Perseid peak.

[Mr Spock]

Very frustrating here - too much cloud 😡

[johnturley]

14 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Partially clear in Cheshire again last night, tho some thin high stuff around.

Meteorcam captured 44 meteors of which 12 were Perseids 

I understand that the normal sporadic rate is supposed to be about 10 meteors per hour, so based on this the Perseids did not put on much of a display. 

John  

[JeremyS]

10 minutes ago, johnturley said:

I understand that the normal sporadic rate is supposed to be about 10 meteors per hour, so based on this the Perseids did not put on much of a display. 

John  

Difficult to say as it’s not obvious when the clear sky was exactly, nor the limiting magnitude . There were more Pers (and others) captured before midnight UT, whereas rate might be expected to be higher before dawn, but that’s when the sky was getting murky.

[Wyvern]

Screen grab from the International Meteor Organisation. Running live update on Perseid observations.

My radio detection setup has certainly been actively recording meteors over the past week, so I'll have a good look at the results in another 7 days or so. Perseids often have spurts of activity just off the predicted maxima. Time will tell!!

Les

[scotty1]

Mostly cloudy until 2am then a clearer spell from 02.50 - 03.50. Nine meteors seen in that time, six were between 03.30-03.50

Friday night was forecast as clear, when it remained cloudy. Saturday night was forecast cloudy, but did get an hour of mostly clear sky. 

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by scotty1

[Paul M]

Climbed to the top of a silo at my work at about 3am. Good view overhead and to the easterly quadrant of sky. Still lots of industrial lighting but just about the best spot I could find at work.

I looked for meteors for some time but failed.

It's so long, a season nearly, since I looked up at a dark sky, that I took some time to get orientated. I mean, when did Jupiter get all the way back up there!

I nearly put in a UFO report!🤣

[Elp]

Second attempt here:

 

 

[Guest]

I saw a handful of them Saturday night between 10pm and midnight.  

[Mr Spock]

Didn’t see a single one. Well, there’s always next year 😉

[dweller25]

20 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Didn’t see a single one. Well, there’s always next year 😉

That’s what I said last year 🤷🏻😂

[glafnazur]

I had a fair bit of luck, it was lovely and clear on Friday night and I saw 7 and 1 sporadic between 11pm and 1am and 15 and 2 sporadics on Saturday evening between 11pm and 2am. There was a lot more cloud on Saturday night but there were a few good breaks. The best one I saw was the very first one of the night on Friday, it left quite a trail.

[Paul M]

I've always held the belief that, so far as the general public and national press are concerned, the Perseid's are over hyped. 

In my own lifelong stargazing career, I've only had one positive experience with this shower. It was circa 2001/2002 and I was on a Scuba Diving trip to Oban during the Perseid's peak. As with all proper Scuba Diving trips, you dive in the day and drink all evening...

So my Buddy and I got back to our digs after lights out (oops!) and eventually got to our room. I was mindful of the meteor shower so hung out of the bedroom window to have a look. Boy, it was a good sky! And I remember seeing a number of great meteors. Perhaps it was a good year? Good sky? Both?

I probably saw more Perseid meteors in that one impromptu session than in all other years combined. 

[Marvin Jenkins]

5 hours ago, Paul M said:

I've always held the belief that, so far as the general public and national press are concerned, the Perseid's are over hyped. 

In my own lifelong stargazing career, I've only had one positive experience with this shower. It was circa 2001/2002 and I was on a Scuba Diving trip to Oban during the Perseid's peak. As with all proper Scuba Diving trips, you dive in the day and drink all evening...

So my Buddy and I got back to our digs after lights out (oops!) and eventually got to our room. I was mindful of the meteor shower so hung out of the bedroom window to have a look. Boy, it was a good sky! And I remember seeing a number of great meteors. Perhaps it was a good year? Good sky? Both?

I probably saw more Perseid meteors in that one impromptu session than in all other years combined. 

Might have been the drink😂

[andrew63]

Just saw a lovely bright Perseid with trail, heading under Ursa Major 22.51  ☄️

Edited August 16, 2023 by andrew63
info

[andrew63]

 I caught the above Perseid also on My iPhone, luckily before just leaving the frame. It might be after peak, but still putting on a show!

 

[Leo S]

On 15/08/2023 at 00:43, Paul M said:

I've always held the belief that, so far as the general public and national press are concerned, the Perseid's are over hyped. 

In my own lifelong stargazing career, I've only had one positive experience with this shower. It was circa 2001/2002 and I was on a Scuba Diving trip to Oban during the Perseid's peak. As with all proper Scuba Diving trips, you dive in the day and drink all evening...

In all fairness, it's a fine line between over-hyping and under-hyping. The trouble with predictions is that they are not great at predicting rates and brightness, and those two factors can significantly influence how good a shower is.

I think this means any year could turn out good, but it's hard to predict, and most years are just average. So there's no easy way to alert the public without risking disappointment.

The other problem is that when the media publishes a piece, important facts are often lost in translation. For example they'll give an expected ZHR but often don't explain that Zenithal Hourly Rate is highly dependent on your observing conditions, which effectively have to be perfect for you to experience that actual rate. They also don't often explain that rates can fluctuate massively from hour to hour during peak, so to catch something you usually need to be very patient. Over all though, two observers can have totally different experiences, if one observes from a bad site, and the other from a good site, even if they are just down the road from each other.

So I think if you are honest, and want to get the public to get out and have a go, you have to say "it'll probably be average, but there's a chance it'll be one to remember", and if you do that 99% of people are put off, especially with the added challenges of weather/light pollution in this country.

 

On 15/08/2023 at 00:43, Paul M said:

Perhaps it was a good year? Good sky? Both?

I probably saw more Perseid meteors in that one impromptu session than in all other years combined. 

Definitely both. A dark sky makes a huge difference, allowing you to see fainter meteors that you would not otherwise see, and of course against a dark sky, even a relatively dim meteor can look bright/impressive. Generally speaking there are usually many more dim meteors than bright ones, so this can be a significant boost to the perceived impressiveness of a display. If it was also very open there (few obstructions on the horizon), that will make a significant difference too.

So if you have all that already, and a bit of luck with the timing + at least a few larger meteoroids, you'll catch an impressive display.

There is always going to be some degree of luck involved/needed, but you can do things to tip the odds of catching a good display in your favour. I had to look up Oban, and I'm actually a bit surprised you caught a good show up there as the nights are short, but if the timing was just right, then you were obviously in the right place for it.

Given that the Perseids peak in August, I think if anyone wants to give themselves the best possible chance, I would say plan ahead, and take a holiday FURTHER SOUTH, which would give you the best possible chance as the night is longer. Not too far south though since the radiant won't get as high above the horizon, and this will also affect rates. Canary Islands (probably as far south as you want to go), and the south of France would be good choices.

Or, travel to the US in 2028 and there is a chance of a storm of Perseids, although the Moon will be an issue! If you are just looking for high rates there are more predictions I've listed here (scroll down to second post - I made a mistake in the first and couldn't edit). Some may be more worth chasing than others, but the more you chase, the better your odds of striking gold.

[Leo S]

Speaking of the 2028 Perseids, I just came across this from Joe Rao, who is a living legend in the world of meteors - when he speaks I listen:

"Lastly, because recent perturbations by Jupiter are directing old Perseid meteoroids about 100,000 miles (160,000 km) closer to the sun than usual, the core of the broader, "traditional" stream may be shifted closer to Earth's orbit, resulting in a stronger-than-average annual shower. In fact, many meteor scientists now suspect that the Perseids tend to put on stronger-than-average displays at 12-year intervals (12 years being Jupiter's orbital period), and that 2028 is one of the favored years."

[scotty1]

Despite a lot of cloud , I captured a few Persieids. The brightest meteor I saw was on Sunday 6th August, it was out of shot though. 

These are from early hours of the 13th 

 

 

This was 3am on the 15th 

[Leo S]

Nice going scotty. You did well to image those from a suburban environment!

I'm still going through footage from Fri/Sat night, but so far have caught two bright events. I posted the first, a Perseid from Friday night on the "Summer meteors" thread I started a few nights back, but since then it's been formally declared a fireball and an analysis posted on the the UKMON "Fireballs" page:

The second occurred on Saturday, and was a rare bright catch with my upward facing camera, but this was no Perseid!

 

[scotty1]

Two great captures Leo 

On the cloudy nights I was using 10 sec exp. ISO 2000 f3.2 with Tamron 17-50 f2.8 

On the clear night 15 sec exp. same ISO f stop.

As you know If a really bright fireball comes through, you would only need about ISO 400....

Should be some clear skies during in the next few days

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by scotty1

[Leo S]

Thanks scotty.

Any luck last night? I ran cameras all night, but there were not many very bright meteors around, and one camera only caught part of meteor that was perhaps -3 mag. so I didn't bother saving it.

Almost forgot to mention: There was a nice fireball in the SW the night before last. UKMON cameras caught it, but it was behind a neighbor's house from my camera's point of view, although the camera did record the sky lighting up!

Looking like tonight could be clear enough to run cameras, although the forecast has deteriorated since 24hrs ago.

[happy-kat]

I caught something East last night/this morning at 3:05am BST bit looks an iridian flare

[scotty1]

Hi Leo 

There seems to be one or Persieids still around , I haven't set my camera up lately. 

On space weather gallery there is a bright Cappa-Cygnid from yesterday. 

https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=198935

 

[Leo S]

I thought that last bright event I posted might have been a kappa Cygnid, but the radiant didn't quite line up. They are certainly one to watch though - known for producing occasional very bright fireballs.

I was able to run cameras most of the night on Tuesday, but again there was not much bright activity. Tonight isn't looking too bad so should have cameras running later.

[Wyvern]

Hi to all,

Bit late in reporting back on this. Slight "dense user" issue following SGL log in change.

Deffo an interesting Perseid shower this year!! My Heatmaps and graph of activity attached below.
Detection setup was running from 7th to 19th Aug to cover the maximum, which the International Meteor Organisation indicated as Aug 13th 07h UT to 14h UT but with possible enhanced activity from passage through older dust trails.

An update from Radio Meteor Observing Bulletin below,-

meteornews.net/2023/08/20/perseids-2023-by-worldwide-radio-meteor-observations

indicates the detection of 3 separate maxima for the shower this year. (Marked on my graph as M1, M2 & M3 with a further spike at ???). Unfortunately, my system froze for a couple of possibly "vital" hours in the early part of the 15th, running up to this "extra" ??? spike, so I can't see what the shower was doing here. However, my M1, M2, and M3 spikes do tie in nicely with the RMOB results, so generally happy bunny. To my mind, we've certainly had a "prolonged" max for the Perseids, possibly over three nights instead of the usual one