My first Perseid...!

[AndyUK]

I know it's the season for them, but tonight was one of those nights when I was hoping to try and hone the imaging skills so got everything set up just in case, but with scudding clouds it was simply impossible.

However, whilst laying back waiting (just in case they blew away!) I caught my first bright Perseid shooting across the sky under Deneb... and over the next 10 mins I caught a further 3 (albeit none as bright as the first).

Must dash though - I need to get outside again... (Note to self: Must check out how to photograph them before next week!)

[Polar Bear]

I know it's the season for them, but tonight was one of those nights when I was hoping to try and hone the imaging skills so got everything set up just in case, but with scudding clouds it was simply impossible.

Just done exactly the same myself but the combination of cloud and orange glow made me just grab the binoculars for 10 minutes and I was rewarded with a really bright Perseid between Deneb and Vega.

The best place I have ever known for meteors is Skye with it unbelieveably dark skies ( more so than Kielder even) Even outside of meteor event times they are plentiful.

It must of been scary in the Stone Age.

Edit: Think it was maybe Seasat 1 between the clouds !

[Polar Bear]

I know it's the season for them, but tonight was one of those nights when I was hoping to try and hone the imaging skills so got everything set up just in case, but with scudding clouds it was simply impossible.

Just done exactly the same myself but the combination of cloud and orange glow made me just grab the binoculars for 10 minutes and I was rewarded with a really bright Perseid between Deneb and Vega.

The best place I have ever known for meteors is Skye with it unbelieveably dark skies ( more so than Kielder even) Even outside of meteor event times they are plentiful.

It must of been scary in the Stone Age up there !

[AndyUK]

Sounds as though we may have seen the same one! I didn't make a note of the time, but it was VERY bright and exactly where you've noted. Lets hope the clouds clear up soon and we get an even better show when the fireworks start proper...

Skye's a little too far away for me (Bath!), as is Kielder, but the darkest skies I've ever seen was in the Maldives - Truly awesome. It was a little weird seeing Orion on its side though... However, I had no kit with me .

As someone else noted on here, the darkest/clearest skies tend to be inversely proportional to the distance from your telescope.

[krs01]

was also my first sight of the perseid,was quite something,spent a good while just looking up and watching the fireworks,counted about 10 in a hour and then the clouds rolled in.

[spike87]

I also managed to spot 3 last night. Really looking forward to the 12th, just hope it stays clear.

[Tantalus]

It was my first clear night for ages, so I went out to a nearby wood and stood in a clearing. It was dark enough to make out the Milky Way, and later as the Moon rose, it was conveniently hidden by trees.

Calsky predicted the Local Hourly Rate to be around 4, but in the space of two hours, I reckon I saw at least 20 Perseids, and a number of others. One of the best was a slow moving one that passed close to z Cygnii, moving in the wrong direction to be a Perseid or k Cygnid, and one of the slowest moving I've ever seen, and around mag -1 to -2. I took my bins with me, but didn't really use them because I was enjoying the meteor show.

I was only supposed to be going out for an hour (work in the morning) but I was having such a good time I was having trouble tearing myself away and stayed until 02:30. And even as I was walking home, I saw one Perseid that was bright enough to outshine the intrusive glow of the orange streetlights down the avenue where I live.

Fingers crossed for next week, and let's hope they're better than predicted.

[Talitha]

I've seen a few of the lovely little falling stars in the last few nights, too.

Hopefully it'll be clear for the peak, i'd love to finally see the shower.

For me, the Perseids are a worse cloud-magnet than a new scope.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I am seriously NOT building up my hopes for a clear night during the shower, although i will see them on the 14th from Lanzarote. I've never seen the Perseids. I've seen the Geminids a couple of times and Leonids, and a few other minor showers.

I LOVE the Geminids.

[nitram100]

I saw a nice bright perseid last night at around 2am going towards Cassiopaea. It was literally as i stepped outside so i am hoping it will be a good show this year.

[torinouk]

Saw my first Persied of the year last night shooting through the Great Bear.

A couple of years ago I was lucky to capture two faint meteors with my camera. This year I'm hoping to get a nice bright one.

[AndyUK]

This year I'm hoping to get a nice bright one.

Clouds permitting (which of course they may not - Apparently there MIGHT be some clear skies round my way on Tuesday pm) I'm hoping to do the same...

I'd like to try and emulate something like this Fred's Astronomy Stuff - Meteors & Meteor Showers - As "Fred" notes, this was taken over 2 nights, but if we do "only" manage one night (if we're lucky), then I guess I can aspire to half this .

Failing that, I thought I might try a timelapse from a straight tripod... No chance of getting anything like this though with the LP around my way (Perseid Meteor Timelapse I Revised: Slower HD Video | Flickr - Photo Sharing!). If I had 2 cameras, it would be fun to try and do both!

[torinouk]

I'd like to try and emulate something like this Fred's Astronomy Stuff - Meteors & Meteor Showers - As "Fred" notes, this was taken over 2 nights, but if we do "only" manage one night (if we're lucky), then I guess I can aspire to half this .

Wow that's an impresive set of meteor photos. Thanks for the link. I've only ever taken straight astrophotos, but now I think I might have to look into seeing how all this stacking malarky works!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Spotted my first tonight. It crossed my FOV while i was testing out the new travelscope.

[Hypernova]

I managed to spy my first one last night also. It darted in amongst gaps in the cloud cover from NE to SE at around 50 degree altitude, was very fast and quite bright, magnitude 0? And was of many different colours.

[bombassa]

Weatherpeople promise clouds here for the next week - and it all seems to come from the british isles.

So kind british people - please stop buying astrogear. I want to see the perseids too!

[AndyUK]

I'm so sorry... We'll do our best!

Tonight's the first totally clear night I've had since June 27th, but it was throwing it down until about 5pm today... Hopefully you'll get my night tonight tomorrow (or the I'm sure the day after will do!), but I'm sure that the folks at the Salisbury start party would rather keep tonight for the next couple of nights if possible - I've really felt sorry for them so far this week...

[simplybob]

Its a nice and clear here in Cardiff tonight, so I went out for an hour and managed to see quite a few meteors.

Also I think I may have saw a satellite but I'm not sure which one. It was about 1:04 BST and travelling in a NE/E direction, in the middle of the gap between Perseus and Jupiter. It wasn't very bright, just looked like a smallish star really. Anyone got any ideas?

[AndyUK]

I spoke too soon... The clouds are just moving in now .

I did see one totally awesome fireball @ 01:53 which left a smoke trail in the sky for a good 10 seconds aferwards , but unfortunately my camera wasn't trained there . And to add insult to injury, having set the camera to take 200x30s, I've just discovered after about 100 that my 12-24 mm lens had fogged and, with the tracking, one of the local streetlights had come into play .

Just taking some darks now (for what it's worth) then I'll get an early night - Hopefully the clouds will stay away for at least one more night and a) I'll travel to a dark site I'll set up earlier and c) I'll only take 10 at a time and check the lens...

Oh well - the fireball was worth it!

[AndyUK]

Hi Bob

Also I think I may have saw a satellite but I'm not sure which one. It was about 1:04 BST and travelling in a NE/E direction, in the middle of the gap between Perseus and Jupiter. It wasn't very bright, just looked like a smallish star really. Anyone got any ideas?

I just had a quick look on Stellarium - Seasat 1 was about at that time, but not in the location you noted... Sorry - I can't really help...

[simplybob]

Andy thanks for the reply. I decided to download Stellarium and have been playing around with it.

I've been adding satellites to it and was wondering which websites TLE data is the most up to date, heavens-above.com, or celestrak.com? The two websites are giving me completely different orbit paths for several satellites, one being the Atlas Centaur R/B.

[Star child]

A few nights ago, i saw a 4 per hour, this morning from 01:12-02:12 BST i saw 10, including one awesome fireball at 01:42 which left a bright trail that lasted about 10 seconds!

I wondered if it was the same one Andy saw but the times are different, it came out of the radiant, well obviously or it wouldnt have been a Perseid! it ended just above Aries.I

also saw a few sporadics.

It had been raining all day but the weather forcast did predict the skies would clear by midnight, i never take the forcasts seriously but this time they got it right, infact the sky was so clear i was able to easily see the milky way and andromeda galaxy from the park near me which is in a fairly large town.

[Ags]

Last night a friend and i sat out on two deck chairs watching for some shooting stars. My friend had never seen a shooting star before, so it was a highlight to see 4 in the space of half an hour. Our eyes adapted to the dark and we could see the milky way for a change (you can't normally see it from our area) including the Cygnus rift. I spotted epsilon lyrae with the naked eye (didn't split it though!) and had a relaxing telescope-free evening. Can't use the telescope anyway because the finder is dead... :-(

Hopefully we will all have clear skies on the night of the 12th for the storm's peak.

[AndyUK]

Having seen so many others reporting a fireball at 01:42-44 in Aries, I just checked my watch (one of those self-winding jobs) and found it to be about 10 minutes fast... So yes, I think we did see the same one - I'll make sure my watch is sync'd in future!

[torinouk]

A couple of years ago I was lucky to capture two faint meteors with my camera. This year I'm hoping to get a nice bright one.

Well it was pretty clear in my garden last night and I must have seen about 20 persieds. Unfortunately I didn't manage to photograph any bright ones. The camera always seemed to be facing the wrong way when a bright one went over!