Javelin in the sky - slow meteor dec 26 2009

A slow meteor with no visible flareup or terminal burst making it ways across the sky.

A straight down meteor

A negative meteor vertical plunged
and planted itself exactly along the TV antennae - pole above ...
Sirius brightest star on top..while this one grazed the edge of the opposite block Dec 08 2009 05:06:39 am

A Poem - What if we threw a (star) party and nobody came?

What if we threw a (star) party and nobody came?

It was the night of the Geminids,
In the year two thousand and nine.
The announcements and emails were sent,
According to the grand design.

I am at the Observatory,
Ready for the crowds to arrive,
Without a moon, with an open sky,
This year the meteors should thrive.

Sunset is here, but the clouds won=92t part.
And to top it all off, heavy fog.
What if nobody decides to come?
That will not look good in the log.

With fingers crossed and my hopes not lost,
I anxiously sit without fear.
For although it looks quite foreboding,
The Canadians said it would clear!

Yet here I sit, lest someone should come,
Without even one star to see.
For hours and hours, with roof closed;
The lonely astronomer me.

Even the other astronomers,
Who stayed warm, at home, without blame,
On the night we threw a star party,
And the night that nobody came!

      by Aaron Clevenson

Predictable sprites location - changing lens to have a closer look

A tight group of sprites seen near bottom
wide angle 3.8mm - i knew it is going to repeat soon..

Yes it did... this is 25mm f0.95 avenir lens

and still in 75 mm f1.4 FOV -

note the group on the left and the single 'fork' like on the right

Now watch the video posted to youtube

(clouded) UT 14 [ local 15] Dec 2009

Click the image to have a closer look of this typical Gem

Clouded out UT Dec 13 2009

A nice bright Geminid accompany by other members...
We are clouded out ... the video patrol system picks up a handful of meteors visible through gaps and thinner cloud layers..

(UT) 12-Dec-2009 Geminids

Dawn approaching .... another hot weather ahead

Around 6am I shifted the FOV to cover western end of the sky, but soon the clouds rolling in.

Image above showing the 17/25 Gems from UT 14-22 Dec 12 2009
Video posted to youtube

Video 3.8mm f0.8 auto IRIS, wat902H
(UT) |Local time| n |Gem(n) ..
-----------------------------
15 23 3 Gem(2) Hyd(1)
16 00 6 Gem(6)
17 01 6 Gem(4) Urs(1)Spo(1)
18 02 6 Gem(4) nTau(1)Spo(1)
19 03 4 Gem(4)
20 04 4 Gem(3) Urs(1)
21 05 1 Gem(2)

Dec 11/12 Meteors ( Gems)

SPO steal the 'thunder'...

x4 Gems in above stacked images
- [ 19]03:16, 03:31,03:35,[20]04:26
[UT] local time when the radiant is at its highest.

Geminids Dec 14 2009 Watch Window for SGP

Radiant around mid night (~ 40 degree), Castor Pollux on top left chart.

Credit IMO 2008 Gems actual data ZHR chart

Using above chart from IMO last year result as illustration

i) Notice the sharp peak occurred during daylight Singapore time ( 5h 10m UT => 13h 10m Dec 15)
ii) The asymmetric peak - broad activity prior to peak and steep decrease of activity post peak

So lets bracketing the peak -

-watch Dec 12 Sat 9pm onwards till Dec 13 Sunday am
- watch Dec 13 Sun 9pm onwards till Dec 14 Monday 2009.


*Radiant: [ midnight ~ 40 degree] , [3 AM ~ 60 degree]

*The higher the radiant the more Geminids you are going to get.

Geminid... My first Gem for the year 2009

Sporadic meteor near Sirius

Sporadic meteor near Sirius..
some where overhead in Pulau Karimum Besar - SW of Singapore

cloudy sky and NoO ( november Orionid)

A subsequent plot ( using clear sky with stars) identify this loner as NoO - November Orionid

November Orionid (NoO) Nov 28 '2009

Not many meteors caught but here is one for the record - November Orionid - this meteor stream was discovered by Sirko malau from the video meteor database. Recognize the constellation of Orion on the top right?

P/S The same region where days earlier a Nova(?) was discovered there (Eridanus) leading to a scramble to ask photographers to reexamine their Leonid images in the hope of finding out the brightest magnitude ( mag 1-2?!!!) prior to discovered date.

ZHR is not the same as HR

When the predicted rate is announced as 500 ( or later scaled down to 200), the public including the media take it as Hourly Rate 500 or 200 perhaps ignoring the 'Zenith' term of Zenith Hour Rate.

A simple worksheet above illustrate the poor LM sky to Predicted ZHR vs Hourly Rate ( HR) . Unless the LM is 6.6 which means 2^(6.5-6.5)=2^0=1 and radiant is directly overhead Sine(90)=1 you will never get the hour rate = ZHR. With our less than ideal LM - the worksheet says ~ 14 Leonids /HR can be seen during the peak. Recompute the above with a good dark site where LM is 6.3. Now you can see the HR is 147 (200Zhr pred), and (500Zhr pred).
So the message is GO for a DARK SITE with good sky to appreciate the high hourly rate. Please also take note that while the shower members dominate during peak not all meteors seen were from Leonids - there are other active meteor streams and background sporadic too.

For coming Geminids ( high radiant around midnite) - if you keep the radiant within edges of your field of view you can check by extrapolation backward path of the meteor.. if it falls within the radiant area then high chance it is a Geminid (Gem) .....

Sprites ( high altitude lightning discharges) Nov 27 am 2009

Stars still shinning and a storm front gathering far in the SW....

A group of sprites clustered at the TV antennas of my opposite block. Estimate up to 10 degree in length.

Resource from the youtube- University of Alaska high speed color video imaging

tsunami clouds outside

Tsunami - wall of slow moving clouds towered above my Fov Horizon...

Nov 20 2009 - sharply reduced Leonids

Two leonids 05:15 , 05:57 42 minutes apart. Bright star(s) top - Sirius
Pretty good and clear sky. Meteor Tally ( total 17, x10 spo,x2 PSU,x2 Leo.x1 STA, x1 xVi)

Nov 19 Leonids 2009 - 2nd "bump" in the prediction

Mikhail Maslov's Leonids Prediction Chart.

7 Leonids 5:00 to 6:30 am

Leonids still active and detected in 6am slot .... this bright one 6:21am
UT format of the x7 Leonids
21:48:04
21:41:30
21:53:60
22:18:51
22:20:41
22:21:26* ( image above)
22:2607
( New**- video of these Leonids posted at youtube)

Leonids Nov 18 2009 am

4 am - 1 hr tally count.. lost 50% of sky coverage due to cloud..
The bright dotted on top - Sirius and below Canopus

Radiant plots of the leonids candidate.

3:34 am - Leonid streaks in cloudy sky with partial tail obscured by thicker clouds

02:56 - cloudy but gap let the meteor through ...but blocked
For those who had struggled to view from midnight till late 3:00am
the sky was really bad. Most of the dimmer meteor's tail would disappeared leaving a small portion of the luminous head.. a blip that could be easily missed.

6:05:21 - one Leonid in the 'clearer' side of the sky

6:24 am and was getting brighter,
still a fast moving tadpole shaped Leonid on the
upper right image with distinctive terminal burst!

Nov 18 '09 5:00 - 6:00 am ( UT Nov17-21:00 to 22:00 hr)
Predicted Peak ~ 5:40am - note no fireball observed in the 89 degree FOV.

Due to the weather condition - layers of thin clouds, it was difficult to see them visually as the dimmer tailed might be hidden in clouds so a tiny portion plus nucleus head left.
[ Bright Star streaks in above stacking: Top right - 'Belt' stars , Rigel (Orion), middle Sirius (Canis Major), mid lower Canopus ]

(New** 29/11/2009 -> Video posted to youtube )

UT
Nov 17__total_ leo_ psu_dad_hyd_noO_spo
18:00-19:00 __1__1_0_0_0_0_0
19:00-20:00 __5__3_0_0_0_ 0_2
20:00-21:00 __9__6_0_0_1_ 0_2
21:00-22:00 _24_14_3_2_ 0_1_4
22:00-22:30 __3__2_0_0_0_ 0_1

Total : total(42), leo(26),psu(3),dad(2),hyd(1),noO(1),spo(9)

OutLook for Leonids 2009 - 1/5 storm level ( scale down from 1/2)

Simulated view using Stellarium on Nov 18

Mikhail Maslov's Prediction chart above grid at 3 hours interval

Watch November 18 Wednesday 2 am till dawn. Time shown is in UT. Add +8 and minus 24 to get into our local time.

SM - this is for you

Two planks of woods, ball & socket head, wind nut/screws and a photo tripod completed the support structure for 'ad-hoc' wide angle night sky video patrol system.

Stick it outside the window system( minus the cables)

Nov 2009 meteors

A long trail meteor shooting from left to right.

A nice bright one .. video for both posted at youtube

Oct 30 - Orionids still there

Orionids - the bright one on the left and the tiny one on lower right.

Orionids in Singapore Oct ( 19/20, 21/22* 13/14, 15, 16,17/18 18/19 )

Oct 22 2009.
Close to dawn - x2 Ori 06:17:01, 06:17:32

ORI - 5 am bin

ORI - As the radiant continues to climb, ORI appears in southerly facing camera
FOV after 1 AM

Oct 21/22 (0 hrs - 06:0am local time ) - x20 ORI, x7 SPO, x1 oct, x1 ocu
Sky was cloudy most of the time. The highlite of the night was a visual detection of moderate speed electric blue tear drop shaped meteor around 10:58 magnitude -4 or brighter bearing AZ=200 elevation ~ 20-30. I was standing by my window looking out and saw this nice meteor coming down at 60 degree. Video system was on but no detection - blocked by the building.

UT* format
2009 Oct 21

16hr: x1
17 hr: x3
18 hr:x2
19 hr:x0
20 hr:x5
21 hr:x4
22 hr:x5

Youtube of our cloudy sky meteors

Oct 19/20 - Orionids finally return in sizable number
Radiant plot of individual Ori ( above), red portion actual path
and the composite images ( minus those with heavy cloud background) below.

UT* (ORI) Oct 19 2009
16:57
17:11,17:14
18:11, 18:32,18:24,18:54,18:56
19:06,19:25,19:52
20:03,20:05,20:15,20:31
21:19
22:07,22:10

( total : x19 ORI, X7 SPO, x1 OcU?)

F0.8 3.8mm
Plotting only the radiant verified x 6 Orionids Oct 19 am.
( total : x6 Orionids, x5 others)

Finally orionids showing up in small numbers.
Sirius and Canopus dotted in
this composite stacked image .
Time stamps (hr:min:sec) of the six AM orionids
to give you a feel of when and how bright/dim they were

Oct 19 2009
02:15:46
03:03:22
04:51:38
04:52:37
05:17:15
06:04:04

Some typical sporadic meteors creating tiny dashes in the sky.
Oct 18

Oct 17 - evening a nice sporadic meteor with multiple flares flashed past Jupiter,
while another slow moving one 'dashed' near
the lower bottom frame.

Oct 16 - x2 SPO (note Jupiter at the extreme right )Oct 15'2009 x2 SPO

Oct 13/14 , Sirius at top centre frame
Lone Orionid (top) out of the total 1+4 meteors detected.
Ori 1/5=20% , SPO 3/5=60% , Taurid 1/5= 20%