Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower, 4-6th May.

[Suzy]

HEADS UP!!! Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower- 4-6th May.

Best Time: Australia- 11pm- 4.30am.
Or as a general time- northern/southern hemispheres, in the dark hours before dawn. Greatest numbers will be seen 1-2 hours before dawn.

Peak: May 5th (as per times above).

Where: Northern and Southern Hemisphere, with a higher rate expected in the Southern Hemisphere.

Source of shower: the famous Halley's comet!
Each year, Earth travels through a path of debris left over by Halley. The Orionids at the end of the year is Halley related too.

Claim to fame: Known for its bright and fast meteors. News has it, this year is supposed to be a good one.

Tip #1: Look approximately half way up the sky facing east.
Tip #2: Don't look directly up at the sky nor directly at the radiant as that's only just the point where they're seen to come from, instead scan the area given. Grab yourself a comfy sun lounge or blanket- lay down and enjoy the show!

A "wow" quote...
"Each Eta Aquarid meteroid is a piece of Halley's comet doing a kamikaze death dive into the atmosphere". - Bill Cooke, NASA.

In a dark sky, especially at more southerly latitudes, the Eta Aquarids can produce up to 20 to 40 meteors per hour. From mid-northern latitudes, you might only see about 10 meteors per hour.
For more information and useful guides, read more here:
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-eta-aquarid-meteor-shower (http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fearthsky.org%2 Fastronomy-essentials%2Feverything-you-need-to-know-eta-aquarid-meteor-shower&h=vAQFQjmCZ&s=1)

Why is there more Eta Aquarid meteors in Southern Hemisphere?
Sunrise comes later to the Southern Hemisphere and earlier to the Northern Hemisphere during the month of May. For that reason, the radiant point of the Eta Aquarid shower climbs higher into the predawn sky at more southerly latitudes. That’s why the tropics and southern temperate latitudes tend to see more Eta Aquarid meteors than we do at mid-northern latitudes. Cruise to southerly latitudes, anyone?
Read More: http://earthsky.org/space/why-more-eta-aquarid-meteors-in-southern-hemisphere

-Suzy.

[Liz]

Had a look this am from 3am - 5am and saw about 12 EQs and 4 nice sporadics, alas Moon was right where the radiant was, but still able to spot them.

Aquarius is rising about 2.30am, and tomorrow the Moonrise is about 3am, depending on where you are.

Will be out tomorrow am too, from 3am thereabouts, weather permitting. :)

Pic from this am.

[mozzie]

had a look this morning for an hour around 4.30am spotted a couple short sharp but nice and bright...very enjoyable..

[ZeroID]

Had a look up tonight, saw grey wet clouds and a dropping barometer. :shrug:

[Octane]

Went out last night despite the satellite image showing cloud across the state. Picture posted in nightscapes section.

Was nice seeing the bright ones!

H

[mithrandir]

Skippy Sky is promising clear skies for Sydney tonight. Should I believe it?

If only they would turn off street lights at midnight. I have one that will be directly under the radiant.

[mozzie]

clouded in here tonight...might be heading down to you sydney siders..

[shelltree]

I completely forgot this shower was happening and just assumed I wouldn't be out and about to see it. And of course, we ended up out under the stars Friday night and couldn't figure out why were were seeing so many fireballs! :lol:

There were about 5 in particular which were absolute crackers. A few had bright streaming tails, one had a massive tail and streamed across the sky, it was so unbelievably bright! :eyepop: I was doing a timelapse during all of this but have yet to check the shots to see if I got anything. I may not have as I was doing a video from beneath some trees so may have missed the action. All in all, was pretty incredible! :) Even saw one through the finderscope while observing, woohoo!

[Liz]

Headed out this morning at 3am and had a ripper night!!! A friend and I saw about 42 from 3-4.30 when she toddled off. I stayed up until 0545, the sky was lightening, and I was still seeing them.

I estimate about 60 meteors for the night,with about 10 sporadics. Got a few with the camera, but many were faint and fast. A wonderful night/morning though. :D

[Draco]

Hi Guys.

When is the last day of the shower? Have I missed it already :(

[Draco]

I love reading AstroBlog and according to it, the best time will be the 8th of May although the peak happens today (6th May) at 1UT (which as it might happen is daytime for us .. so lucks out on that)

Seems like the party has already started without me :(

http://astroblogger.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/eta-aquariid-meteor-shower-6-9-may-2013.html

[cyclone]

i captured this on the sky cam. just after 3am

http://www.gorgecreekorchards.com.au/images/etashower.jpg

[Draco]

cyclone - I love that camera ;)

BTW what are those lights on the edges, what are they? Have seen them quite a few nights now.

Regards

[Suzy]

Crickey Liz, what a corker of a night you had! :eyepop:
Especially seeing this is your first viewing of the Eta Aquarids!

And Shelley, WOW!

I managed to spot three flying through my eyepiece while observing under the tail of Scorpius on the morning of the 5th between 1.00-1.30am. And then I couldn't keep my eyes open past 2.30 so went to bed. :sadeyes: Will be trying again tonight, this time staying up later for the 2hrs before dawn. Don't like my chances, quite a bit of cloud around at the moment. :sadeyes:

UPDATE !!!



Liz, are you gettng back out there? :D
You know you want to.... :D

[Sarah84]

I observed yesterday morning (5/5/13) between 2am - 3am, Unfortunately only spotted about 10 in the hour - I was quite surprised how bright the crescent moon was. Might pop out for another look tonight!

[Suzy]

Nice one Cyclone! Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

Check out these photos. I've popped them onto the IIS facebook page, but for those that don't use fb here they are.

By Colin Legg. Those orange streaks are fireball trails!:
138714

By Greg Gibbs:
138715

[Suzy]

Good on you Sarah, let us know how you go! :D
Apparently a couple of hours before dawn will show more meteors- and seems to be the case going by what Liz said in this thread.

Ooops nearly forgot! :welcome:

[Sarah84]

Thanks Suzy! I'm a long-time lurker of this forum lol:P Glad to finally have the courage to post. Nice to know I'm not the only one obsessed with the night sky haha!
Yep might set the alarm for early tomorrow morning & see how I go.

[Suzy]

Well Sarah I'm awfully glad you plucked up the courage to join- we need more astro chicks here! :D
This will feel like home to you in no time I'm certain of it (such a wonderful bunch of people on here) ;).
The more you post, the more you'll feel comfortable and get to know us better. So post away and if you need help with anything, please don't be afraid to ask. :)

[Suzy]

ANOTHER *EVEN BETTER* UPDATE !!!


Ian Musgrave (Astroblog) (http://astroblogger.blogspot.com.au/) has just notified me:
"Just had a post over on the MeteorObs mailing list suggesting an outburst may be in progress, so definitely go out on the morning of the 7th to have a look."

Thanks for the heads up Ian!
Oh pleeeeeease clouds disappear by then. :prey: :prey2:

[Draco]

Thanks Suzy.

Would 4am be a good time to go out or would I need to be in the chills at 3am? ;)

[Suzy]

Niv, I would go out at 3am and rug up with some blankets. :cold:
I think I'll be taking a couple of hot water bottles with me :question:
Which reminds, I better go clean my banana lounge up!
All the best for tonight Niv- let us know how you go. :D

P.S. don't forget to take a notebook and pen and write down how many you observe as they come thru & your session time. I don't know if there's an easier way, but I keep track of them by doing that haystack thingy, you know with the 4 lines going one way and the fifth big line crossing them, lol.

[Draco]

Thanks Suzy.

Will update you all tomorrow ;)

[mozzie]

had another look this morning and spotted 10 in a very short time from around 3.00am to 3.35am...will have another look tonight... thanks suzy it may well be worth it....

[Phil Hart]

Here's a stack of images captured on Sunday morning at Heathcote LMDSS (ASV Dark Sky Site).

I count 17 Eta Aquarids and 19 others. The others don't all seem to be sporadic as five or so on the left side of the image can all be traced back to a point up higher on the right side. Any ideas - there are several related streams right? The true sporadics are generally fainter/shorter than the Eta Aquarids so a bit harder to find in this image without being able to 'blink' compare the individual shots.

I kept a Canon 6D with 24mm f1.4 lens (wide open) running constantly with 6 sec exposures at ISO6400 from 4am to 5:30am on an iOpton SkyTracker and then have aligned and maximum combined the frames with meteors. For a few of the brighter ones, the meteors were visible in two frames, one with the meteor itself and then the second the green train left behind.

Pity I wasn't able to repeat this morning!

Phil

[lynkim1]

:question: I caught a few meteors on camera last night and was wondering why they look green in photos?

We had a great night here in Sale, Victoria, the clouds had mostly cleared by 2am so I decided to wake up my youngest two (aged 10 & 13) to watch them. We lay out on our decking wrapped up in doonas and ended up seeing between 30 and 50 meteors for the night! The girls were so excited they didn't even care that it was only 6'C!!!

[Draco]

Hi guys

So should i look east.. halfway between horizon and zenith? Sorry i dont know where aquarius will be at 3am sydney time :(

[ian musgrave]

Reports from dark sky sites in Australia (waves to Liz Gleeson and Adam Marsh) suggest rates of around 25 per hour (over 1 every 3 minutes) this morning, despite Moonlight interference. Many bright meteors with persistent trains. Suburban sites have reported 11 meteors an hour, if the new dust trail calculations are correct, then we may be in for a good morning, cloud permitting. Skippy Sky may be helpful for cloud predictions
http://www.skippysky.com.au/Australia/

[ian musgrave]

Compare
http://www.imo.net/live/eta-aquariids2013/
with
http://www.imo.net/live/eta-aquariids2012/
and here
http://www.imo.net/live/eta-aquariids2011/

[mithrandir]

At 03:00 Aquarius will be slightly north of east and altitude centred at about 15° .

Since we are talking about meteors they could appear almost anywhere in the sky with the trail pointing away from Aquarius.

[ath]

Brrrrr!! Certainly was chilly here in Gippsland last night hey? (6/5/13), I'm located just out of Stratford (which is a lazy 30kms out of Sale, Vic) and was super impressed. I'd never seen a Meteor shower before and was wrapt that the weather was on our side. Over the years whenever there's been something awesome happening in the sky, the weather tends to dislike me. Not this time! I managed a few average images, here's hoping for another show tonight... fingers crossed.

:)

[Suzy]

Booooooooo it's a blanket of cloud out to the east here in Brisbane. :(

lynkim1: Sounds a great night the kids & family as a whole had! I wonder how they fared going to school the next morning :lol:. Personal day of leave perhaps? :lol: I can't help you as to why they look green in photos- maybe someone else can help?

Ian, many thanks for your contributions. :thumbsup:
Ian, by the way writes the Astroblog site and also writes the Southern Sky Watch (http://home.mira.net/~reynella/skywatch/ssky.htm)page.

Mozzie, that's an awesome half hour catch- look forward to hearing how you go tonight! :D

Andrew, Phil, Liz: Many thanks for contributing pics :thumbsup:.

Phil, I can't help with your query- can anyone???

Andrew, you struck lucky getting a well producing shower for your first ever viewing of one!:D They're not always like this. Hope you're recording the count. :thumbsup:

[ZeroID]

I'd given up hope of seeing any of this but this morning was walking back up the drive at 6am from picking up the paper and was looking in just the right place for a big white smoke tailed meteor hit over 20+ * at 45 * angle radiant to NW. And we had clear skies ! Just awesome.
Probably only one I'll get to see but it was spectacular.

[Draco]

Totally disappointed :( was outside since 2:45am and just managed to see 5 meteors

[Reemul]

Phil - "Eta-Lyrids" perhaps - their due to be active now with a peak on 8th May? Though my calculations say the radiant of eta-Lyrids would be about 5 degrees higher and 45 degrees left of eta-Aquarids (just below Vega).

I had no luck with Aqu's Sat morning 1am, and cloud last night *sigh*... lucky bugger ZeroId. I have seen a few in the past... something to remember always.

[ThinBlueLine]

Welcome to IIS Sarah! :) Nice to have you on board.
Am a newbie too like yourself..lots to learn still but great fun along the way. Lurked around for ages myself before finally joining.

The IIS community is a wonderful one, a real wealth of information..

Enjoy your time here - here's to clear & cloudless skies. :D

Amanda.

[ThinBlueLine]

Wow Brent! - that would have been amazing to see!! :D
Lucky you. *very jealous*..
Alas, no luck here in Melbourne..grrrr, pesky clouds efficiently obliterated any chance of me seeing any at all...only thing achieved is one very sleep-deprived, grumpy girl. ! :(

[lynkim1]

Nice to know there are a few locals interested in astronomy too!
We often have good clear skies... until the fog rolls in and spoils it for us. The icy cold mornings would probably put a few people off though. The first night I tested out my telescope I spent 4 hours outside with the thermometer in the negatives! I didn't even have gloves on but I couldn't drag myself away long enough to go find them :lol:

I started wrapping an old electric blanket over my telescope and bought myself an electric throw rug. I plan is to convert the throw rug into a dressing gown and get someone to make me a battery pack so I can ditch the cable :D

[Sarah84]

Hello again everyone
Well I was up this morning between 3-4am and all I can say is wow! A beautiful clear morning here in Ippy. Waaay better than my Sunday morning attempt. I lost count at 25 meteors, and saw 2 fireballs with smoke trails before I got a sore neck (hubby decided to use my "observing" chair from Sunday as a place to store his rotten fishing clothes haha)
Even saw another one out the window as I was getting back into bed lol!

[ath]

:hi: Howdy neighbour! That's not a bad idea lynkim1, are there any electricians in the house?! :D

It sucks when the fog rolls in, especially when doing time lapse stuff! Grrrr! :sadeyes: I had almost lost all sensation in my hands last night, the only thing I did notice was whilst collapsing my camera tripod, it felt as though the condensation had frozen over the metal tripod legs!!

I grabbed a few (hundred :ashamed:) more images last night, I have posted links to the 4 or 5 that were worth editing in the Solar System Imaging section of this forum along with some added ramblings!

[astroron]

I had a great mornings observing the Eta Aquarid and other Meteor's
I started at 03:00 and finished at 05:15 with a total of 36 meteors and 2 satellites,with the ISS gracing the Western sky and fading out over the North,at 05:10
Some of the meteors left wonderful shaped trail's which where visible in the binoculars for many minutes after.
One such trail split into two and was visible for over five minutes in the10x60 bino's
The first two meteors where spotted way down in the South at 03:03 and I don't think they were Aquarids. I also spotted 3 face on bright flashes .
The bulk of the meteors were seen in the East/South/East direction with only a few higher than 50° with some as low as about 5° in the East.
The thin crescent Moon rose over the Eastern hill at 04:50 but made very little difference to the overall observing of the meteors,in fact it was a beautiful addition to my morning observation pleasure.
After the meteor observation,I had breakfast and headed off for a 7km bush walk.:rolleyes:
A long but fruitful morning :D
PS Saw about half a dozen fainter meteors while tracking the trails of some of the very bright meteors in the binoculars.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Draco]

astroron .. I am soo jealous now. Well done

[astroron]

Thanks Niv:thanx:
Cheers:thumbsup:

[ThinBlueLine]

Gee, that sounds superb Ron ! :D What a session you had.
Lucky you to have had such success...no such luck for me here in outer eastern Melbourne sadly..too much cloud. :(
And a 7 km walk? Very jealous here too...;)

Amanda.

[mozzie]

no luck this morning...awoke at 3am and was blanketed out with cloud :shrug:what a bummer...heavy cloud here know...

[ChrisM]

Saw 20 meteors this morning between 0445 and 0545 hrs. Pretty sure not all were from the current shower; nonetheless there were some good ones, including about half a dozen that briefly left short trail. Detected a greenish colour in a few. During that observing time I also saw 9 satellites.

Chris

[OzEclipse]

Awoke at 5am in Karijini National Park on May 6 to a splendid meteor display. In the brief period until twilight, saw 8 bright meteors. Several left vapour trails.

Joe