Anyone got clear skies for the Perseids?

[David Smith]

Raining here  and supposed to be the same tomorrow. Gutted, all the decent weather we have had over the last 6-8 weeks and both the Lunar eclipse and Perseids have been clouded out. I should be used to it after almost 30 years doing this stuff but 

Hopefully some of you have a long night of meteor watching ahead of you.

[John]

Cloud and rain here as well David. Tomorrow does not look to great either.

I was supposed to be doing a solar outreach session this afternoon then watching the balloons go up from the Bristol Balloon Festival but neither could happen.

I'm sure somebody, somewhere will see some persieds tonight though.

 

[Dragon_Astro]

At the moment the forecast is clear until midnight, then the cloud and rain rolls in.

Could all change by tomorrow morning though lol

[Stargazer33]

Cloudy tonight; rain forecast for tomorrow and 90-100% cloud cover tomorrow night.

Why am I surprised? ???

[SIDO]

Was clear here last night til the ground fog moved in as the temps dropped around midnight, was able to catch Mars with a noted increase in detail using the achro before all was left was the veiled sucker hole overhead but that fuzzy hole did produce about a dozen of the brighter Perseids. Supposed to be clear again tonight, the scopes have dried and the optimism is high ?

[djpaul]

Rain in Northampton too. 

[emadmoussa]

Heavy raiiiiiiiiin here... !!! 

[mcrowle]

100% cloud and rain here in Cornwall too.

The forecast for tomorrow night is at least slightly better, with maybe broken cloud. I have an early start on Monday, but I plan to look out for a while. Good luck, all!

Regards, Mike.

[Ouroboros]

4 hours ago, mcrowle said:

100% cloud and rain here in Cornwall too.

The forecast for tomorrow night is at least slightly better, with maybe broken cloud. I have an early start on Monday, but I plan to look out for a while. Good luck, all!

Regards, Mike.

Some prospect of some clear on Monday night in north Cornwall. Apart from that the long term forecast is  cloud until 21 August.  

[Beulah]

Managed to get out on Friday night and took a blanket up the mountain to watch the Perseids for a few hours...saw a few smokers but generally quieter than previous years. Good job we took a few 10x50s with us so we could view some other objects!

Clouds have been forecast during the peak days of the meteor shower. Ah well.

[Nyctimene]

Blessed (cursed?) here in SW Germany with an extremely long hot and dry weather spell, that will continue at least for the upcoming night. Was out this morning from 02.00 to 03.15 CEST and spotted naked eye (but with restricted field of view from the garden) within 30 min 7 Perseids, most of them really bright (+2 mag to -2 mag) with trails of up to 25°, and fast. Four more during the next 30 min, when I observed 21/P Giacobini-Zinner with the 8" f/4. Little change during the last days; about 8.3 mag, coma diameter 4 arc min, DC 5; nucleus, but no other coma structures visible at 133x mag. Short, broad tail of 8 - 10 arc min to the SW.

Two years ago, I spotted during the maximum's night (13.8.16) 71 Perseids within 2 hours, 40 of them from 01.30 to 02.30, bright and fast (as Perseids go); so I'm hoping for tonight; good luck for all of us!

Stephan

[SIDO]

The fog rolled in after midnight again only worse this time so 2 Perseids was it before I decided to call it done, did get an opposition like view of Saturn and a couple miscellaneous dso early with plans for Mars but it arrived at the meridian with the water vapor. Try again Sunday night maybe I'll do better on the third attempt ?

[Nyctimene]

Was out this morning from 01.30 to 03.00 CEST. NELM 5.6, SQM-L 21.0, so average conditions. During the following hour, solely dedicated to the Perseids, I observed 29 of them, + three sporadic meteors. Typical Perseids; travelling fast; rather bright with most of them in the range of +3 mag to -3 mag (one even brighter with a trace of 10° for several seconds). Given the restricted field of view (barn/church buildings and a 100yr limetree close by) a satisfying haul, and not far away from the 2016 values, obtained then with a free 360° field of view. 

Comet 21/P Giacobini-Zinner was visible with 7x50 and 10x50 binos, even with 8x40, as a faint, but readily visible smudge. The Vixen 2.1x42 were unable to reveal it. - The attempt to find the Helix nebula in Aqr with the 130P failed despite UHC filter (perhaps too tired already).

Thanks for reading.

Stephan

[Manning]

Is the viewing any good a day or two out from the peak, since it was so bad weather Sunday morning, and had work Monday (it was still bad then anyway), I have the opportunity to try and see something tonight/tomorrow morning as I think there might be some clear patches, anyone had experience watching a day or two after peak in previous years?

[Nyctimene]

14 minutes ago, Manning said:

Is the viewing any good a day or two out from the peak, since it was so bad weather Sunday morning, and had work Monday (it was still bad then anyway), I have the opportunity to try and see something tonight/tomorrow morning as I think there might be some clear patches, anyone had experience watching a day or two after peak in previous years?

The so-called "Zenithal Hourly Rate" (ZHR) number of Perseids, during the maximum of about 100-120, will decrease rapidly after the shower's maximum last night down to about 20 and under for the next nights. Under average conditions, that means 8 to 12 observable Perseids per hour; still a respectable number. I'd give it a try anyway (preferably this night), considering that the moon is still absent - and the Perseids give an impressive view, many of them really bright. Good luck with the hunt!

Stephan

[mcrowle]

Sunday night's forecast was more hopeful than Saturday, but I had an early start for work Monday.

It was almost entirely cloudy when I went to bed, but I set an alarm for 02:15, as most forecasts had a clear period locally somewhere around 2 - 3am.

Sure enough, at 2:15 the sky was around 90% clear. I started seeing Perseids immediately, including a beauty of about magnitude 0 nearly overhead. However, after just 5 minutes the cloud started to close in and soon it was 100%. I waited another 20 minutes, but with no sign of another break in the cloud I went back to bed!

So, my result: about 5-minutes viewing and 4 meteors! Perhaps next year...

Regards, Mike.

[happy-kat]

I've set the gorilla tripod up with kit lens at 20mm in the spare bedroom facing east and focused as best I could for infinity. Later when I go to bed I'll start the intervalometer off on a 2 or so hour delay to start once the street lights are off (one is 15 feet from window) then take a 20 second exposure with 10 second interval until the battery is flat. Pot luck chance.

[Stub Mandrel]

38 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I've set the gorilla tripod up with kit lens at 20mm in the spare bedroom facing east and focused as best I could for infinity. Later when I go to bed I'll start the intervalometer off on a 2 or so hour delay to start once the street lights are off (one is 15 feet from window) then take a 20 second exposure with 10 second interval until the battery is flat. Pot luck chance.

Pretty much the same idea here

[andrew63]

It's a clear night here, and saw a few bright meteors with nice trails while comet watching.

 

andrew

[Phil Fargaze]

I was out camping with a group of families and friends this weekend Friday to Sunday, and managed to see three meteors Friday night ( clear all night) and two Saturday night (cleared after midnight) and tonight back home, I`ve just seen two in the space of five minutes before it clouded over. Quite good considering the local light pollution of suburban London. It was great to be able to get some of the non astro campers to see some meteors, and for some of them it was their first sight of a meteor! Of the ones I saw on the camping trip I was simply standing about talking and not doing a dedicated vigil. This gives me the impression that this years shower has been rather active than previous years or otherwise I was just lucky. I`ll see when the results get counted!

[Hallingskies]

Just seen two perseids, between 23.00 and 23.10, and between the clouds.  First was a first magnitude job zipping through Aquila, reddish and left a faint smoke trail.  The second was blue/white, second mag, close to Delphinus.  Blink and you miss ‘em....

[mcrowle]

Was beautifully clear here, at least until around 11:15pm. I set up for some Milky Way pics, with a piggybacked camera, while also watching for the Perseids. I saw several, including 2 or 3 bright ones.

Sadly it's now cloudy, and I'm up for work at 06:30, but I'll look out for a little longer in case it clears again .

Regards, Mike.

[Stub Mandrel]

Set up a camera from 9 to 6 ish. Got lots of stars and then some clouds.

I did a battery change about 1:30. I did see one big fireball, directly overhead and definitely 'brighter than Venus', so my count for four days is two meteors, but at least one was a biggy.

The radar detection has been a resounding success.

[happy-kat]

I haven't seen any by eye and I've yet to sift through the 399 photos I took from 1:10-4:30 when the street lights went out. Look forward to seeing your radio data.

[Stub Mandrel]

14 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I haven't seen any by eye and I've yet to sift through the 399 photos I took from 1:10-4:30 when the street lights went out. Look forward to seeing your radio data.

I'm posting it in this thread: