Meteors

[Bill W]

Hi,
(Still recovering from being overstuffed with turkey!)
It was a succesful trip but it was freezing up the mountain too,
the difference was the low humidity which is much better than the horrible damp we get here. Really quite comfortable when the wind dropped.
All the best for the new year.
cheers,
Bill.

[Bill W]

A good new year to all.

I was wondering if anyone had a look out for the Quadrantids?
Even though the radiant was very low it had been a beautiful clear day but then cloud rolled in right on cue as it got dark.
Cleared a bit with me at around 20.00 but I didn't see a single one through the mist and I chucked it when it got to -11 deg C.
Left the video camera running and caught 28 Quadrantids through the night and a few sporadics.

cheers,
Bill.

[leolion]

Hi Bill and all . Happy New Year ,
Struggled with the weather for the meteor showers in 2009 (and in to 2010 so far) .
For the Geminids the meteor Video was in operation using a Watec 902H with a 3.8 mm fl f 0.8 lens from 02:39 UT to 04:50 UT on December 12/13 . The numbers recorded were Geminids 20 Sporadics 3.5 Monocerotids 0.5 between 02:39 UT & 04:50 UT with variable cloud cover .
I did an hour visual to 'keep my hand in' so to speak! Manure pile weather. Would have been great to have been in the Canaries
For the Ursids on December 22/23 we had 15 to 17 mph wind and lying snow ( and clear sky ) so I settled for a video only night and ran the unit between 23:21 UT to 03:27 UT . During that run I had 14 Sporadics and 2 Ursids.
Quads were U/S for me at Elland on January 3/4 2010 . ARP (Leeds 17 miles away) and I were planning to run our video systems on Polaris and West areas from 1800 hrs to midnight on the Sunday night. The sky looked so great in the late afternoon that I emailed Alex to say I would start earlier at ca 1700 hrs . That brought down the wroth of the cloud gods with a vengeance and I had no clear sky in the planned video window . Alex had a clearance ca 1900 hrs but by 20:45 had packed in due to severe cloud cover and threat of snow . The sky did clear after midnight with a high bright moon but too late to keep me from my bed !
Len E

[Bill W]

Hello all,
Things astronomical....
A few of the usual suspects had a great observing session on Saturday night.
We will be having another observing get together on Sat 10th April (weather permitting).
The plan is to use our alternative site near Loch Doon so stay tuned for more details and if you in the area you're more than welcome to come along.
Cheers,
Bill.

[Bill W]

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone of the meteor observing persuasion has a computar 6mm f0.8 cctv lens they no longer require.

I have been trying to locate one of these gems for a couple of years!

If so please contact me directly.

Cheers,
Bill.

[Bill W]

Hello,

For those interested (and following on from the fine example of nlcnet!) I have started up a meteor specific forum with this provider.

So if you want to get into the meteor observer world then the URL is meteorobserver.proboards.com

cheers,

Bill.

[Bill W]

Nearly there....
In the mean time here's a couple of shots from an observing trip to Tenerife.
Not particularly succesful astronomically, however meteorologically quite interesting.



This is the residence at the observatory at Izana, ~2300m altitude.



My observing companion couldn't handle the pace, he just didn't have the legs for it!



A cracking halo in the cirrostratus.

[markt]

Lovely pictures Bill!!! Still plenty of snow on the north side of Teide I see... Love the star trails all the way down to the horizon!

If you've anymore pics anywhwere would love to see them...

[Bill W]

Hi Mark,
Thanks, I've got one more of Teide somewhere. I just take a couple of shots to check the power and focus before I set the cameras off for the night on their meteor vigil.

After churning through batteries on previous trips I bought a couple of cheap third party ones, hacked them to pieces and built a voltage regulator for each one. Connected them to a home made controller and using a lead with a couple of big croc clips I run them from the car battery. They'll run continuously till they dew over now. At their power level there is not much drain on a car battery. The longest run I did this time was over 6 hours.
So I've got 1000's shots over three nights of absolutely nothing!

This last trip went to new levels of surrealism when I was stirred from a doze by some immense lights. A large pick up came up behind me with all it's spot lights on. After a brief discussion in broken Spanish and English it turned out that these people were employees of the National Park. They wanted past me to put up signs (at 1.27am!) warning of and I quote "No Trespassing: Controlled Release of Herbivores" After gingerly stepping over all my kit they departed and I was left to ponder the sign.
Never a dull moment....
Bill.

[Bill W]

Here's the moment the Parks Department arrived....

[Bill W]

During the amazing display of 2/3 July did anybody else catch the huge meteor at 23.42UT. This was -4 (maybe a bit brighter), brilliant white, with flaring travelling from Polaris to just w of Arcturus. Fully one second duration and a 5 second persistant train.
Unfortunately no pics of this bonus event.
Cheers,
Bill.

[mesospheric]

Hi Bill,

Yep, I saw it too. Also an even more spectacular one, with a bright orange trail and brighter, whiter streaks within the core of the trail and a distinct periodic retardation, seen last night travelling NW-SE in the general vicinity of Cassiopeia. Didn't record the time; I never was much of a meteor observer, although the beauty of this one was something to behold.

[Bill W]

Hello all,

Just a quick reminder that the next major shower, the Lyrids, is in about a months time.

Have a look at meteorobserver.proboards.com/index.cgi for more info and to post you observations and pictures.

cheers,
Bill.

[Bill W]

Hi all,
Following my last post....
Should the weather co-operate a few of the observers in the Ayrshire area are planning a Lyrid observing session on the night of the peak.
The location will be one of our regular sites near Dalry or Loch Doon.
Check out meteorobserver.proboards.com/ for the details which will be posted on the Friday 20th April.
All are welcome and if it's a nice night it will be great fun.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you need directions.
cheers,
Bill.

[Bill W]

Hi All,
Don't forget we're coming to the maximum of the Leonid meteor shower.
Cheers,
Bill.