Plenty of Perseids

albertw

Hi all,

Maximum of the Perseids meteor shower approaches, and conditions this year are very favourable, with no moonlight to worry about.

Some are already being seen each clear night, but the best is yet to come. They will increase in number each night for the next couple of days, reaching a maximum late on the night of 11/12 August, when up to 100 meteors per hour may be visible under good conditions!

There's already quite a lot of media interest: - I've already been interviewed on Radio Ulster, Evening Extra, & Belfast City Beat, and I'll be on Downtown 'Margie's Magazine' on Sunday (2-3 p.m.), and on Cool FM (Johny Hero) on Monday morning about 10.40. So this could be a good chance to promote astronomy & the IAA etc if the public ask you about the Perseids.

This shower occurs when the Earth passes through the trail of particles given off by Comet Swift-Tuttle, named after its discoverers.

A meteor is just the fiery death of one of these particles, which we see as it burns away during its high speed impact with our upper atmosphere. Most are just the size of a sand grain, brighter ones can be as big as a grape seed or apple pip, and a really bright one would be only the size of a pea! So we don't see the particle itself, just the fiery trail as it burns away at a collision speed of about 60 miles per second!

The Perseids are always one of the best annual showers, and with conditions this year being particularly favourable, let's hope for clear skies. Some experts also think that activity will be unusually high this year, and we may also get an extra early burst of activity just as darkness falls on Wed 11th. This is expected as we may pass through a dense 'filament' of particles given off by the comet at its penultimate perihelion passage in 1862. This is predicted for 21.50 BST, so we might just get the end of it as the sky darkens.

Activity should be quite high on the nights of 10/11, 11/12, and 12/13 August, with best rates in the early hours of 12 August, and the possible early burst of activity early on the previous evening. Perseids can appear in any part of the sky, but if you trace their paths back they will appear to come from Northern Perseus, which will be rising in the North East in the early evenings, getting high up in the Southern part of the sky just before dawn. The radiant moves slowly across the sky during August, and on the night of maximum it lies not far from the 'Double Cluster' in Perseus, or about 5 degrees N of Alpha Persei.

You'll see most meteors by looking at an altitude of about 50 degrees, and about 45 degrees to either side of the radiant, on whichever side the sky appears darker. But to get a proper view you must get away from all light pollution. If there's a lot of artificial light nearby, you might see only about one tenth as many meteors as if you were out in a dark rural sky.

So, if it's clear next Wednesday night, or even the nights before and after, have a look at the sky for as long as you can, and see some of these tiny visitors from space end their lives in such a spectacular fashion!

Clear Skies,

Terry Moseley

Flukey

No moon and hopefully no cloud. A showery week is expected, so clear spells is the best we can hope for. Always difficult to see many in the suburbs of Dublin, but even here I expect to see some.

mike65

From BBC

Sky watchers can expect to see meteors from a dark location on 12 and 13 August after 2330 BST, but they may be treated to two early "surges".

One of these may occur on 11 August at 2200 BST (thats tonight folks), while another may be visible just before dawn on 12 August.

I'll deffo be out there tonight, it looks hopeful on the cloud cover front.

Mike.

JackieChan

mike65 wrote:

From BBC


I'll deffo be out there tonight, it looks hopeful on the cloud cover front.

Mike.

I wouldn't be so sure about the weather.
here is the forecast for Leinster tonight(from met.ie)

Mostly cloudy with outbreaks of rain, possibly heavy or thundery at times; very mild.

I'm from Kildare and I'm currently living in a rural village in the midlands.
And even though Kildare town is not huge the difference in the detail that I can see in the sky(clarity/number of stars) from the midlands is amazing. I just hope its clears for 30 mins or so to see the action tonight!

mike65

http://www.onlineweather.com/v4/ireland/city/Waterford.html

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/03960.html (actually Kilkenny)

meanwhile in real-life the sun is blazing right not a cloud in the sky...DOH! I made that assesment looking our of one window, the cloud has been creeping up on me from the wesht...prolly be dull by dark unless it melts with the setting sun.

Mike.

ei4ix

Hi Terry,

I read your post about the Perseids with great interest as I hadn't heard any
media coverage yet this year. As you've been interviewed by the media I
image you've quite an interest in the subject and possibly take radio
measurements for activity incase visual observations are impossible with
the irish weather. Anyway, I thought you might be interested in these 2
recordings from the Perseids in 2000 http://www.qsl.net/ei4ix/page4.html

Dave

albertw

Hi Dave,

ei4ix wrote:

Hi Terry,

I posted that based on an email Terry sent out, he doesnt read this board (to the best of my knowledge!), but I will pass on your comments to him.

If you are interested in getting these bulletins by email please see
http://star.arm.ac.uk/nibulletin/ for details.

Cheers,
~Al

BEAT

just another bit of information on the subject:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5623823/?GT1=4529

Xcom2

Just been outside to have a look,all I can see is cloud not even a star to be seen!

Is tomorrow night still good for seeing them?

G

albertw

Hi,

global wrote:

Just been outside to have a look,all I can see is cloud not even a star to be seen!
Is tomorrow night still good for seeing them?

Yea the clouds didnt break in Dublin until about 6am this morning.

There will still be some visible tonight, just ont as many as last night.

Cheers,
~Al

Flukey

Wedenesday night was the supposed peak, but you will still some for a few nights yet. I saw some over the past few nights.

irishgeo

seen one or two tonight in the misty sky in the west.

seen some last night as well but i had a few drinks on me and my eyes could have been playing tricks with some of them i thought i saw.

Seanie M

Hi all,

here in Tullamore, we had a very productive night! Tullamore Astronomical Society members who came:
Seanie Morris, Michael O'Connell, Shane Culleton, David Daly, Mark Hurson, and at one stage over the phone, Bob Campbell.
We all met at the TAS Observatory at about 10:30pm, and setup the gear. We had 3 binoculars and 1 telescope.

The activity was superb, we had terrific clear skies from about 11:30 after the clouds went away, and the show began. We all agreed that ther count was in excess of 110 per hour, with loads of activity through Cygnus (traced back to Perseus) heading south.

One remarkable note:
A Perseid Fireball from Cassiopeia, through Cygnus, and into Aquila. Time: 00:22hrs.
Est. Mag: -3.
White/green in colour.
It left a 17 second ion trail! about 25 degrees long! Unbelievable. We all saw it, and can confirm it.

Activity never really diminished from our location. David left at 00:45hrs, Shane at 01:20hrs, and the rest of us at 02:10hrs. It stayed mostly clear all night, estimated limiting magnitude was +6. The Milky Way was clearly visible with the Cygnus division very obvious. Fog set in about 02:00 hrs, and the troop left standing, very sodden and tired, made their way home!

Seanie.

smoke.me.a.kipper

i have to drive home through the middle of nowhere @ 12am after work this week, so i was hoping to see something in the skies. pesky cloud has been ruining it all week. :mad:

Calibos

Well I can add this year to the last 10 or so where it has been cloudy here in Bray on the 10,11,12,13,14th Aug etc My experience is that it can be glorious sunshine the week before and the week after, but without fail it will be cloudy perseid week. Either that or as is the case this year, it is glorious sunhine during the day and then gets cloudy/misty come sunset.

......Bloody typical!!

The last time I saw them was when I was about 14 or 15. Twas a great display that year though. Incredible bright fireballs and smoke trails. I just wish it wasn't 10 + years between viewings!

Flukey

It has been foggy along the coast this week. Only a few miles inland we had a very clear night during the week and I saw a few, though not many.