Possible Pi Puppids

[fringe_dweller]

and I stress the word possible :) and may be so dim as to be radio and radar only, and with the bright moon! still worth mentioning tho

evening of tuesday 22nd april, tomorrow evening -

'The results for the year 2008 show that the Earth will encounter 3 trails ejected in 1937, 1942, 1947. This wil create a shower on April 22nd 2008 at 22:16 (Sol.Long=33.032684 deg). The model predicts a ZHR>100/hr but this results has to be taken with caution. The particles found to intercept the Earth are as small as the unobserved ones in 2003. As a consequence they may be observable by radio techniques only.'

from here

http://www.imcce.fr/page.php?nav=en/ephemerides/phenomenes/meteor/DATABASE/Pi-Puppids/2008/index.php

more

http://feraj.narod.ru/Radiants/Predictions/pi-Puppids2008eng.html

the radiant sets by 2 am for 35 south

[fringe_dweller]

if they are faint and not optically visible to the eye as 99.999999999 per cent of meteors are, you can always follow showers from here,

http://www.atrad.com.au/results.html

i'm really enjoying following this site (scroll down - buckland park and davis, antartica) :nerd: :D as i become more and more the armchair astronomer i once despised :lol:
if you ever wondered how many meteors a day there is on average, well they are up to 27 000 a day (invisible mostly) detected via radar by some stations :eyepop: and that is only limited by the technology :eyepop:

http://www.atrad.com.au/news.html

[Karls48]

Unfortunately it was cloudy here. I use automated meteor detection setup with GStar camera and f 0.95 8mm lens. No detection, cloud and showers.

[Rob_K]

Thanks Kearn! :thumbsup:

The trails you mentioned seem to have created some interest, but the main peak of the π-Puppid meteor shower (S Hem) is at 11:00, 23 April UT according to the IMO, conflicting with a bright moon. Peak rates vary, but in its 2008 calendar, the IMO states:

“Despite the very poor lunar circumstances for observing this shower in 2008, we urge all who can to do so, because this is a young stream produced by Comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup, and the comet is at perihelion on 2008 March 23, just a month before the Earth passes nearest to the stream orbit. Activity has only been detected from this source since 1972, with notable, short-lived, shower maxima of around 40 meteors per hour found in 1977 and 1982, both years when the parent comet was at perihelion. Before 1982, little activity had been seen at other times, but in 1983, a ZHR of ~ 13 was reported, perhaps suggesting material has begun to spread further along the comet's orbit, as theory predicts. Comet Grigg-Skjellerup's perihelion in 2002 November produced nothing meteorically significant the following April, but this time's closer approach may yield something more interesting. There are no guarantees of course, but even registering a negative return this year would be valuable information, and regular monitoring of the shower epoch generally is vital, as past coverage has commonly been patchy, so other short-lived maxima could have been missed.”

http://www.imo.net/calendar/2008#ppu

So that's 9pm tonight EST. Might be interesting!

Cheers -

[fringe_dweller]

Hi Karl, pity! yes i always enjoy your reports! you camera goes down to 8th mag meteors (when clear), am i remembering correctly? I am very seriously thinking of mounting an allsky camera on the roof of house connected to PC! its been a dream for some time. this year ill do it!

Hi Rob, yep its still a favourable return eh, thanks for the reminder/heads up!

i did observe from light/moonlight polluted backyard last night for a couple of hours, nothing was seen, except a couple of nice sporadics, including a really nice around -1 to 0 mag speccy long one, might of been a sag/Anthelion whatever they are now? maybe not tho, blocking out the moon with the house early in night was best view, so 9 pm sounds the go!
roll on those ETA's! :)

[Karls48]

For last couple days I was playing with radio meteor detection. I’m using PC radio, simple dipole antenna made from 300-Ohm ribbon cable and SpecLab software. Software is bit complicated for someone like me with only general knowledge of radio theory. Anyhow it works by detecting signal from distant FM radio station that is reflected (forward scatter) from the meteor trail. Last night I got only one decent signal and without visual confirmation I’m not really sure that it was a meteor. I must wait for clear skies before I can make assessment if I will incorporate it to my meteor detection setup.
I had few detection of mag 9 and 10 but it has to be very clear night, no Moon and 2 to 4 in the morning (minimum light pollution).

[fringe_dweller]

Thanks! thats pretty cool set up!
I was reading recently that the analogue FM radio station/reflection method is in danger in the US, due to the radio stations all moving to digital network and phasing out analogue, at least the major and powerful signal ones were :( not long for here to i guess?

[gaa_ian]

Hi Guys
You are way out ahead in the meteor shower obs field !
You may be interested in this post I have just made on the upcoming Eta Aquarids ?
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=318978#post318978