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Posted by: djellison Nov 19 2006, 07:38 AM

I set up my 400D doing 30s exposures every 34 seconds, F3.5, ISO 800, fully wide ( 18mm*1.6 so 29mm equiv ) when I went to bed - it took 247 exposures looking east, from 0027 to 0257 before the battery packed up in the cold of the conservatory. I figure I was capturing 88% of that period of time on film...a total of 132 minutes of exposed time. They're great images...you can watch Leo slowly rising - M44 is very visible - getting stars down to 7, 7.5, maybe 8. Not the ideal pointing, but the best I could do from the conservatory given that I wanted to keep everything inside....a few banks of light cloud popped through every now and again, but overall, I'm fairly sure any Leonid that I would have noticed by eye I would have seen on 'film'.. I know I didn't 'get' the peak....but even 5 per hour would have seen me get a couple at least...

I have ONE streak on film....and it's not a Leonid.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/IMG_0107.jpg ( scaled to 50% )

I think the Lion had a night off, and I know Stu didn't fair much better in Kendal.

Doug

Posted by: Stu Nov 19 2006, 09:30 AM

(cue cheesy American tv link voice)

... that's right Doug; here in Kendal, I set my alarm for 4am and woke to the sound of rain lashing against the window so hard I thought the glass might actually break. The rain stopped at around 04.40, dead on the predicted time of the outburst, but the sky was thick with light-polluted orange cloud until 5am, when finally some gaps appeared large enough to lure me out into the freezing cold. I squelched my way across the park into a dark spot and looked up to see Leo - with Saturn shining within it - in a clear area of sky... and waited...

... twenty minutes later the clouds broiled back in, covering Leo and the sky, so I squelched home again. Total Leonid count? 1. I did get the impression that there were a few fainter ones sparkling away just beyond my direct vision, but that might have been optimism and frustration rubbing together in my head causing friction to keep me warm against the cold, I don't know. Either way, the Leonids of 2006 were a bust for me. No roaring Lion, not even a whimpering tabby.

Roll on the Geminids in mid-December - much more active, much more reliable, and the activity kicks off mid-evening, not at Ridiculous o'clock...!

Posted by: Sunspot Nov 19 2006, 09:45 AM

I only saw 1 lol

Posted by: MahFL Nov 19 2006, 03:02 PM

I did not see any in NE Florida either.

Posted by: MizarKey Nov 20 2006, 04:47 PM

This is exactly why I don't get excited about meteor showers.

I don't even remember which shower it was, but it was one of those that 'peaks' every 66 years or something and was predicted to peak like it only does every few hundred years. I live in a valley and the valley was completely fogged in. Just after midnight I drove 15 miles in thick fog to the nearby foothills, but the height wasn't quite enough. So I drove another 5 miles and finally got high enough to see clear sky. Despite wearing several layers of clothing I still froze my a$$ off while treated to a paltry 20 meteors in an hour.

Never again! I'd rather be delighted by the occasional sighting serendipitously than to actually plan to see something that doesn't manifest.

Posted by: Stu Nov 21 2006, 12:03 AM

I know what you mean, and I've thought that way a few times myself... but then I remember the build-up to the 1998 Leonids, when the "experts" predicted there might be a decent display, so I trotted out at 2am to find shooting stars skating regularly out of Leo, skipping across the sky like stones across a great black pond... then it went quiet just as it clouded over, so back inside I went... I came out again at 5 when I spied semi-clear sky out of my window and then I saw them - fireballs, one after the other, vomiting out of Leo like emergency flares. I stood there, watching them falling - one every couple of minutes, or so it seemed - just open-mouthed. They were visible even through the cloudier patches of the sky, and as the sky brightened so that all the stars faded away the fireballs just kept coming... I'll never forget it. My observing report even got mentioned in SKY & TELESCOPE.

And I'd have missed all that if I hadn't planned, so I always try, at least.

Posted by: nprev Nov 21 2006, 10:01 PM

Actually, I always liked the Perseids when I was a kid. Western Montana has some nice, clear, DARK skies, and I'd usually see a few hundred or so every year. Plus, it was usually way too cold outside by the time the Leonids came around!

Once I saw a mag -6 (at least) fireball zoom into the bowl of the Big Dipper & explode...the glow lasted at least a minute...unforgettable!!!:)

Posted by: Aberdeenastro Dec 6 2006, 03:42 PM

I'm a bit late catching on to this thread. My wife had a baby a month ago (number 3) and I'm afraid even UMSF has to take a back seat for a while.

We had a fantastic clear night in Aberdeenshire after 11:30 pm on the 18th Nov. I watched from about midnight to 1 am, catching a dozen or so Leonids. I also watched from 4:30 am to 5:30 am (on the 19th) to catch the predicted peak and counted 22 Leonids. This was slightly less than I expected, but not too bad. I think the true ZHR would have been about 50-60, but I haven't seen any official counts.

Let's hope for better luck with the Geminids next week.

Aberdeenastro

Posted by: Aberdeenastro Dec 14 2006, 11:55 AM

Well the Leonids might not have been up to much, but the Geminids have certainly put on a show.

4 members of Aberdeen Astronomical Society (including myself) counted 350 Geminids between 9:20 pm and 12:20 am on the 13th/14th. Great show!

Aberdeenastro

Posted by: ustrax Dec 14 2006, 12:09 PM

Congratulations to you and your wife!

May your 3 babies prosper and witness all the wonders to come in the future.

Posted by: Tesheiner Dec 14 2006, 01:45 PM

While/after changing the baby's diapers?


Congrats! BTW, I have three too.

Posted by: AndyG Dec 14 2006, 04:21 PM

Very embarassing in the Central Belt - rain, cloud and more rain over Glasgow. The only Gemnid I'd've seen would have been the lucky one that penetrated my umbrella.

Andy, contemplating building an ark.

Posted by: Aberdeenastro Dec 18 2006, 01:02 PM

Thanks Ustrax and Tesheiner for the congrats. Don't talk to me about diapers. Let's just say the wall near the changing table will need re-decorating....

Our group Geminids total is now in and comes to a staggering 652 separate meteors. We counted out loud as a group, so none were counted twice. Here is the breakdown:

9:20-10:20 pm: 60 Geminids (3 observers)
10:20-11:20 pm: 135 Geminids (4 observers)
11:20-12:20 am: 155 Geminids (3 observers)
12:20-1:20 am: 150 Geminids (2 observers)
1:20-2:20 am: 100 Geminids (2 observers)
2:20-2:50 am: 52 Geminids (2 observers and increasing cloud)

This ties in really well with the peak that is showing up in early reports on the IMO website (http://www.imo.net/), where a peak ZHR of 110 has been recorded at 1 am. ZHR is defined as being for a single observer (you're not really supposed to combine the counts of more than one person), but the peak rate of 110 agrees quite well with our observations. The peak seems to have been a few hours early.

Sorry AndyG - have you considered a move to the east coast where we get marginally better skies?

Aberdeenastro