PERSEIDS 2014 Started already

[mjpfc]

Ladies and Gents,

                           Just a heads up really,

     On two nights now with a growing moon I have seen 3 early Perseids.

     One, down through Aries was of middling brightness, but two that shot off across Cephius and Cygnus were screamers, one

     trailled all the way from Cygnus to near Alpha Aquilla.

Yes, a big moon may cut down the numbers of fainter ones to be seen but there are always many bright and very bright

Perseids that Luna won't stop us seeing.

Also I have noticed that our Sattelite seems rather low below the ecliptic in this orbit, so should be easier to arrange behind

something appropriate for the duration.

Recliner...check,  Notebook...check,  Huge Coffee mug with "Desperate Dan" on it...check, excuse for not making it into work on

Wednesday....I'm working on it.

Bring on the night of the 12th-13th.

Clear skies all

Mick

[Daniel-K]

Mick last week when I went to Snowdonia I saw loads, probably the most ive seen on one night

[mjpfc]

Cheers for that Dan,

               I turned my back on  Warm afternoon with some thin streaky cloud and now it's chucking it down so

I may have to pospone PERSEID patrol for the evening, but it looks like they are building up nicely.

Mick

[hobsey]

I saw my first one on Monday evening when I went up to the War Memorial for the WW1 remembrance evening.

They had a girl singing 'somewhere over the rainbow' and a one flew of the top of the War Memorial, it was quite emotional. It would have made a fantastic photo.

[tingting44]

rain and cloud for me

[mbhyde]

rain for me to

[IanL]

On hols in Sicily for another week, wall to wall blue skies, so may have to head out in to the orange grove for the peak - extra strong mozzie spray at the ready though since they find me extremely tasty.

[MKHACHFE]

Yep, even with the big moon last night, I saw over 10 bright ones in under 10 mins of watching the sky. Then....nothing for a long time. I guess I got lucky.

I'm about to go out and look for some tonight. Great show so far, even if my wife gave up last night after 5 mins (and complained she didn't see any!)

Marc

[Paul73]

Got a couple last night early while sneaking a look at Saturn before it goes into hibernation.

Paul

[Davey-T]

Spent an hour looking through gaps in the clouds, Perseids 0

Dave

[mjpfc]

Clear on the southcoast just Now, probably some lumps of Cumulus to come through as the night goes on but

I think I can get some obs from here into the wee hours.  Summer Triangle already visible, the nights are drawing-in,

It'll br the Leonids before we know it.

Have a good night all,     Clear skies

Mick

[JB80]

Not seen any yet but I'm going to have my fill of cheese and wine and pop out a bit later.

[starman1969]

Spent about 45 minutes battling the clouds on Monday night. Perseids 0.

I have spotted about 8 Perseids in the last two weeks though, so not a total blank.

[happy-kat]

No joy for me because where they are are two street lights one 15 feet away and the other 50 feet both in the direction of where I would need to look.

[jam1e1]

Spotted 3 just now. One amazing fireball through Cygnus around 1015

[allcart]

Another bright one through cephus just before 11pm. Didn't quite capture it as I hadn't pressed start in my software. Doh!

[allcart]

I have a live broadcast running in case anyone has clouds but might like to watch.

http://www.uvlog.com/channel/view/-amateur-solar-astronomy-4259

[mjpfc]

Saw a couple go under Pegasus but non too bright.

Mick

[allcart]

Nice and clear down south mick, keep watching.

[wookie1965]

Full cloud cover really annoyed.

[Logic]

Cloudy and raining here at the moment, hoping it clears so I can see a few and have a early(ish) night.

[MKHACHFE]

Just saw quite a few really nice bright ones (5, maybe 6 in about 6 minutes of looking up), right near the moon. I can only imagine how bright they would have been on a moonless night and not in North London. 

I also saw a bright flash (i would compare it to a -4 mag planet or iridium flare, no streak or movement at all...which obviously means it was heading roughly in my direction and i would be lying if i said i didn't tense myself up , expecting something to slam into me or near me...just for a second or two mind you before my brain kicked in again. 

Overall, i would say this has been my most successful meteor shower!

Marc

[mjpfc]

I stayed out from Just after 21:20 to 02:00 when it really clouded up.

We had dad a clear/cloudy, clear/cloudy rythm going and Luna did not help but I saw a mgood few meteors as well as watching

Comet Jacques creep across Perseus itself.

Before Midnight I picked-up 7 meteors, 5 middling and 2 crackers (Missed the ones across Cygnus).

00:00 to 01:00 I only saw 6 meteor but all were very bright with 2 leaving trails for a second or two.

01:00 to 02:00 1 Saw 12 more, some middling brightness but most very bright, again a couple leaving trails.

It clouded over badly just before 2am and I was in work this morning so had to call it an night.

Still, I have my Leonid and Geminid plots ready, wake me in the winter.......

Mick

[Scosmico]

Beautiful shower with full moon. I assume 50-70 meteors per hour. There was one big flash at least Mag -6.

[mjpfc]

From my viewing between 12-2200 and 13-0200 the bias seemed overwhelmingly towards the right hemisphere from Perseus,

with very few going into the Left one towards Auriga but this will tend to even up more later in the morning so my plot would have

looked slightly different if I had stayed up later than 0200.

Mick