Eta Aquarids ..

[ZeroID]

I believe these will be visible early morning May 7th according to what I read on Cloudy Nights. Anyone able to confirm ?
I intend to be up around 4:00 am. Radian point is Aquarius which will be about 30 degrees climbing in my ENE sky.

That of course, is if the weather co-operates. Now we're even getting tornadoes !! Unheard of over here, especially ones that kill people !! My wife was only about 1 km away and watched it all. Came home shaking.

[dannat]

Brent the next 3 day mornings should give you a chance , good luck nee 30deg sounds about right

[Liz]

That tornedo was terrible, am glad your wife was Ok.

I was outside this am for a look and saw some beautiful meteors, so looking forward to next few mornings.

Seems our peak is on May 7th and 8th between 4 and 5am, but they are definitley around now, and the southern hemisphere get a LOT more than the northen hemisphere.

This from http://home.mira.net/~reynella/skywatch/ssky.htm

The eta Aquarids are debris from Halleys comet. The radiant rises around 2 am May 6. The best time to see the eta-Aquarids is in the early morning of May 7 and 8, between around 4 and 5 am, when Aquarius is fairly high above the horizon. You may see between 1-3 meteors every 10 minutes at this time. The radiant of the shower is about five handspans up from the eastern horizon, and three handspans to the left of due east at 4 am.

[Paddy]

Saw a very bright one this morning from my bedroom window. Very civilized to not even have to get out of bed to see a meteor shower!

[Liz]

Ha, me too Paddy ... trying to decide whether to head outside, so went out onto front veranda, looked up, and a big bright meteor flashed past, so made up my mind in a flash. :D

[ZeroID]

:sadeyes: Just checked the weather predictions for the rest of the week and it seems we will have rain, clouds, and other sky blocking materials ...... smoke, tornadoes ( just kidding -- I hope ! :scared: ). But it is not looking promising although the weather can change so fast here you never know. It has been clear and still earlier today but now the clag has returned, exceedingly frustrating !! :scared2:

[David_W]

Thanks for the thread, I'll make the effort and get up at 4am on Sunday morning for a look. Not sure about the weather though, it's been very cloudy here in Bungendore for the past few weeks.

[Astroman]

I hope my wife will understand that I wont be home for when the kids give her, her mothers day pressie :) Meteor Showers are more important :D I'll be out Wx permitting testing out my new widefield tracking platform.

[Liz]

Ooh, you're a brave man Andrew!! :help:
Hmmm .... widefield tracking platform sounds interesting though. ;)

[Astroman]

The platform is simply an automatic swing gate Opener, salvaged from a scrap metal bin, I have converted for the Job. I have supplied a pic of the tracker (before modifications) and the test image.. http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showpost.php?p=716398&postcount=7

[ZeroID]

Well, I got up at 3.46 am, outside by 3.58, sky was clearish but some mist around. Saw one short bright flash at about 4.05 am, a few (4-5?) faint probables in my peripheral vision, maybe a dozen quick faint flashes that I could not say for sure on ... and that was it.

At 5:00 am the FOG rolled in ....who would have believed it ? :shrug:

I had rain, clouds smoke and tornadoes covered but forgot about fog ..... :rolleyes: Went back to bed till 6:00, actually got to sleep.

Just hope that the peak over the weekend does a bit better. I've bought a remote for my DSLR which lets me take long exposures so might set up the tripod and see if I can capture any trails.
And there better be NO FOG !!

[ZeroID]

Interesting modification. Care to share some details with us ? How have you slowed it down to sidereal speed ? How do you SCP align it ?
It looks pretty robust and could carry quite a reasonable load from what I can see. A cheap EQ Mount almost ?

[Liz]

Oh, bad luck Brent, tomorrow will be better. :question:

[mswhin63]

I am not much of a morning person but managed to get a glimpse.
Saw about 2 - 3 in a minute, but whether it was a trick of the eye I swear I could see many more EXTREMELY faint buggers coming from the central region. Is this possible or was it just a optical illusion to getting up early?

I got the camera out but haven't processed any images but I think I didn't get the focus right. Stars were in focus but the occultation later in the morning was out of focus.

[ZeroID]

[QUOTE=mswhin63;716601] .... I swear I could see many more EXTREMELY faint buggers coming from the central region. Is this possible or was it just a optical illusion to getting up early? ....

[QUOTE]

I believe I saw a number of tiny flashes and streaks as well. It's not my best viewing direction being back over the CBD and it's light dome. Caught a few (I think) in the binoculars but they are so quick and faint you are just not quite sure. I'll try and do camera over the next 2-3 mornings if I can wake up on time.

[Astroman]

Hi ZeroID..

The calculation for the drive can be found here >>> http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=716398#post716398

SCP alignment is done using a compass and an analogue inclinometer. Simple stuff... Any other Questions about the mount can be asked in the link provided so we don't hijack this thread..

[ZeroID]

Cheers Andrew, I found it a wee bit later and had a peruse, a cunning plan, a plan so cunning you could .... enough Baldrick ! :lol:

Anyway this morning was clouds and rain, no fog. :sadeyes:
So I went back to bed. ZZZzzzZZZZzz ......

[hotspur]

So tomorrow around 4 am is the best chance to see the highest rate?

If I mount my 10-22 mm lens on scope and have it at 10 mm,and scope tracking I might capture a few?

Any pointers of trying to capture an image,most welcome,thank you.

Chris

[mswhin63]

I placed my 18mm lens on a tripod early this morning, unfortunately the DSLR wasn't able to capture many of the meteors. ETA A's are a but dull for DSLR. I am going to try a high sensitivity Video camera next time.

I only placed it on a tripod not tracking.

I did capture 3 frames will post them later.

[ZeroID]

Saturday was cloud so waste of time. Sunday I woke at 4:30, scattered cloud so went down to the dining room which has a big window facing in the right direction. Flopped down on the carpet with one of the cats for company for about 25 mins. Definitely got three in the gaps and possibly glimpsed about 15-20 more but very fast and faint. Not sure some of them was my imagination. I'll be ready next year !!

[ZeroID]

Just shows that you should NEVER give up !!
Was walking down the drive to get the morning paper at 6:00am. Still dark, neck cranked round to watch the sky and caught two excellent Aquarids one after the other in the high NE Sky.
Satisfied now, till next year of course.

[mswhin63]

Managed some meteor captures, but DSLR are so hard to get.

5 of them on 05-05-11, 3 on 06. So many more visually.

http://www.waelect.com.au/mswhin63/Malcolm%20Whinfield%20Astro%20Photo graphy/Satelitte%20Passes/Meteors/ETA%20Aquarids%2005-2011/index.html#1

[David_W]

I had some luck with the shower too. Saturday at 4am the sky was with high altitude mist and only the brightest stars were visible, the sky being a dull shade of yellow. Went back to bed after 10 mins of looking, no meteors.

Sunday morning at 4am was totally clear and very dark, the Milky Way very impressive. I watched for 45 minutes and saw 30 meteors, all but one being eta aquarids, all were fast moving and some were bright and left trains behind them that lasted for a few seconds.

Very impressive, will take a look next year too :) I might even try for some photos next time, don't yet have the gear to attempt that.

Thanks for the thread, without it I probably wouldn't have remembered that the shower was on.