Friday, August 21, 2009

25mm close look of a Pi- Eridanids

Sky was pretty cloudy so switched to a narrower FOV lens 25mm. UA indicates this is a Pi-Eri.
A wide angle look of another PiEridanid on Aug 13 below ( with star fields overlay)

Friday, August 14, 2009

a day after Post Perseus Peak

Perseids rate  trickles..  note the x1 early hour long trail meteor on top right hand corner.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Perseids Meteor shower members 2009 Aug 13 '09

 
Perseids meteors plots - the 'red' portion is the actual meteor path length. 
One Earthgrazer ( longest red path length) with will not satisfied the minimum 
of 2 or more path length away from radiant while the rest did.
x23 Per
x8 Spo
x2 Pi Erianus
x1 Pi
   The pc video system detected two long-trail meteors around 00:39 and at 01:43. I fished out the PDA and have a quick check on the planetarium sw. Perseids radiant was -3 degree( below horizon) and 1.5 degree then.  They resembled grazing meteors- hitting the atmosphere at shallow angle and can be seen half way around the sky. [ remind me of the grazing red Taurids competing with the Leonids]  The curvature trajectory is due to the wide angle lens distortion . Jupiter is the bright object at top of the frame.

  Then at 02:32am i saw  this text-book perfect Perseids real time in the monitor which  prompted me to visit the nearby field to watch the sky.  [Video of this bright Per  posted to youtube is available here.] The 'indoor'-soccer court still felt lukewarm from the warm afternoon, with feet facing east I looked around the sky. A thin layer of clouds and the 'garing' moon. I could make out the 4- corner star of the Great Square of Pegasus, Jupiter and the triangle formed by Formahaut and Grus beta-alpha. In between was the mag2 beta Cetus. Closer to the horizon SE was Achernar. Perseus was blocked by the housing block. Nothing exciting happen through out the 1 hour there. X1 short bright yellowish meteor flashed near Jupiter. I scribbled the time on a piece of paper. [ this meteor was also detected by the video system]. Clouds drifting in and i went home.

  Back at monitor screen a couple of meteors were already detected on my walk to the field. I watched the monitor for a while and walked to the window and gazed out. Around 5am a bright yellow short trailed meteor was seen and i checked the monitor nearby  - yes it was there. I saw two other meteors - swift , yellowish with outer greenish tint. The b/w video can never deliver the pretty sight . Fatigue soon took over me and i went back to sleep leaving the automated sky sentinel to do its work.


A composite of meteors seen from 02:30 to 04:31. Jupiter dotted in the image above. Look carefully how the top two images grazing meteor appears to 'line-up' producing a long 'artificially' long meteor in the above image.


 
Composite plot from 04-5:55

By 6 am Pers radiant had shifted 06:01-06:28 am composite stack.

Tally count
Aug 13 2009 local time. +8 UT

16 UT* /00:00-00:59 -  x1 grazing meteor
17 UT /01:00 -01:59 - x1 grazing meteor
18 UT /02:00-02:59  - x2
19 UT /03:00-03:59  - x2
20 UT /04:00-04:59  - x9
21UT /05:00-05:59  - x9
22 UT/06:00-06:30  - x7 ( dawn 0630)

Total: 31 Meteors.

* UT date  16 hr Aug 12 '09

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Perseids Meteors outside my window aug 12 early AM

After 4:00am.. Pers leaving 'long' trails  & other meteors outside my window
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