Ionisation trails

[Captain Caveman]

Steve, on your newsletter you mentioned about using bins to look at ionisation trials. I just had a look on wikipedia about them but can you explain more from a binocular users perspective what to expect?

I saw 2 nice meteors the other night but didn't even think about putting the bins up to where they had gone, which is I presume what you need to do

On a similar note, how many meteors would one expect to see in a fairly dark sky on an average "non-shower" night's observing?

[BinocularSky]

If you are quick, you can sometimes spot the ionisation trail and watch it distort and break up before it disappears. It gives a bit of a clue about how the upper atmosphere is moving, but really it's just something nice to look at (and, for some, something else to tick off on the "I've seen it" list).

I'm no meteor expert but, for sporadics, it depends on your sky, time of night, and season. In a good sky, around Spring equinox expect maybe 2-4 an hour in the evening, double that if you are observing pre-dawn. This will increase towards the Autumn equinox, by when these rates will approximately double again, then tail off as we come back to Spring.

[Mr Q]

Also, during the summer months, several major and minor annual showers overlap from about June to October. At these times, you may see several per hour or much more during each shower's peak. Search engine meteor showers and see what each month offers. Some lists will include the meteors' color, speed and trail descriptions as well as probability of fire balls (Bolides).