! Must get out of the city!!

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Well, the Fluxtimator estimates for my location is a whopping great .... '0' nothing, nada, none, zero, zilch for any night around there.
I don't beleive that to be quite accurate to be honest although with the current cloud predictions it may as well be.

I assume early Monday morning to be the best possible bet ?
In between clouds last night through the binos I'm sure I've been picking up small hits but they are so quick and the clouds so fast, well you never know do you ?

[Derek Klepp]

Ian just chanced on this thread and have been out early also trying for the conjunction . On review of some pics especially those towards the Magellenic clouds I noticed several meteors in a 30s snap on consecutive pics.Here are the pics. One is looking East. I have seen a few to the north but will have a better look over the next week. I am viewing from the Breakwall at Brunswick Heads.

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

Nice pics.

Not sure if this is a silly question or not but I'll ask anyway.

Does the length of exposure effect the meteors brightness in the picture?
For instance if you had caught the same meteor on a 30 sec exp and the other on a 3 minute one would the build up of the exposure dim the meteor?

[sil (Steve)]

Originally Posted by JB80

Does the length of exposure effect the meteors brightness in the picture?
For instance if you had caught the same meteor on a 30 sec exp and the other on a 3 minute one would the build up of the exposure dim the meteor?

No, once the film or sensor has been exposed to a photon it stays "captured" and won't dim if photons are no longer coming from the same spot.

However what you will lose is contrast as the dark areas slowly accumulate more light or image noise. So for example an area of the sky that is black in a 30sec exposure will become lighter in a 3min one, how light depends on conditions and where you are shooting. So as the "background" blackness of space in a widefield shot grows lighter, the meteor stays the same brightness but is now less noticable against the brighter background.

Some meteors are very faint so you probably won't want the background sky to be too light. A longer exposure will give you a better chance of capturing multiples in one shot and steadier (longer) satellite trails (so you don't confuse a short segment of satellite trail as a meteor).

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

I was inspired by a great showing of meteors at last nights observing night up here in Nhulunbuy. Radiant appeared to be around the region of Centaurus ?[/QUOTE]

On Sunday night I saw an awesome fire ball shoot down from Centaurus, one of the brightest I've seen.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Sounds great Jo, I wonder if there is a minor shower active in the area ?
Your from Cecil Plaims Eh ! ... I had my first big Hang Gliding cross country flight out there back in the mid 80's ! Great memories of landing next to a local pub to the amazement of the locals :-)

[bobbyf (Bob)]

Originally Posted by JB80

Nice pics.

Not sure if this is a silly question or not but I'll ask anyway.

Does the length of exposure effect the meteors brightness in the picture?
For instance if you had caught the same meteor on a 30 sec exp and the other on a 3 minute one would the build up of the exposure dim the meteor?

Hi there.
I shot 30sec each the last time i tried to shoot meteors, and i thought i was going to capture some bright ones, based on visuals, but sadly they were pretty dim. For this weekend, i was going to boost ISO and go down to 10-15 secs in an attempt to increase sensitivity. I'll just use the intervelometer on my D7000. It could be my lens only being F4 (sigma 10-20mm)but i was hoping for better.
Will hope for some clear skies (not looking likely though) and some good fireballs!
Cheers
Bob