Perseid watch.

[doug]

     Rose and I are going down to the Otford Park ... where the Solar System model is ... on the nights of 11th and 12th August to hopefully see the Perseid meteor shower. We would like to have some of the members with us, to come along as well.

     I would suggest that you bring a chair, camera, blanket to keep warm and binos, as well as a pad and pencil to record anything you may (or may not) see. The meteor shower should be good, as the Earth is going through a "thicker" part of the Swift Tuttle dust; the moon will be setting about 23.00 hrs so we should get a good view.

     This is an Observing Officer request, so get away from the telly and join us. Please let us know if you are coming along on the Forum or by OAS email.

     Doug and Rose.

[RachelC]

Hi Doug and Rose

I think this is a great idea and had it not been on a work day I would have been there.
The Perseids are thoughtless when it comes to showing off.Why they couldn't wait for the weekend? 

Rachel

[Roy]

Great idea, but we'll be at a music festival Thursday to Sunday, so hopefully we will see them from a field in Oxfordshire.

Roy and Sue

[Mike]

We'll be watching them from Wales. Petra has spotted 4 already.

[Kenny]

From Cornwall.

[doug]

Well.... last night Dave Harris, Andy Hoggan, Rose and I went to the Otford park to Perseid watch. We saw a few but not as many as we had hoped, so we are returning tonight to the park and having another go. We had some interested enquiries from the public as to what we were doing and a couple of them showed real interest; one chap may even come along to the next meeting as he wants to buy a go-to telescope. I told him that it is best to chat to people first to get some good information before spending loadsa money so he could well come along. We also took some nice images of the moon, etc. Saturn, Mars and Antares were beautiful in a triangle.....

If anybody wants to come along, we will be at the park about 20.30 to 21.00 hrs. So there you go. Take a chance.

Doug.

[JohnP]

Doug, my experience with Perseids is that it 'Always Fails to Impress'.. there is always so much hype on TV/ newspapers etc. about hourly rates & this is the best opportunity ever but I still always only see 1 or 2... Maybe its my eyes or reaction speeds... I'll set alarm & look again tonight but wont be holding my breath for a fireworks display.  John

[Carole]

I feel the same as John about meteor showers, always fail to impress.  We were in COAA Portugal (several of us from OAS) for the Perseids a few years ago and the hosts had a Perseids party and invited all the locals.  Ever-one was stretched out on sun beds or mattresses on the floor watching.   In the end people just got up and said "Is that it?" and went to have some food or a drink. 

You get a lot of neck ache for very little reward.  The one thing that might be very useful is to take a series of long exposures on a static tripod with very little gap and then afterwards stack the images together and this will show a composite of all the meteors in that time span, all radiating from the radiant, but you'll have to do it for a few hours to make a decent result.

Something like this only this one must have been done with a fish eye lens:



Carole

[MarkS]

The IMO live data page (http://www.imo.net/live/perseids2016) confirms that the hourly rate was pretty low last night.  I reckoned approx 40 damp squibs in one hour, which correlates well with their data.  Maybe a better chance tonight.  I didn't get a single decent photo last night (from home).

Mark

[Fay]

I did get two last night, nothing to get excited about.

[MarkS]

I reckon the hourly rate was similar last night (I saw 25 in half an hour) but I did see quite a few more bright ones.  Still nothing of note captured on the camera though.

Mark

[The Thing]

I saw 10 in 15mins with a couple of really good ones. This was Friday/Sat night at 01:30 before it clouded.  Previous Tuesday I spotted half a dozen with my mate David and his son Max. That was abot 10:30.