Shooting Star!

[RonVen]

Yesterday night (Monday), I was looking randomly at the stars. All of a sudden I saw a shooting star. It didn't stay in the telescope's view very long (20mm eyepiece) and by the time I looked up at the night sky (unaided by the telescope) it was gone. Is this a common occurrence? Are there portions of the sky where this happens more frequently? I was looking Northwest at about 10:15 PM - EST.

Ron

[Schorhr]

The same happened to me about a week ago!

There's a chart on german Wikipedia how much hits us each day:

5 metric tons of shooting stars (-4 to +6 magnitude; 1mm-10mm, 2mg-2g)- so 5 million would be a number. Plus the smaller, darker ones that are still visible in a telescope ("telescopic meteors" 20t, micro meteors 1000-10.000t!).

The english article states "Millions of meteors occur in the Earth's atmosphere daily. Most meteoroids that cause meteors are about the size of a pebble. Meteors may occur in showers, which arise when the Earth passes through a stream of debris left by a comet, or as "random" or "sporadic" meteors, not associated with a specific stream of space debris"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid#Meteor

There are many if earth crosses a comet's path;

Popular events such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids will be a shooting star firework :-)

[Mattscar]

You'll find that because you are now paying attention to the sky more, you will notice alot more of these. On my second night observing I counted 5 Meteors and a fireball i the space of 30 mins. The sky is alot busier than people think

[scuffer]

Could have been a satellite , look up iridium flares - there is a website that will tell you when these occur but I haven't got it bookmarked on this pc , as Mattscar says , you will see quite a few of these , I've also seen 3 fireballs in a year though 2 were on 1 night. The ISS is another to look out for .

[DMA]

There are so many satellites up there now that you don't have to stare at the sky for long to see one.

[ronin]

There is a minor shower in Cephius at the moment, says about 8 an hour, so if you were looking towards that it could have been one.

There is a list of meteor showers in Wikipedia, chcl the date and if we are due one then you should see a few "coming" from that constellation, that therefore would be the best chance of seeing one in a scope.

For meteors it is often best just to sit back and look at the constellation, even binoculars would most likely be too narrow a field of view.

[RonVen]

The same happened to me about a week ago!

There's a chart on german Wikipedia how much hits us each day:

5 metric tons of shooting stars (-4 to +6 magnitude; 1mm-10mm, 2mg-2g)- so 5 million would be a number. Plus the smaller, darker ones that are still visible in a telescope ("telescopic meteors" 20t, micro meteors 1000-10.000t!).

The english article states "Millions of meteors occur in the Earth's atmosphere daily. Most meteoroids that cause meteors are about the size of a pebble. Meteors may occur in showers, which arise when the Earth passes through a stream of debris left by a comet, or as "random" or "sporadic" meteors, not associated with a specific stream of space debris"

http://en.wikipedia....eteoroid#Meteor

There are many if earth crosses a comet's path;

Popular events such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids will be a shooting star firework :-)

Thank you. Your sites were really good. There's a lot of activity that I never realized. Thanks again. Ron

[RonVen]

You'll find that because you are now paying attention to the sky more, you will notice alot more of these. On my second night observing I counted 5 Meteors and a fireball i the space of 30 mins. The sky is alot busier than people think

You'll find that because you are now paying attention to the sky more, you will notice alot more of these. On my second night observing I counted 5 Meteors and a fireball i the space of 30 mins. The sky is alot busier than people think

I think your right. The more time I spend behind a telescope, the more I see. I guess that's why stargazing is so addictive. Thanks again. Ron

[RonVen]

Could have been a satellite , look up iridium flares - there is a website that will tell you when these occur but I haven't got it bookmarked on this pc , as Mattscar says , you will see quite a few of these , I've also seen 3 fireballs in a year though 2 were on 1 night. The ISS is another to look out for .

Thanks. Very good info. Ron

[RonVen]

There are so many satellites up there now that you don't have to stare at the sky for long to see one.

I'm learning how true that is. Thanks. Ron

[RonVen]

There is a minor shower in Cephius at the moment, says about 8 an hour, so if you were looking towards that it could have been one.

There is a list of meteor showers in Wikipedia, chcl the date and if we are due one then you should see a few "coming" from that constellation, that therefore would be the best chance of seeing one in a scope.

For meteors it is often best just to sit back and look at the constellation, even binoculars would most likely be too narrow a field of view.

I guess the random stargazing makes it more fun. Thanks for the info. Ron

[LukeSkywatcher]

What i love about spotting a metoer on a night when there is no meteor shower due is the thought: "Am i the only person alive on this planet that saw that meteor flare up for a second before it vanished forever?".

[Mrlangston]

The best website I have found for satellites and flares is www.heavens-above.com and there is a dedicated ISS page for all the sightings. It is worth a look if you are planning a viewing session or to check what it was that you saw earlier!

Michael

[martiandictator]

I was out astroimaging last night and saw three shooting stars during the 3 hours I was out. Seeing them in the solitary darkness of rural countryside was especially pleasing. Felt magical.

[bingevader]

Yep, always a delight, never fails to bring out a Weyhey as one unexpectedly passes overhead!

The number of satellites that pass through the field of view whilst observing is becoming alarming though!

Cheers

[faulksy]

the area that the metorites come from are called the radiant thought you might like to no this

[Flash2Bang]

I was looking at Saturn the other night and a starlight travelled across the view right to left. I wondered what this was and was told that it was a satellite. That was my first time ever looking down a scope, so either I was lucky or its really busy up there as you say!

[Mattscar]

Get used to seeing all sorts of things drift infront of you. My most was 3 sats and a meteor in the same fov in the space of 30 seconds.