NightEvents by Video Patrol - Singapore

just one meteor before it started to rain

2011-10-12T20:26:00.000+08:00

aug 14 2011 - Sunday am Perseids

2011-08-14T14:53:00.001+08:00

Jupiter dotted the composite image. The slanting ones ( x3) were Perseids and x1 sporadics .Clouds gathered close to 5 am onwards wiping out chances of getting more Perseid ( see post aug 13 a day earlier)
This time we choose a another window at the utility room.

Meteors again Perseids 2011 , Aug 13

2011-08-14T14:36:00.000+08:00

Aug 13 2011 - Its Perseids again .. from a tiny window this time.

Sprite 15 December '10

2010-12-16T20:52:00.000+08:00

Taurid fireball with multiple flares

2010-11-15T21:14:00.005+08:00

Multiple flares - signature of a Taurid. I was right! A trajectory plot confirm that.

after a long break meteors return

2010-11-11T20:34:00.000+08:00

Meteor Oct 2

2010-10-03T11:56:00.003+08:00

A long trail meteor vs a contrail near Moon

2010-09-19T22:13:00.000+08:00

Jupiter's Moon handheld camcorder shoot

2010-09-13T20:54:00.003+08:00

TRV99E-PAL Sony Hi-8 camcorder : Handheld video shot of Jupiter and its moon (3 visible here)

Jupiter's Moon(Video) taken last evening. You can see 3 of the 4 moons lined up in the video as follow:

C= Callisto, E=Europa G=Ganymede

Sep 11 Meteors

2010-09-12T21:59:00.000+08:00

Aug 31 Am meteors

2010-08-31T21:47:00.000+08:00

Sprite Series - Carrots/Blue Jets ...

2010-08-26T20:00:00.005+08:00

Instead of meteor ( see image below) i got a bunch of Sprite and carrot-like blue jets. Video here

Aug 17 2010

2010-08-17T20:27:00.003+08:00

Pers Aug 16 '20 am - Birds - spiralling bug

2010-08-16T22:22:00.004+08:00

PERs Aug 13 2010

2010-08-13T06:39:00.006+08:00

01:22 am Perseid grazer with wake in video

A typical averag Per..

A slight clouded out sky at critical time period 5 am onwards..

Video here. Overall impression is less than what i detected last year.

Combining Aug 12 & 13 - radiant plots of the Per members as follow:

Imagine the Perseids raining down this wide scattered area seen through the two nights. Single station cant figure out the angle of descent but just imagine the longest trace on the upper left entering the atmosphere at a shallow angle when the radiant is low in the east.

Aug 11/12 Pers

2010-08-12T19:34:00.002+08:00

Perseids August 12 early AM.[ video here ]Cloudy and lightning flashes 00-02 hrs
Activity peak around 05:44 or UT Aug 11'10 20:26. So if you want quick look. Wake up 5am and go out and watch.

Recap Last year Aug 13

National Day 2010 - Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury

2010-08-09T20:21:00.001+08:00

Grouping of the planets. When Mars meets Venus

but Saturn is around and Mercury not too far too.

Aug 9 2010 - ve mag Per and Pau fireball

2010-08-09T10:48:00.002+08:00

Bright -2.3 Per. ( else where in the world there are reports of -5, -8, -10 Per fireball)

A Piscis Austrinid (Pau) fireball -2.8!

The dSLR 15mm general view of the star trails

Sigma15mmf2.8EX view

2010-08-08T22:59:00.002+08:00

Night sky in color.. click to find Constellation of Scorpion near the top. I have to open the window grille

placed the eos on the tripod. The watec 902H and 3.8 lens on the lower left. 20s ASA 400

Aug 07 2010 - Bright Per and others

2010-08-07T09:13:00.003+08:00

A composite plot of selected meteors from local time 00:00-06:30am Aug 07'10.
A thin grazing angle PER (01:45) is seen at top frame and 3.5 hours plus later a bright PER (05:23)
Meteors activity picks up as many streams are active.[Video]

Bright Perseids Aug 05 2010

2010-08-05T21:04:00.001+08:00

Bright Perseids and a -3.2 fireball near the building close to antennae mid lower right. ( see image below)

A bright terminal flash mag -3.2! Watch the video of these meteors.

aug 02/03 2010 - Sdas, Caps and Perseids

2010-08-03T22:03:00.000+08:00

SDA Meteor Streams

2010-08-01T16:01:00.008+08:00

A sampling of the SDAs and others meteors above.
Been raining for the past few days.

7/29 nite i decided to risk rain and put out the videoccd.

SDA dominates the scene..in early

hours of 7/30. Exactly one year ago, result then

Parent body of the comet is still unknown.

Faint halo detected by infra sensitive ccd

2010-07-27T21:17:00.003+08:00

Flying in formation.

Meteor Talk 2010 Jul 31

2010-07-26T23:42:00.001+08:00

Meteors Jul 16 , 15,12,10 '10 - Counting Down to Perseids 2010

2010-07-16T22:19:00.010+08:00

Counting Down to Perseids 2010 August 13.

Mid July Perseids starting to appear while sporadic (SPO) still dominate.

Only 4 Per detected in two separate night

07_16 ( x2 Per)

07_15( x2 Per)

07_12 ( x0 Per)

07_10 (x0 Per)

Note x1 meteor with a bright star-like terminal burst

Laser beams sweeping the sky

2010-07-14T22:08:00.002+08:00

A laser beam sweeping across the sky ... time exposure created the smoke like patches.[ Video]

Unmanned mini Space shuttle X37-B & a fireball later

2010-07-12T20:14:00.002+08:00

A meteor streaked through the tail of Scorpion.. while i readied the field in anticipation of

the 2.9 magnitude X-37B to pass

On time down to seconds... X37-B arrived on time.

25 mm lens

A fireball appeared

Flashing space junk - yaogan(遥感) 1 deb

2010-07-10T19:21:00.008+08:00

Flashing space debris ( passing gamma Aqr) on top right upper - overlay with background stars for position.

Closest match is Yaogan 1 debris ( 36363U 06015G ) ~ 6 seconds between flash. (Video)

Skymap Plot below

Iridium 17 gave out a single -2.29 flash

Early friday nite and a tiny meteor with flare at end

2010-07-09T21:39:00.000+08:00

Only one.. meteor and the partial lunar eclipse evening before

2010-06-27T09:48:00.001+08:00

Sky stayed cloudy most of the time

Partial lunar eclipse 7:40pm - 9:00pm Saturday 6/26 - it was quite a sight with '50%' moon at ~ 20 degree elevation. Eclipse already at maximum coverage and shadow moving away from lunar. This time i used a pair of 10x70 binoculars to have a good look at the earth's curve shadow [ another proof that the earth is round ]. Mintron is too sensitive and depending what shutter speed you set the 'terminator' varies. Another star shared the same FOV in binos. Neighbors stood around at 12th floor common area chatting and enjoying the sight too. A quick refresher course of sun-earth-moon with our mother earth casting the shadow on lunar surface explanation was dished out. When i looked up again around 9:45pm everything was back in normal as if nothing had happened... it was just one of the numerous celestial alignment.

Low pass of Hubble Telescope in Triangulum Australia - the southern triangle

2010-06-20T20:05:00.002+08:00

HST - passing the southern triangle. Map courtesy of Heavens-above.com.

The 3.5+ mag Hubble Space Telescope making a low angle pass in the exposure below.

Meteors in early am hours and a satellite flash

2010-06-20T15:29:00.002+08:00

Look hard you can find a meteor there

2010-06-14T23:13:00.000+08:00

Actually not that difficult.. look for a linear streak ..

cloudy sky meteor with multiple flares

2010-06-13T20:33:00.003+08:00

Meteor with visible flares.

This slow meteor had visible trailing debris cloud..

June 12 am '10 - meteors and Iridium 1/2 flare caught by chance

2010-06-12T20:32:00.002+08:00

3 sporadic meteors in May 12 5:00-6:00 (+8) am hr slot..

Minutes after i set up the system around 8:22 pm I noticed the approach of a bright object at upper left corner and hit the rec button. A quick navigation to Heavens-Above.com confirmed my suspicion - it was a iridium flare. Iridium # 81 was on South bound and i just caught half a flare.

June 05 20'10

2010-06-05T07:28:00.000+08:00

Cloudy all the way from mid nite June 04 to June 05. A nice meteor with bright terminal flash.

moon again..

2010-06-03T21:20:00.000+08:00

Cloudy sky and yet...

2010-06-02T22:54:00.001+08:00

22:26 pm.. the system detected a bright slow meteor..

Earlier on, i was scanning the sky using Fujinon 10x70s. Looking at the Crux - Eta Carina areas. One sat drifted by the background stars and shortly after a yellowing white meteor with fringing green zoom pass the 5 degree pass FOV.

June 01 '10

2010-06-01T19:01:00.003+08:00

A nice meteor lower left...

A tiny slow meteor..

Meteor 'above' Moon May 30 2010

2010-05-30T08:15:00.003+08:00

Meteor 'above' moon.

Another one close to moon

A tiny but bright meteor on the lower left..

Two tiny sprite above the time stamp 02:20:45..

Another upward spray of lightning (sprite) above the time stamp..

Commercial Jet - Contrails @ night

2010-05-23T21:49:00.002+08:00

A slow passing Jet left a bright string of flashing lights. In this 5 minutes exposure a previous jet's single contrail was ribbon-ed and broaden by upper atmosphere lateral air flow with surprising pretty uniformity. Its less chaotic than i thought.

May 23 2010 Spos

2010-05-23T09:08:00.002+08:00

-2.3 Magnitude SPO with another dimmer one

Three meteors ( all Sporadics) from above stacked frames. They all 'appeared' to come from the same radiant with the exception of the short one ( path length requirement). 2 trajectories so one backward projection intersect point ( RA 352.5 Dec=-42.3)...hmmm.
The 3 dotted stars on the mid right were Antares (SCO). VIDEO here

May sky.. a couple of SPO - a nice x1 posted

2010-05-16T09:42:00.005+08:00

a -1.3 mag sporadic ( SPO) 0:51am Sunday May 16 '10

Cloudy in the last few nites, so the moment i saw Crux and Pointers around 11:30pm Sat night i put out my system. Not expecting much activities - May is a quiet month. Bright and/or SPO is the target. The hunt continues

Couldn resist - another post of x1 SPO, this is brighter at -1.6

A good example of the benefit of using video. Imagine you are exposing using film, how do you know the background stars at time of exposure? In the video set up i always started with a few shots with background stars as reference... what if the sky was cloudy when i started the session? Then the second best thing is to enable the software to take a frame at certain interval e.g every 15 minutes. So say the sky clears up when you sleep.. the sampling will capture those ( as well as other bright fast moving objects). All the above is NOT a problem if you system is permanently mounted ( i.e fixed azimuth, elevation) - you only do the background ONCE! It still works for me in ad-hoc mode after all these years!! Video uploaded here.

Eta Aquarids May 7 2010 - bright ones in 5am-6am slot

2010-05-07T22:56:00.011+08:00

( 5am - 6am) the captions should says 3,8mm f0,8 lens

See the negative magnitude eta Aquarids above!! video of these five here.

05:22:37 (-02), UT May 6 21:22

05:25:26(-1.4),UT May 6 21:25

05:32:49(-0.8),UT May 6 21:32

05:33:32(-2.0), UT May 6 21:33

05:55:35(-1.5). These are located in or near Sagittarius / Scorpion region. One overlay map plot below

6am - 6:30m ( above)

Before the Moon enter the video lens FOV ( 04 am- 5:00am slot)

For comparison - you are invited to check out last year Orionids captured using the same setup.

Orionids ( November) and Eta Aquarids( May) with similar parent body - Halley's Comet.

Eta Aquarid ( Halley's comet Debris ) may 6 2010 & iridium 33 flashes ( after collision with cosmos 2251)

2010-05-06T21:35:00.009+08:00

Posting individual frames showing the verified eta Aquarids in reverse timestamps order. If not for the automated detection system i doubt any one will bother to waste sleep on week day night to watch this shower with lunar light interference

A eta aquarid grazer.

BONUS visitor : Iridium 33 bright flashes after collision ( collided with Cosmos 2251 in 2009 Feb 10@ 1655UT over Siberia). Instead of total annihilation, the big piece of wreckage* still harbor the reflecting surface (MMA or solar panel that give rise to intense flashes) see in the above image. One tiny flash follow by a big one. *verified by ground level telescope imaging. Video of above flash.

Eta Aquarids May 5 am hours

2010-05-05T20:35:00.001+08:00

Eta aquarids ( debris from Halleys' Comet ) streak through the moon lit sky.

03:42,04:53, 06:10, 06:23. ( .. its 3.8mm f0.8 lens, wrong caption in video)

Its 3:22 am... lets go nite flying in the moon light

2010-05-03T20:17:00.003+08:00

Iridium Flare Outside my window - negative 5 magnitude

2010-05-02T20:21:00.003+08:00

Found that there is a -5 mag iridium flare today and the evening weather looked promising. In the distance kites were dotting the early evening southern horizon. But this iridium is @ high elevation and the azimuth is a bit hard to reach from my usual location. I pulled out the analog sony camcorder, fired up one still working lithium battery and i set up the video /tripod in the other window. Using the camcorder large LCD as montor i star hop from the compact trapezium of Corvus to expected flare location @ hydra. I replaced the camcorder with the USB-PC video cable and watch the pc screen running UFOcapture. My watch was synchronised to singtel time annoucement ($0.30 per call 1711). The Iridium Satellite came on time and the i hit the rec button...Watch the uploaded video Iridium 37 here

Eta Aquarid and glaring moon

2010-05-02T18:19:00.004+08:00

A meteor originated close to the over saturated moon. The star near the meteor is antares (SCO).
Post processing of the meteors reveal x1 spo x3 etaAq - including the one above.

Just a day ago I had x3 sporadics SPO and x1 etaAq. Increasing rate?

Labour Day May 1 early am meteors and glaring moon

2010-05-01T19:08:00.001+08:00

A composite showing three meteors with the glaring moon(s). The trumpet-shapes on the lower left are reflections from the aspheric lens

Bright lunar and a meteor

2010-04-30T20:17:00.000+08:00

Look at the flaring portion. Which direction do you think the meteor travelled from? Top to bottom or bottom to top? For this one the flaring occurs 1/3 of the flight and is travelling from top to bottom!

Wat's that star in the western horizon?

2010-04-25T20:39:00.002+08:00

Venus

International Space Station ISS ( karya) sailing pass Orion ( a series of dots near bottom) and entering earth shadow shortly after.

de ja vu

2010-04-24T19:54:00.001+08:00

A similar multiple flares Lyrid again

Cloudy sky and Lyrids

2010-04-23T21:37:00.001+08:00

At 0:48am .. a Lyrid was caught through clouds- terminal double burst seen ( near white building in image below).

another Lyrid caught close to dawn below

Return of meteor activities..

2010-04-11T11:19:00.003+08:00

Video here Note in the video the last meteor (closest to the building in above composite plot) ended with a flash-like terminal burst.

A meteor crossing the FOV of 25mm f0.90 lens

2010-04-10T22:14:00.001+08:00

A meteor cross diagonally of the 25mm f0.90 aspheric lens 09-Apr-2010 02:13 am

Byte Size Astronomy : Venus & Mercury evening sky April 2010

2010-04-10T13:48:00.004+08:00

The bright object in the 06 April [7:39pm] evening sky was Venus and if you looked carefully you will find the elusive and dimmer Mercury nearby too. Taken with a hand held shot with a point and shoot digital camera Nikon CP5100 in Shutter Priority. Here is the video with a little zoom in view. Read more in S & T

Iridium 24 flashes again

2010-04-06T11:48:00.001+08:00

The tumbling iridium IR 24 giving flashes here. Watch this video here

Meteor ( shooting star) appear to radiate out from the moon.. ( line of sight effect)

Iridium 24 - x2 flashes and a glaring moon

2010-04-05T07:45:00.004+08:00

Two negative magnitude flashes near the building, direction of travel : upwards

RA 17h31.9min, Dec -71.94, RA 17hr 32min Dec-56.58. Watch video here

Glaring ( over-saturated) moon near Sagittarius

and the brightest flash with background star overlaid

A tumbling rocket body .. 85079B March 26 20:22:58

2010-03-27T09:50:00.005+08:00

Ribbon traced out by a slowly tumbling space junk in Canis Major.

I saw the object on screen and hit the button. Video here

'Light curve' in pixel units using Subaru Image Processor - Makalii.

Object IDed - 85-079B

Mar 24 2010 Meteors AM hours and a locating the source of x1 flash

2010-03-24T08:28:00.009+08:00

Must be CS ( clear sky) early am. Woke up and find these meteors got logged by the sky patrol system.
The 'untidy' dots near the building block were created by the Pointers to the Southern Cross, Crux. After mapping the background stars ( analysis indicated all were SPOs) i realized the upper dots were created by red Antares in Scorpion -the Mar's rival.

Here is an example how the background stars got mapped onto the 3.8mm single video frame using UFOAnalyser. On the lower right is a negative magnitude brightness meteor or shooting star. Crux is seen near the mid top of the white building block. Constellation of Scorpion on mid top right. [ at wide angle only brighter stars can be detected by the video]

A satellite flash upper left .. RA18.1, Dec -14.25

To find the unknown flash

a) When - timing?

b) Where - position RA, Dec

c) What [objects] Get satellite two lines elements TLEs

d) How - run a planetarium software in object vicinity

e) check for closest match [ time, position, direction of travel ]

Next a trip to www.space-track.org to grab the bulk TLEs.
Run Skymap66 and bring up the region of the sky. Park the '+' cursor at the flash point and ran the listings with +/- 1 minute of reported time. With a bit of luck you can eliminate other entries and pick the mostly one.
Cosmos 1523.

see how many objects within 2 minutes crossing the sky

March 2010

2010-03-11T15:15:00.000+08:00

..two SPOs

Quiet Feburary Sky

2010-02-19T08:42:00.004+08:00

Only one detected meteor throughout the night. Pointers and the Crux lower left.

Jan 27/28 2010

2010-01-28T20:58:00.000+08:00

Jan 24 2010 Video Patrol

2010-01-25T08:48:00.000+08:00

Close to dawn two negative magnitude sporadic meteors appeared. Note Crux at lower left and the 'double' image of Sirius which correspond to the last two meteor entries just mentioned.

Meteor with long path length

2010-01-24T12:49:00.003+08:00

Selected frame to show the progression of the meteor flight.

2:43 am - the system detected a meteor dragging a short tail transversing the FOV. (89x64). The path looks curved due to the wide angle distortion from the lens.

7 minutes later another meteor was detected.

Cloudy sky meteors

2010-01-16T22:09:00.001+08:00

The one that got away

2010-01-15T21:09:00.004+08:00

Partial Solar Eclipse Jan 15 2010

2010-01-14T03:17:00.001+08:00

Friday Afternoon Partial Eclipse - Maximum coverage is around 21%.

Simulation of Jan 15 '10 Solar partial Eclipse

25mm f0.95 wat902H2 Ultimate

2010-01-07T14:56:00.001+08:00

Meteor near ' Pointers'

2010-01-02T11:17:00.000+08:00

Sky continued to be cloudy.. A lone meteor with flarings ended near the Pointers to Crux

Javelin in the sky - slow meteor dec 26 2009

2009-12-26T23:03:00.003+08:00

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

A straight down meteor

2009-12-23T21:52:00.004+08:00

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?

2009-12-17T21:12:00.002+08:00

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

2009-12-16T22:11:00.005+08:00

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

2009-12-15T21:33:00.000+08:00

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

Clouded out UT Dec 13 2009

2009-12-14T19:04:00.005+08:00

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

2009-12-13T05:40:00.008+08:00

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)

2009-12-12T20:28:00.003+08:00

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

2009-12-05T16:23:00.008+08:00

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

2009-12-02T22:20:00.000+08:00

Sporadic meteor near Sirius

2009-11-29T09:04:00.002+08:00

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

cloudy sky and NoO ( november Orionid)

2009-11-28T22:45:00.003+08:00

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

November Orionid (NoO) Nov 28 '2009

2009-11-28T22:01:00.003+08:00

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

2009-11-28T19:05:00.008+08:00

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

2009-11-27T08:48:00.006+08:00

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

2009-11-25T22:43:00.002+08:00

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

Nov 20 2009 - sharply reduced Leonids

2009-11-20T23:31:00.002+08:00

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

2009-11-19T06:33:00.008+08:00

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

2009-11-18T06:25:00.016+08:00

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)

2009-11-12T23:31:00.010+08:00

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

2009-11-11T20:29:00.002+08:00

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

2009-11-04T21:29:00.002+08:00

A long trail meteor shooting from left to right.

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

Oct 30 - Orionids still there

2009-10-30T07:12:00.001+08:00

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 )

2009-10-14T20:24:00.016+08:00

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%

Iridium 42 Minus 7 magnitude

2009-09-28T22:04:00.001+08:00

Moon - Jupiter and Iridium 42 @ -7 magnitude wide angle look

25mm close look of a Pi- Eridanids

2009-08-21T19:48:00.001+08:00

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)

slow meteors Aug 18 2009 10pm - 1am

2009-08-19T12:05:00.001+08:00

a day after Post Perseus Peak

2009-08-14T13:13:00.001+08:00

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