Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so of viewing of the "Best" meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night! I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go. I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives? So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed. Thanks Mitaccio _________________________________________________________________ Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackT...
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Peak times for meteor showers are between 2 and 5 AM. That's when our part of the earth is in the lead in its trajectory through space and runs into the meteors. Brandon Brent Johnson wrote:
Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so of viewing of the "Best" meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night!
I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go.
I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives?
So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed.
Thanks
Mitaccio
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Brent, I went out into the park behind my house this morning at 1:00 AM and spent about 30 minutes watching. I saw four very faint meteors. I suspect that the light pollution plus the moon allowed seeing only the brighter meteors. All in all, I wasn't that impressed. It probably would have been better had I gone to a darker location. Rodger Fry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brent Johnson" <mitaccio@hotmail.com> To: <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 10:23 AM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Persieds Shower
Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so of viewing of the "Best" meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night!
I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go.
I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives?
So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed.
Thanks
Mitaccio
_________________________________________________________________ Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackT... _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
I guess I should also mention I live in the outskirts of Tooele. None of that Salt Lake nonsense here :)
From: rcfry@comcast.net To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:47:28 -0600 Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Persieds Shower
Brent, I went out into the park behind my house this morning at 1:00 AM and spent about 30 minutes watching. I saw four very faint meteors. I suspect that the light pollution plus the moon allowed seeing only the brighter meteors.
All in all, I wasn't that impressed. It probably would have been better had I gone to a darker location.
Rodger Fry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brent Johnson" <mitaccio@hotmail.com> To: <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 10:23 AM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Persieds Shower
Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so of viewing of the "Best" meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night!
I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go.
I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives?
So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed.
Thanks
Mitaccio
_________________________________________________________________ Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackT... _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
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Rodger At least you saw something we are under the remains of Hurricane Felicia and it is grey, wet, cloudy and not much fun. I had gone out to a spot last night reported to be clear w/ a video crew from the BBC to shoot the Perseid shower and have Dr. Brian Cox describe Jupiter thru a scope we had a real nice dinner and plenty of laughs ...... and a promise of better weather today. I hope in the next 12 hrs that a miracle happens as it is very cloudy and wet now. Oh well ........ Aloha Rob
Finally, a report from Rob that does not make me want to move to Hawaii.
Rodger
At least you saw something we are under the remains of Hurricane Felicia and it is grey, wet, cloudy and not much fun. I had gone out to a spot last night reported to be clear w/ a video crew from the BBC to shoot the Perseid shower and have Dr. Brian Cox describe Jupiter thru a scope we had a real nice dinner and plenty of laughs ...... and a promise of better weather today. I hope in the next 12 hrs that a miracle happens as it is very cloudy and wet now. Oh well ........
Aloha Rob
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I read a report that a Persied Bolide was witnessed that included 2 sonic booms.
Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so of viewing of the "Best" meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night!
I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go.
I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives?
So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed.
Thanks
Mitaccio
_________________________________________________________________ Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackT... _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
I watched a pretty good Perseids shower from skies which were dark, until the moon came up. I saw a Bolide about an hour before the moon came up and another much larger one around 2:40 am. I didn't hear a sonic boom with either. The shower was good enough that I am going to go dark again tonight.
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:07:22 -0600 From: erikhansen@TheBlueZone.net To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Persieds Shower
I read a report that a Persied Bolide was witnessed that included 2 sonic booms.
Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so of viewing of the "Best" meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night!
I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go.
I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives?
So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed.
Thanks
Mitaccio
_________________________________________________________________ Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackT... _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Wayne, the report I got on the Bolide with a sonic boom was from Aug 9th. It was observed outside of N. America.
A note to anyone working toward the Astronomical League certificate: there are showers every month to contribute to your observing logs. Erik
I watched a pretty good Perseids shower from skies which were dark, until the moon came up. I saw a Bolide about an hour before the moon came up and another much larger one around 2:40 am. I didn't hear a sonic boom with either.
The shower was good enough that I am going to go dark again tonight.
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:07:22 -0600 From: erikhansen@TheBlueZone.net To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Persieds Shower
I read a report that a Persied Bolide was witnessed that included 2 sonic booms.
Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so of viewing of the "Best" meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night!
I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go.
I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives?
So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed.
Thanks
Mitaccio
_________________________________________________________________ Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. http://www.bing.com/cashback?form=MSHYCB&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MSHYCB_BackT... _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
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Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Back when I was doing PR for Hansen Planetarium and even more so now, I was and am conflicted about talking to media about meteor showers. On the one hand if I say nothing all manner of junk gets out there. (Junk like "Head out right after sunset and the sky will be filled with shooting stars!.."). But if I do talk about it it raises peoples' expectations. And it doesn't help that I personally don't find most showers terribly interesting (the exception was the Leonids mini-storm Daniel mentioned which, from where I observed it in S. Utah, really was spectacular). Let's face it, even a good shower has maybe one a minute. And in the age of video games most kids will probably find that boring. (Egads, I'm sounding like the old person I am <grin>). As an aside, this morning as I was clambering up on my roof at 2:00 I was greeted by an incredible fireball. Arced nearly half way across the sky and lit up my roof. Wow! But it turned out that was the only jaw dropper I saw during the hour I observed. There were 3 other mini- fireballs and a handful of others. Not exactly a great show. So now I've got a few months to decide if I'm going to say anything publicly about the Geminids and/or Quadrantids... patrick On 12 Aug 2009, at 10:23 , Brent Johnson wrote:
Last night I woke at midnight for an hour or so of viewing of the "Best" meteor shower of the summer (year too?). Nice evening. Slight breeze kept the micro-vampires at bay. Warm enough that barefoot with shorts and a tee-shirt was plenty. Put my chair in the yard and let the cool grass work between my toes. Man, what a perfect night!
I set up my clipboard to record what I see (working on my Astonomical League certification). I'm ready to go.
I start by looking towards Cass, no obstructed view at all. Then I notice I'm not alone tonight. I'm being visited by an old friend. To keep it ambiguous, lets just call her "Luna" (and no, she wasn't in Harry Potter). I really need to tell her to get a tan, she's so pale white. She shines in the night, making it difficult to see much. About 15 minutes looking up at Cass and I've seen a bat and a few planes running the redeye. I decide that rude as it may be, I turn my back on Luna. Now I'm looking towards Hercules. Within minutes I see my first meteor. I'm excited. After about 18 minutes of viewing I finally see my first of the 60-200 meteor-per-hour show. I'm giddy with excitement. Then the doledrums. Nothing happens. I wait, and wait, and wait. I look at my watch. Yep, right night and right time. I rub my eyes to see if something is wrong with them, hey it could happen. Nope, everything checks out. What is going on? Maybe I'm looking too far from Pers? So I lay on my back up at Cyg. Now and then I see a meteor. At the end of an hour, I have logged 7. Did I miss the boat? Maybe I was sucked into a blackhole in meteor viewing? What gives?
So, now I wanted to find out from more veteran astronomers than I (that leaves all by my 3 year old): what happened? I'm assuming the moon was the biggest problem? Will the shower be productive tonight? I'm feeling very underwhelmed.
Thanks
Mitaccio
participants (7)
-
Brandon Stout -
Brent Johnson -
erikhansen＠TheBlueZone.net -
Patrick Wiggins -
Rob Ratkowski Photography -
Rodger C. Fry -
WAYNE S CLARKE