Perseids 2013

[SnakeyJ]

My ISS Spotter app shows it just passing Montreal now but then hits Europe near Bilbao might be a bit to far south to see it

Quite right Robbie - I hadn't checked the times tonight, last time I saw it I'm sure we got two passes with something like three hours between - Bilbao's going to be a little too far south, even from the IOW !

[foundaplanet]

Seen lots, don't know how many but I counted 9 in about a minute at 1.37 after a good bright one. Only saw 4 good ones though the best being at 1.20 through Cassio.. Packing up and heading home..

[bejay1957]

So tired I only managed an hour between 0030 and 0130; counted 13 meteors - 11 Perseids and 2 sporadics; no fireballs seen from my view.

[Geno]

Saw 30 last night betweem 10:30pm and 01:30am. About 10 of these were WOW but gave up when the DSLR had dew forming on the front element and the fact that I had to get up at 6am for work.

Caught none with the DSLR, either they were out of the FOV or they happened between exposures; typical.

Will it be any good tonight as it's past its peak?

[Jim Steele]

I saw some crackers last night between 11 and 12, I am relatively new to astronomy but really pleased and the best thing about watching them was that no equipment was required just eye-ball mk 1's.

[andrew63]

A couple of bright ones and double pass of ISS.

andrew

[stevend]

Out from 9pm and by 11pm had both children lying on blankets on the grass. 2 x ISS fly-bys around 2130 and 2300 and a great show, several Perseids were truly spectacular. Then after midnight the children went to bed and I was left with wonderful dark skies to get lost in. Got a fantastic view of several targets and M13 was extra -special in my new BST 15mm EP.

[kerrylewis]

Saw quite a few in three sessions from dusk onwards. Withe middle session around 1.30 was the best. Some periods when 2 or 3 visible within a minute or so followed by quieter times. None were spectacularly bright and long lasting with most being short lived and quick with varying degrees of brightness. A few left distinct trails. Worth seeing

[bish]

I sat out from around 22:30 until 23:45. I had to sit in my garage with the door open to see that area of sky. Light pollution is very bad and there was a light haze. I only saw one in that time and then my back and neck started to ache (don't have a sun lounger). Should have gone to a dark site.

[starman1969]

We were at a viewing event in Pilling, Lancs. We must have seen over 50 meteors between us in the 3 hours we were watching. There was a lot of rolling cloud which always seemed to cover at least half the sky otherwise we would probably have seen many more.

I caught a cracker with my dslr. One of the brightest & longest Perseids right through the Milky Way, which looked stunning btw when it opened up.

[journeyguy]

Drove to a darkish dark-site, a big green space although still in the city. Lied down and was treated very well. Started seeing meteors moments after arrival around 11:45pm and stayed until 02:45. Peak times where we saw the most was about 12:30 to 1:30 I'd say. Saw some spectacular ones, long bright white fireballs which left a smoke trail that lasted seconds after. There were orange ones too. Do the colours have anything to do with the objects size or speed I wonder as it travels through the atmosphere? Visibility was so clear last night I could see the faint banding off the milky way!

Great night and thinking about doing it again tonight with some bins. I think someone asked earlier but is it possible tonight could be just as good?

[tom1]

i was out 10:30 till 12:00 must have seen around ten or so, plus the iss

[Peter Drew]

Around 25 of us viewed from dusk to 2.00am. Quite a good display thanks to the good transparency, best between 12.30 and 1.30, several sporadics joining in the fun and two passes of the ISS. Milky Way and M31 easily visible to the naked eye. The rising Pleiades and Aldeberan were a reminder that Autumn is on its way.

[Destris]

super cool photos carl

[acey]

Was mainly using the telescope from 11.30pm to 1a.m. so didn't notice many Perseids. Cloudy from 1 to 2am then some gaps, saw a few though nothing spectacular. Sky became clearer so I spent the remaining time watching for Perseids - there seemed to be increased activity around 3 a.m., when I saw four or five within a couple of minutes (one of which was sporadic).

[JB80]

This was the best one I captured, maybe.

No real bright ones to speak of and I did get a tandem satellite pair flaring too but nothing spectacular.

[starman1969]

So you're a sporadic meteor observer then Jarrod?

Got this one very close to the radiant on Wednesday night - totally by accident, just a single shot, I was trying to get a nice shot of Perseus over the hill. I usually leave the camera clicking away for an hour or two to catch a Perseid, with no luck!

Hope we get clear skies tonight. Think the forecast is better for tomorrow night.

Pete

That is a beauty.

[starman1969]

Around 25 of us viewed from dusk to 2.00am. Quite a good display thanks to the good transparency, best between 12.30 and 1.30, several sporadics joining in the fun and two passes of the ISS. Milky Way and M31 easily visible to the naked eye. The rising Pleiades and Aldeberan were a reminder that Autumn is on its way.

I saw the Pleiades rising low in the northeast too. I wondered what the hell it was because I didn't expect to see them this early.

I thought I was looking at a Magellanic Cloud or something but I know that's impossible.

[Obi Wan]

Stayed up until midnight but still just a blanket of cloud, so I went to bed and set the alarm for 3 as clearer skies were forecast. The sky was beautiful, absolutely stunning... It was so clear. Saw about 10 in 15 mins so went in and got the kids out of bed to have a look and we spent half an hour huddled under blankets in the garden. The boys were very impressed (I had to drag the youngest back in!) and asked lots of questions. A fantastic night.

[nitram100]

2. Not bad for living in the cesspit of London.

[8kids]

I had the kids out late they all saw two ISS passes and saw a "shooting star" and went to bed happy at 10-45. I stayed out until 2-30 ish.

Peak activity for me was around 1-30 showing about 1 meteor a minute....ish. It was nice seeing the pleiades rising, a thoroughly good night was had by all.

[PeteC]

Up in the Yorkshire Dales last night under nice dark skies, the milky way as bright as I've seen it and not even averted vision needed for M31. Out from 11.30 to 3am. Saw about 50 although there was a bit of cloud coming and going to the south. Saw a few fairly bright ones with smoke trails, but not as many as I remember from previous years - saw a Perseid fireball on Aug 7 when I wasn't even looking for Perseids!

A big disappointment though - I left the dslr clicking away at the square of Pegasus for a couple of hours. There were definitely at least 4 brightish ones, maybe mag 0 or 1, 2 with smoke trails, going through the square, but they just show up as very faint trails on the images. I was doing 30 sec exposures at ISO3200 and thought that would be enough to show them OK. Maybe they need to be approaching fireball brightness to show up well?

[starman1969]

Up in the Yorkshire Dales last night under nice dark skies, the milky way as bright as I've seen it and not even averted vision needed for M31. Out from 11.30 to 3am. Saw about 50 although there was a bit of cloud coming and going to the south. Saw a few fairly bright ones with smoke trails, but not as many as I remember from previous years - saw a Perseid fireball on Aug 7 when I wasn't even looking for Perseids!

A big disappointment though - I left the dslr clicking away at the square of Pegasus for a couple of hours. There were definitely at least 4 brightish ones, maybe mag 0 or 1, 2 with smoke trails, going through the square, but they just show up as very faint trails on the images. I was doing 30 sec exposures at ISO3200 and thought that would be enough to show them OK. Maybe they need to be approaching fireball brightness to show up well?

I had that problem too at first. You'd see a nice meteor that you had your camera on, but when checking the image it only shows up as a faint streak.

I bumped the ISO up to 6400 or even higher and then I opened the lens as wide as possible, in my case f2.8. Even then I needed a very bright meteor to make a decent image.

[Manning]

Can deffinately stil see some, I just went outside (around 10:40pm) just to see if the skies were clear, and by pure luck saw a really bright one with Mk1 eye's. Only had an hour to try and picture one last night, with no luck. Seeing what I just saw has pushed me for another go.

[rodrigol]

I just got back from holidays in Spain (around Soria) so I could not post earlier. On August 11-13 I set up my Nikon 7000 with a 10mm Fisheye, ISO 2000-3000 and let the camera intervalometer shoot 30 second exposures for 1-2 hours. There are quite a few meteors and one plane in the shots in my flickrfeed. I've made videos out of the best images. Sadly, I did not manage to get to true dark skies. But if you look carefully and flick back-and forth you will spot them meteors! Here are the links: