Persids

[brrttpaul]

Just wondered what everyone is doing for the Persids as it was that that set me off on astronomy, we went and watched them one night and that was it hooked. Im torn whether to do a backyard stint as im facing that way and just leave the camera clicking away or go to a dark site and try that and miss a days work lol

[David Smith]

MIss a days work? I usually do Perseids until around 4 then grab a couple of hours sleep on the sofa before heading for work. It's the Geminids that's really hard going. Doesn't get light so no excuse to come in for a kip before going back to work

[ronin]

Just about every meteor shower I remember about has been clouded out.

One year the peak Persid night was clear and I went out after midnight.

Stood looking up for an hour and a half - not a single one.

Decided after that that if I was up and if I felt like it and if it was clear then I might take a walk and see if I could see anything.

[Moon-Watcher]

Anyway, long story short, I slept rough one night in August '77 on the beach in Newgale, West Wales AT THE SAME TIME the Persieds were showering quite good.

Very Clear sky.  Quite warm.

Great memory...

Cheers,

Mark

[laudropb]

There is no doubt that going to a dark site will mean that you will see more meteors.

[brrttpaul]

Theres one spot by us (Blaenavon mountain) from the top of there you can see for miles it looks out towards Bristol, Gloucester, Monmouth, up towards Hay. The first time we went there it was packed and ended up staying till 3, have to say it blew me away and its the banker place to go. In saying that now that I have got into astronomy I know my backyard is facing the same way also so I know I can have comfortable viewing but more light pollution. The other place would be Brecon visitor centre, dark skies comfortable all round viewing and easy to set up next to the car. Those are my three choices and the Brecon one is in the lead ATM. As for work laying bricks all day for a living isnt one of those jobs where you can stay up all night and then just mosey in lol

[Pete Presland]

If it is really clear i will drive out somewhere darker, but other than that it will be the bottom of the garden.

[goose35]

I got a few in last year out the back yard over several nights around the peak.

This year im going to set the camera on continuous shooting at 60 seconds as described in this months S@N mag. Then lay back and enjoy.

Weather permitting of course

[brrttpaul]

that sounds like the best plan

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'll be at sea somewhere between Kiel (Germany) and Copenhagen (Denmark). Hopefully it will be clear as ive never seen this meteor shower.

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Some good stuff on meteors in general,and the Perseids in particular in the August edition of 'Astronomy Now'. I must go out at least once to have a look- to re-gain my interest in Astronomy,which has,unsurprisingly,waned a bit over the Summer months.

[damnut]

@moonwatcher& Luke Skywatcher --- My best ever perseids , 1977 sat in the back of the boat, middle of the Irish sea Holyhead to Dublin race. Started at 8pm, bit of a breeze. Four hours later, becalmed could see the Kish, South Stack and Chicken just on the horizon (light house beams)... Dots of navigation lights, pitch dark... Then the shower started, counted to 200 then gave up.. Magnificent.

So Paul if you can get a quiet bit of the ship, you could have a great view!

[goose35]

Just bought a ZWO120 MM-S for use mostly as a guider but im going to set up with the included fisheye lens as an all sky cam aswell as the dslr.

Going to have a practice run out the next available clear night this week as im on afternoons

[brrttpaul]

im thinking the star adventurer with my 11-18mm lens ISO 800 wide open set up just under and to the right of cassiopa and 20 sec subs, as many as i can, I also got a D3100 with the 18-55 lens so may add that to it as well and just see where it all goes. Lets hope the skies are nice and clear

[Garethr]

Goose35

My plan as well, going to a really dark site for a weeks Astro imaging on some " proper kit" the VLM there is 6.44 so very dark.

Have just brought / got for birthday a zwo asi178mc with fish eye lens. Plan is to set up in field on a tripod and laptop and see what I can get. Any advice on exposure times and frame rate to make a time lapse would be appreciated as running out of time to practice.

Gareth.

[goose35]

Goose35

My plan as well, going to a really dark site for a weeks Astro imaging on some " proper kit" the VLM there is 6.44 so very dark.

Have just brought / got for birthday a zwo asi178mc with fish eye lens. Plan is to set up in field on a tripod and laptop and see what I can get. Any advice on exposure times and frame rate to make a time lapse would be appreciated as running out of time to practice.

Gareth.

I've read in AN and S@N mags using a dslr no more than 1 min at a dark site so i'd start at that.

having LP her i'll be starting at 30 secs.

[JB80]

I always look forward to Perseids each year with varying levels of success. This year is a mid week one so I doubt I will be out any longer than 1 or 2 am which really is when Perseus is rising.

I haven't really got the hang of my new skies at the house though, I assume that overall it is darker here but with the moon I haven't been able to do a good eyeball test to compare.

What I do have however are two extremely bright and offensive street lights, I mean real bad placement of these and they are super bright so I fear for any long exposure pics I want to take.

I think I need to find all my kit in the boxes and sort out a practice run or two, maybe even with the asi120mm and fish eye as well.

Provided it stays clear it's predicted to be a slightly better than average year this year too.

http://feraj.narod.ru/Radiants/Predictions/Perseids2015eng.html

[LukeSkywatcher]

@moonwatcher& Luke Skywatcher --- My best ever perseids , 1977 sat in the back of the boat, middle of the Irish sea Holyhead to Dublin race. Started at 8pm, bit of a breeze. Four hours later, becalmed could see the Kish, South Stack and Chicken just on the horizon (light house beams)... Dots of navigation lights, pitch dark... Then the shower started, counted to 200 then gave up.. Magnificent.

So Paul if you can get a quiet bit of the ship, you could have a great view!

I'm one deck below the swimming pool area. If they dont close this part of the ship off at night, i should get a great all round view of the night sky. For health and safety though they may have this part closed off but i should still be able to get access to the promenade around the outside of ship. 

[Tony H]

Saw loads last year.

Looking straight up I didn't see that many.  Adjusted to looking either side closer to the horizon Nth/Sth plane and caught loads more.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Saw loads last year.

Looking straight up I didn't see that many.  Adjusted to looking either side closer to the horizon Nth/Sth plane and caught loads more.

Looking directly overhead is not a good idea as the meteors travel and burn up so quickly that most dont travel far from the radiant. If you look 45 degrees either side of radiant you will see more. Most if not all meteor showers when viewed from Earth originate in the NE of the sky (due to Earth's rotation), so keep your eye peeled on that general area. 10pm is a good time to start observing, but things usually kick off around midnight when the meteors will be hitting the atmosphere head on (ish).

Best of luck to us all. I'm excited to see this one. The weather should be clear, as early next week the jet stream will be way up above Scotland and this means warm,dry weather from the south (continent) will be sitting right over the UK and Ireland. It will even be warm,dry where i will be at that time.