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Hi Ian and peoples!
I got up and headed to Walcha Aerodrome this morning at 3:15am, sleeping bags and blankets in the back of the Hilux, i had a very INTERESTING morning! I took my Canon 400D and tripod, did some 2min 1min and 30sec exposures randomly. In the first 30 to 45 mins i saw 19 meteors, not counting sporadics, a few were mag 3-4. Very short lived but bright. In the following hour from 4:30 to 5:30 i saw 40, limiting magnitude for my location was 6.5, (6.9 using averted vision) Conditions were PERFECT! No clouds, all stars from zenith to about 15 degrees above horizon were pin-point sharp and steady, no haze, a few low level clouds on the horizon and thunderstorms i could see to the north and north-east along the coastal areas.
Now the interesting thing is that i saw a LOT of meteors that were actually pinpoint flashes IE: heading towards ME! One particular "train" i saw 6 flashes in the space of about 30 seconds, NOT and aeroplane thats for sure, all heading towards me and came from the same spot in the sky, below the radiant about 4 degrees.
Most of the meteors i saw were very short lived, half a degree trails or less, with about 3 that were longish, about 2 degrees long and bright.
One more thing, i saw a few satellites, a HUGE (-4?) Iridium flare and one satellite that puzzled me, i watched it coming from south to north, it was about mag 4, and it flickered once, then three times then about 30 times really fast, like a fizzly sparkler.....anyone got any info on what this could have been??
What a great night!
I'll check out my images and see if i can post some a little later if i find anything on them!!!!
Cheers!
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