Alpha Monocerotids meteor shower

[Marvin Jenkins]

I put a heads up on this site about this one as it was going to special..... I feel like I persuaded people to get of bed at dark o’clock in the morning for next to nothing.

I was up and out 4:30, set up the camera, text a few friends to gauge interest. For the first time in over a month I have a clear sky, can’t believe it.

shower peak 5:50 my time and I saw a grand total of six meteors! The expected zhr was 400, what happened? Did anyone else get a better show?

Marvin

[Stu]

Fair play to you for getting up Marvin! Our forecast looked so bad I stayed in bed. I guess with all these showers the ZHR forecasts are just that, forecasts. It just needs them to be out a little way in terms of when the earth hits the debris trail to be the difference between a meteor storm or a damp squib!

[mdstuart]

I had a quick look but only saw one Leonid.

It was however lovely to see the plough overhead and the lovely crescent moon.

Mark

[lukebl]

I was up at 4 am to view the shower. There were a few clear gaps, which increased towards dawn.

But meteors? Zero. Zilch. Zit. Nada. 

I should have expected that, really!

[maw lod qan]

First of all I still offer my thanks for the heads up on this shower! 👍

I've been quite, well I'll go ahead and admit the truth, lazy, with my observing the heavens.

A quick example, just night before last I took the camera out for widefield being the sky was beautiful.

There in the west was an amazing conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. Took a couple shots, then turned to the East which is my better view. As I'm getting the camera ready, I glance overhead to find the ISS passing directly over. 

If I had only taken the time to stay up on things, i could have imaged it right there with those planets!!

Back to the meteor shower. I set up again just at sunset. This time in for the duration. Starting as soon as it was dark enough to image Cassiopeia, I let the camera work while I wrapped up in a sleeping bag in a comfortable lounge chair. 

All together, even with a couple naps, I stayed there laid back looking up from 6:30 till 1am.

Perseverance gave me three very good early sporadic meteors, one I imaged.

Right on time at 11:40 I began to see meteors from the shower. All together I must have seen 20 or even a few more that I could say came from the radiant point. They varied in color and intensity. 

Much later, after I had called it a night, I imaged another very faint meteor.

Out of 2800 10sec images, I scored twice! Many nights it's a total washout, so being I managed 2, I can say Quapla! (Sucess in Klingon!)

As badly as I wish to witness a storm, seeing any meteor makes the effort well worth it. And I saw many more than 1 last night

 

 

[tooth_dr]

I didnt bother getting up due to the forecast.   Sounds like it wasnt great, but still really great to read these reports.  I did perservere with the Leonids on Monday.  Out of 300 DSLR images - I grabbed one meteor!!

[maw lod qan]

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

I didnt bother getting up due to the forecast.   Sounds like it wasnt great, but still really great to read these reports.  I did perservere with the Leonids on Monday.  Out of 300 DSLR images - I grabbed one meteor!!

Like last year, I had 100% cloud cover for the Leonids. 

[Ibbo!]

One solitary ping

 

 

 

[maw lod qan]

I still struggle getting my Canon perfectly focused using only the viewfinder and looking at a image. These are a tad out of focus.

It's easier when I have something bright and distinct like planets.

[Marvin Jenkins]

12 hours ago, Stu said:

Fair play to you for getting up Marvin! Our forecast looked so bad I stayed in bed. I guess with all these showers the ZHR forecasts are just that, forecasts. It just needs them to be out a little way in terms of when the earth hits the debris trail to be the difference between a meteor storm or a damp squib!

I did go back over the original report on Sky and Telescope I believe and they do say debris field is very small I guess earth just skimmed it, not ran right through it.

As for getting out I am motivated, I have not seen a thing due to weather since October 9th.

[Marvin Jenkins]

5 hours ago, maw lod qan said:

First of all I still offer my thanks for the heads up on this shower! 👍

I've been quite, well I'll go ahead and admit the truth, lazy, with my observing the heavens.

A quick example, just night before last I took the camera out for widefield being the sky was beautiful.

There in the west was an amazing conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. Took a couple shots, then turned to the East which is my better view. As I'm getting the camera ready, I glance overhead to find the ISS passing directly over. 

If I had only taken the time to stay up on things, i could have imaged it right there with those planets!!

Back to the meteor shower. I set up again just at sunset. This time in for the duration. Starting as soon as it was dark enough to image Cassiopeia, I let the camera work while I wrapped up in a sleeping bag in a comfortable lounge chair. 

All together, even with a couple naps, I stayed there laid back looking up from 6:30 till 1am.

Perseverance gave me three very good early sporadic meteors, one I imaged.

Right on time at 11:40 I began to see meteors from the shower. All together I must have seen 20 or even a few more that I could say came from the radiant point. They varied in color and intensity. 

Much later, after I had called it a night, I imaged another very faint meteor.

Out of 2800 10sec images, I scored twice! Many nights it's a total washout, so being I managed 2, I can say Quapla! (Sucess in Klingon!)

As badly as I wish to witness a storm, seeing any meteor makes the effort well worth it. And I saw many more than 1 last night

 

 

I had the camera running as well and as far as I can tell I got zip. I have to down load them and look on a decent screen. Hopefully next time it will be the big one.

[Marvin Jenkins]

I don’t know if you get like this, but I thought I would try to interest non astronomers to our past time by talking to a few friends.

I managed to persuade my friend John that this was going to be epic. He has never started gazed, but has an open mind.

4:30am he text me to say he was up dressed and ready to go outside at his location 25k away, I am impressed. He says he is in thick fog so I am expecting the next text to say he going back to the warm inviting embrace of the duvet, but no...

John is going to walk a kilometre out of the village in the dark, three deg above freezing to get away from street lights to the water tower on high ground above the fog!!!
 

He gets there to find that the Orion portion of the sky is clouded out. He didn’t even moan about it, I have had no abuse. Perhaps he should be the next astronomer royal, John you are a gem.

Marv