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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 16, 2005 13:19:32 GMT
The Leonid meteor shower peeks late tonight. Despite a full moon i intend on doing a watch before dawn. Every year i have always been clouded out for this shower however tonight will be my first full clear night on Nov 16/17th With very cold conditions and frost it should be a very difficult but very festive session. Even though the rates are poor this year there is still the chance of fireballs and unpredicted outbursts. The Leonids are the fastest of the annual showers and the meteorids come from the famous comet P/Tempel-Tuttle.
Is anyone planning on having a peek tonight despite the poor reports?
Clear skies
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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 16, 2005 13:41:26 GMT
mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/blobrana/news/leonids.htmlCheck the above link, Leonid activity seems to be good on the monring of the 17th - 19th and again on the 21st. With a reputation for bright fireballs i think i will be doing alot of meteor observing between now and the weekend!
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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 17, 2005 5:57:36 GMT
I had set my alarm for 03.00, it did its duty and i got out of bed, put on several layers of clothes and made myself a hot brew then walked out to the pitch. The pre dawn sky was great, freezing cold with a heavy ground frost, calm, completely quiet, it was a very festive scene and it felt like a very special time to be out. The full moon was beautiful in the west casting a bright cold wintery glow over the frosty landscape. Within 5 mins my boots where covered in white!
I did a meteor watch untill 06.20 despite the moon washing out the majority of meteors i still managed to observe 41 meteors in all. Most of these where Leonids with a handfull of nice Taurids thrown in. Many of the Leonids where very nice objects brighter than Saturn, many of which left glowing green and blue ion trains, one of which lasted for 5 secs. There where some highlights...
A very bright firery yellow mag -2.0 Leonid that burnt up above the SE horizon above a neighbours rooftop!
A nice mag -2.0 red Taurid with no tail that streaked to the south into a Orion.
A fabulous mag 2.0 Draconid that very slowly travelled from N to S across the eastern sky taking 6 secs to cross the sky grazing the atmosphere with a red head and glowing blue train.
At the beginning of the session i got a visit from a beautiful small Owl that circled around my head twice (very close to me) in complete silence before heading north to continue its nocturnal hunt, i think we suprised each other. A brillant iridum satellite flared up low in the north within Hercules, it looked like a Supernova. Even though the activity was low i still enjoyed this session very much and i feel the Leonids will have more to deliver in the days ahead. I look forward to dawn tommorow!
Clear skies!
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Post by NeilP on Nov 17, 2005 7:20:25 GMT
Martin
I was out myself this morning from 3am, very cold -5 at one point but I did catch 34 meteors so well worth the effort, I tried to catch some on the camera but no joy the lens just kept clouding over.
Neil
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Post by paulevans on Nov 17, 2005 10:48:57 GMT
Nice one Martin, certainly above and beyond the call of duty! I hope to get out at some stage during the next few nights - looks like we've got some excellent weather coming although as Neil found, dew is going to be a big problem - I noticed this as I was scraping a thick layer of Global Warming off my windscreen this morning!
Clear skies,
Paul.
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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 17, 2005 12:48:10 GMT
LOL Paul that global warming is that warm it turned the ground white here. Infact the ground is still white here at midday! Glad you where out Neill...that was a good count you had. Nice to know you where observing at the same time i was . It was a very cold but beautiful night indeed. Hope it stays clear for the next watch before dawn tonight. Thanks for the reply guys.
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Post by markmc on Nov 18, 2005 7:27:01 GMT
seen a nice meteor last night at about 3-50am just under orion that seemed to brake up just before it disappeared ,it was very bright and left a tail for 5-6 secs .it was a good one
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Post by Aaron on Nov 18, 2005 13:52:03 GMT
Pauline and myself went out last night for an hour but sods law, as soon as I stepped outside a huge bank of cloud came over from the SW. It was patchy in places though and looked fantastic with the moonlight behind it.
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Post by Martin Mc kenna on Nov 18, 2005 14:37:59 GMT
Nice sighting Markmc!!!
Sorry to hear about the clouds Aaron.
Conor and i done two sessions from 19.10 - 22.15, only seen 16 meteors in all, this was a Taurid watch as the Leonids had not risen yet, we where spurred on to do a watch after reading about Kevins fireball sighting. Most of the meteors observed where faint and at one time i seen a burst of 3 at the same time but from 3 different radiants, i seen Taurids, Sporadics, Andromedids. WOW that was a cold evening with a heavy crisp ground frost and air frost, the frost from the previous night never thawed out at all, the clouds began to thicken which produced a lovely colourful Moon Corona. It soon became overcast for the rest of the night. Conor got a bright moving object on a 30 sec expsoure, his back was turned at the time so he didnt see it visually however there was a very bright white trail that looked like a long bar in a west - east orientation at least mag - 4.0? maybe it was an iridum flare?
Clears skies
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