The Perseid Meteor Shower

dacogawa

Looking ok tonight around 1/2am onwards, cloud looks like it'll break up (except maybe in the midlands & far north east) I'd say tonight will be the best watch for the east/south-east coast



Tomorrow doesn't look as good with a front pushing in from the south-east but might be better viewing for the north west



I actually managed to snap an Perseid last night in the garden when just testing for tonight/tomorrow. I'd done a few wide shots and nothing came up so switched to a telephoto lens to get a few shots of Pleiades & one popped in at the bottom left

All the ingredients are there for a great show this year but you never know (& I don't want to put the mockers on it)

mickmackey1

Allyall wrote: »

Newspapers/Media reporting it will be 11th/12th?

Are they just repeating and not researching?

The peak is either side of 9am our time on the 13th, so best views before dawn on Thursday.

spookwoman

Light pollution was to bad in Waterford city so went out to Kilfarrasy. Darker and fark enough to see Andromeda galaxy through binoculars. Pointed camer out to sea and hoped for the best. Did see a few good ones over head. Fingers crossed Wednesday night clear again




Lighting up the Milky Way by Leah Burgess, on Flickr

Is1ldur

What direction should we be looking, BTW?

Allyall

Is1ldur wrote: »

What direction should we be looking, BTW?

:pac::pac:

More info here
http://news.sky.com/story/1534136/perseid-meteor-shower-the-best-way-to-watch

dacogawa

Is1ldur wrote: »

What direction should we be looking, BTW?

North-East after midnight, but they do cover nearly anywhere in the sky so ^ is not a bad answer!

Pretzill

Is1ldur wrote: »

What direction should we be looking, BTW?

I have a tent bed ready, just going to lie flat, look up and think of perseid!! But so far in the northwest the cloud cover is thick and low, hoping it may clear into the early hours but it's been cloudy for days here and the midges are out too just to really annoy me.

Bongalongherb

Was nice and clear earlier in Co. Dublin but completely cloudy now. Typical.

Blingy

Pretty good clear night in North Wicklow at present

gosplan

Blingy wrote: »

Pretty good clear night in North Wicklow at present

Clear over me in North Dublin City. Lots of stars but they're not moving.

Bongalongherb

I was always told that there was a cloud on top of me Now I know why. Every-time I set the telescope up and night-vision scope up when it's clear, 2 minutes later it clouds over without fail. Maybe something is trying to tell me something

It's like that part in the movie the Truman show, where it just rains only on one person.

Allyall

It's clear above me, but no sign of any fireworks yet.

I also had two very very bloaty beers.... Not feeling I can stay up..

Is1ldur

Down in courtown. Saw about 6-8 in the last hour. Nothing spectacular. Hoping for more tomorrow night.

ladysarastro

Where is everyone. In kildare and its completely cloudy. Any chance of clear skies coming this way soon?

Arsemageddon

Clear where I am tonight, not much to see though - just 6 small shooting stars in the last half hour.

Arsemageddon

It's been a wee bit disappointing tonight, Few more shooting stars than you'd expect on a normal night but not much.

This time in '94 or '95 I saw the most amazing meteor shower I've ever seen, they came thick and fast for about 3 hours. The light was so intense that shadows were cast across the hedgerows in the most beautiful electric blue light. I'd give anything to see that again.

Bongalongherb

Outlook

Wednesday night will be dry with clear spells. Lowest temperatures of 7 to 11 degrees.

I wish we had a more concise forecast for wednesday night. Where will these clear spells be ? East ? west ? etc... Need clear skies pronto. Damn weather-balloons are not cutting it.

fryup

stared at the sky for a full 10 min last night and saw......nothing

am i doing something wrong? is there something wrong with my eyes?

ankaragucu

Well if its any consolation, despite fab clear skies here on the west coast of Turkey there just wasnt really very many meteors to see.Saw six between 11pm and 1am and only two were really good with orange coloured heads.I could just about pick out the wispyness of the Milky Way band with the naked eye but when I used my binoculars, wow!Incredible amount of stars, great sight.
Hoping for a better meteor show tonight.

Zubeneschamali

fryup wrote: »

am i doing something wrong? is there something wrong with my eyes?

No, I had clear skies for a while last night, and spent 30 minutes in a chair looking up - despite light pollutionIsaw the Milky Way, 3 satellites passing and no (zero) shooting stars.

The Hill Billy

I had beautiful dark skies last night, but only saw a couple of meteorites over the course of the evening (which I would expect to anyway). The lack of Perseids was disappointing, but at least I enjoyed a lovely starry night in the back garden.

D-Generate

Would anyone be able to suggest any locations on the south-side of Dublin city to see the meteors? It doesn't need to be pitch black, just dark enough that meteors will be visible.

Would going to Marlay Park and moving away from a light source do?

ps200306

Arsemageddon wrote: »

It's been a wee bit disappointing tonight, Few more shooting stars than you'd expect on a normal night but not much.

This time in '94 or '95 I saw the most amazing meteor shower I've ever seen, they came thick and fast for about 3 hours. The light was so intense that shadows were cast across the hedgerows in the most beautiful electric blue light. I'd give anything to see that again.

You probably know that was soon after the Perseids' parent comet , Swift-Tuttle, last came to perihelion in 1992. It has a period of 133 years, so the part of the dust stream closest to the comet doesn't come around very often. I saw something similar for the Leonids in 2001 shortly after their parent comet came around.

In my experience, the Perseids are fairly sharply peaked, so I usually don't bother going out except on the night of the maximum. Will be going to the sunny south east to watch tonight.

P.S. Anyone know if those Irish and Aussie astronomers, Asher and McNaught, are still in the meteor prediction business? They had put things on a much more scientific basis a number of years back by predicting which of the dust streams from previous comet revolutions would intersect the earths orbit in a given year, so you'd even know the vintage of your meteors. Haven't seen anything by them in a while.

Iseedeadpixels

D-Generate wrote: »

Would anyone be able to suggest any locations on the south-side of Dublin city to see the meteors? It doesn't need to be pitch black, just dark enough that meteors will be visible.

Would going to Marlay Park and moving away from a light source do?

Was thinking the same, I literally live off the mountains in Tallaght but with tonight being the LC results nights I Cant think of anywhere to go without drunken teens hanging around.

spookwoman

Some cloud at the start then cleared but not many about

Iancar29

One of my shots from last night from Wicklow. Clear skies all night

ps200306

D-Generate wrote: »

Would anyone be able to suggest any locations on the south-side of Dublin city to see the meteors? It doesn't need to be pitch black, just dark enough that meteors will be visible.

Would going to Marlay Park and moving away from a light source do?

I checked out Dalkey Hill car park on Monday night. The trees block the horizon, but also much of the city glare. The Perseid radiant was above the trees by the time the ISS went over at 10.37pm. I hung around for twenty minutes and saw three Perseids. The problem with suburban locations is that if there's any haze (and isn't there always in Ireland) the sodium glow can blot out everything much quicker than a properly dark location.

spookwoman

Got this at 23.25 facing south satellite just faded not sure what sat it was.
Perseid Watch 2015 by Leah Burgess, on Flickr

Got lucky then pointed at Dungarvan

Perseid streaking down milkyway 2015 by Leah Burgess, on Flickr

Zubeneschamali

spookwoman wrote: »

Got this at 23.25 facing south satellite just faded not sure what sat it was.

On heavens-above.com, looks like ERBS:

ERBS - Satellite Information Home | Passes | Orbit | Close encounters
Designation Spacetrack catalog number 15354 COSPAR ID 1984-108-B Name in Spacetrack catalog ERBS Satellite Details
Orbit 450 x 461 km, 57.0° Category unknown Country/organisation of origin United States Intrinsic brightness (Magnitude) 4.2 (at 1000km distance, 50% illuminated)Maximum brightness (Magnitude)0.7 (at perigee, 100% illuminated) Launch
Date (UTC) 05 October 1984 11:03 Launch siteKennedy Space Center (KSC),
United States Launch vehicle Space Shuttle Description

Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, deployed by Space Shuttle on mission STS41-G, mass 5087 lb

Iseedeadpixels

Amazing shots