Leonids viewing - Page 2

gaa_ian (Ian) · #21 17-11-2009, 07:26 AM

Well here in the Far North our success was a bit better ...
Saw 20 leonids this morning between 4 and 5 am.
2 of them were quite bright and prolonged (2 to 3 sec)
2 more were point source and quite surprising to see.

We will be out there again in the am tomorrow,
what I hope will be a much better show
on the leading edge of the Asian Peak.

Jabba (Keenan) · #22 17-11-2009, 08:34 AM

My alarm will be set for 2am tonight, I hope to see something :>

erick (Eric) · #23 17-11-2009, 09:48 AM

Forecast for here - partly cloudy.

I've got as much sleep as I could last night - a whole 6 hours

Have to get home and make up a power cable so I can power a small heater strap on the camera lens from battery. Then get some sleep, then up around midnight. It will take over an hour to get to my observing site!

redwolf · #24 17-11-2009, 11:16 AM

Hi All,

Am finally back - have been off learning to walk again and am now confident enough in that department to want to venture outside tonight to see Leonids with the 2 teenagers (and hopefully not fall over anything in the dark :-) As I'm in Adelaide (very dark spot ~5 km N of Mt Pleasant), what time should I be setting the alarm clock for?

RedWolf

erick (Eric) · #25 17-11-2009, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redwolf

...have been off learning to walk again....

cookie8 (Vincent) · #26 17-11-2009, 10:47 PM

Partly cloudy here. Two DSLR all charged up & ready to fire away. Hope I can see something.

mithrandir (Andrew) · #27 18-11-2009, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cookie8

Partly cloudy here. Two DSLR all charged up & ready to fire away. Hope I can see something.

Somehow I don't think so Vincent. Totally cloudy here and it has been raining.

Analog6 (Odille) · #28 18-11-2009, 03:38 AM

Well, here I am and there are the clouds. I had my new 16-35 f2.8 lens all hooked up, ready to go, and the med format SLR too, and all I have are clouds. [SOUND OF FEET STAMpING] Why is it always cloudy . . .?

chrisp9au (Chris) · #29 18-11-2009, 03:45 AM

3.45 and I've only seen about 4 in the past 90 minutes, one fairly bright, the others very faint.
Clear skies, a lot of dew.
Patience is a virtue!

Cheers

Chris

Jazza (Jay) · #30 18-11-2009, 03:46 AM

No clouds here, pretty decent night actually. Very dark out, transparency isn't so good, and there's an awful lot of glow in the east (looks like hazy too there) smc and lmc are easily visible though.

Spent about an hour outside, saw maybe 10? One head on and 3 bright ones, the rest were flashers.

chrisp9au (Chris) · #31 18-11-2009, 04:34 AM

4.30am, off to bed for a while before heading to work.
A couple of very bright slow moving objects about 4.20, heading south close to Corvus, so slow I suspected they might have been iridium flares.
Checking on Heavens Above, the times don't fit for my location so they were either satellites catching the morning sun, or Leonids.
5 more fast faint Leonids in the last 45 minutes.

Cheers

Chris

Octane (Humayun) · #32 18-11-2009, 04:39 AM

Cloud.

swannies1983 (Dan) · #33 18-11-2009, 04:44 AM

Seen only one bright Leonid in the last 40 mins but clouds have started to roll in. Back to bed for me!

CoombellKid · #34 18-11-2009, 05:02 AM

All clouded in here, which started with thunder and rain last night : (

even had to drag the 16" in, was going to have a session with Mars
this morning.

Cheers,CS

redwolf · #35 18-11-2009, 05:28 AM

It's currently 0450 and I've been up viewing since 0330. Only forced to give up viewing at the dawn/dusk terminus.
No clouds, ambient temp of 14.9, minimum background clutter and the sky show was well-and-truley worth it!
Saw ~15 Leonids: a number of bright flashers sans tail; several higher ones - small, bright with tails that hung for a few seconds; and one magnificent Leonid that crossed NE to S almost directly overhead with a v long bright tail. The body lit up the ground as it died, and it's debris tail was still visible some minutes later.

Will be back out tomorrow at approximately the same time to see what's happening.
Roll on Leonids 2010

Oh, also had a very good view of Mars and Saturn

Crackers (Craig) · #36 18-11-2009, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redwolf

one magnificent Leonid that crossed NE to S almost directly overhead with a v long bright tail. The body lit up the ground as it died, and it's debris tail was still visible some minutes later.

Saw the same one from Kersbrook, Redwolf, made it worth the effort of getting up. Other than that a couple of brights and a hanful of faint flashers that I'd have trouble convincing a jury that I saw. Also saw a couple of anti-Leonids that ended up in Leo but started from the West.

Kinda hard to be disappointed at something that Mother Nature throws at us for free, but it was well short of some previous efforts. The early start is going to make today's endless meetings even harder to endure.

redwolf · #37 18-11-2009, 06:17 AM

Hang in there Crackers - know what you mean about observing meteors and long meetings!

Protiotype (Ray) · #38 18-11-2009, 06:35 AM

Quite hazy here in innerish-suburban Brisbane (especially "pink/peach" towards the horizon) after the brief thunderstorm last night, so I ended up viewing very casually* in a park without too much glare from street lamps (once again applying not enough insect repellent!).

Saw two meteors; I think one Leonid and maybe one Taurid from roughly 03:00 to 03:30 (GMT+10). Both were fast and brief, no tails sighted. I couldn't actually see Leo through the haze (although more obvious constellations were noticed).. The one I'll accept as a Leonid was moving to the left and the other one towards the right.

Observation session was lazy and haphazard because my true goal was a walk to fetch soft drink and pie. That was a success and I also happened to find two meteors along the way.

Hoping the upcoming Geminids get paired with a much clearer sky because the weather here looks similarly difficult over the next couple of nights.

* Cancelled a more formal gazing session due to cloud, so I instead just spontaneously headed off alone after everyone else went to bed.

cookie8 (Vincent) · #39 18-11-2009, 08:13 AM

Some are lucky but me excluded. Started to rain at 1:30. At 3:30 no rain but wall to wall clouds. Did not border to hang around any longer considering twilight begins at 4:10. Woke up 7:30 and guess what I saw?
..... perfect blue sky

Did I miss anything during my sleep? That's something I could never find out.

chrisp9au (Chris) · #40 18-11-2009, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp9au

A couple of very bright slow moving objects about 4.20, heading south close to Corvus, so slow I suspected they might have been iridium flares.
Checking on Heavens Above, the times don't fit for my location so they were either satellites catching the morning sun, or Leonids.
Chris

I've just rechecked with Heavens Above, changing my location from Lostock to Kyneton!, and sure enough they were Iridium flares, Iridium 21 & 72.

Cheers

Chris