2011 Perseids

[Chris Peterson]

Everybody's favorite meteor shower is upon us. Even though the Moon interferes this year, it should still be worthwhile going outside after midnight and watching the sky. Just duck behind something so you are in shadow.

I've caught 99 Perseid meteors on my allsky camera over the last four nights. I'll continue to add new images over the next few days if the weather cooperates and I continue to collect meteor images.

20110808-Perseids.jpg

I've also got a report page posted here, which includes some fireball videos.

[Chris Peterson]

Up to 121 Perseids over the last five nights.

20110809-Perseids.jpg

[luigi]

Hi!
Hope it peaks on friday/saturday I'll try my luck from the Southern Hemisphere. I'm really jealous of you guys up North.
Perseus rises at about 3am and is not really high in the horizon but I can't lose anything by trying.

Wish me luck this weekend!

[Chris Peterson]

Hi!
Hope it peaks on friday/saturday I'll try my luck from the Southern Hemisphere. I'm really jealous of you guys up North.
Perseus rises at about 3am and is not really high in the horizon but I can't lose anything by trying.

Wish me luck this weekend!

Good luck!

If you look at the images posted, you can see where the radiant is. And the farther the meteor from the radiant, the longer its path. So while having a low radiant will reduce the total number of meteors you see, it also means you'll see Earth grazers and generally long events. So it's definitely worth the effort to watch.

[Chris Peterson]

Up to 167 Perseids, and the activity looks like its starting to take off.

20110810-Perseids.jpg

[Chris Peterson]

Only added another 25 last night, bringing the total to 192 over seven nights. It looks like we had some thin clouds or light fog for a couple of hours before sunrise, which with the Moon cut the detection rate way down.

20110811-Perseids.jpg

[Chris Peterson]

64 bright Perseids last night, even with the full Moon. That brings the total since August 4 to 256. (I remove non-Perseids and the Moon from these composites).

20110812-Perseids.jpg

[owlice]

Perseid over Yosemite Valley
http://www.AstroPics.com
Copyright: Wally Pacholka

PerseidMeteor-YosemiteValley-ElCapitan-3712-1000wp.jpg

Perséid Fisheye
Copyright: Philippe Moussette

1Z7B7060.jpg

[neufer]

Only added another 25 last night, bringing the total to 192 over seven nights. It looks like we had some thin clouds or light fog for a couple of hours before sunrise, which with the Moon cut the detection rate way down.

So what kind of trees are those off in the east, Chris?

Have all your meteor pictures over the years been taken from the same spot, and, if so, what spot is that?

[Chris Peterson]

So what kind of trees :tree: are those off in the east, Chris?

Mainly Ponderosas. There might be a Bristlecone or two as well.

Have all your meteor pictures over the years been taken from the same spot, and, if so, what spot is that?

Yes. The camera is and always as been mounted at the end of one of the slide-of-roof rails of my observatory.

[Chris Peterson]

The Perseids peaked this morning, and I caught 105 of them on the camera, even though the conditions weren't very good (full moon, poor transparency). Here is a composite of just the Perseids from last night:

20110813_peak-Perseids.jpg

And here's the cumulative composite, showing all 361 Perseids since August 4.

20110813-Perseids.jpg

[owlice]

Perseids!
Copyright: Mavroudakis Fotis

image stack-1.jpg

[Chris Peterson]

The nights following the peak have been pretty cloudy, so I didn't add more events to the composite. But I did go back to the original data and filter out everything that didn't occur between 2am and 4am local. That left 122 Perseid meteors that occurred with only a small movement of the radiant. The result is an image that really emphasizes that radiant, and the fact that the trails get longer for meteors farther from it. I think it makes a nice illustration of the dynamics of a shower.

2011-Perseids-Radiant-0200-0400.jpg

[luigi(fromfield)]

Chris,

Thanks for the Info. Which direction is south in your diagram? Can you guesstimate the number of meteors that would have been visible at latitude 35 south?
I tried on friday night from 4am to 6am but only got one small candidate of a faint meteor. Saturday was cloudy.
I´m asking this to be able to estimate what can be seen and photographed from my location as there´s absolute nothing about the Perseids from the South Hemisphere.

Thanks!

[Chris Peterson]

Thanks for the Info. Which direction is south in your diagram?

0° is north, 90° is east, 180° is south, and 270° is west.

Can you guesstimate the number of meteors that would have been visible at latitude 35 south?

Not many at all. The Perseid radiant just grazes your northern horizon, so at most you might catch a few Earth grazers.

I´m asking this to be able to estimate what can be seen and photographed from my location as there´s absolute nothing about the Perseids from the South Hemisphere.

The Perseids are pretty much considered a northern hemisphere shower, although people down to about 20° south can still see a fair number of meteors.

[luigi(fromfield)]

Thanks Chris.
I hoped to get some earthgrazers but I was unlucky.

The Geminids are also fullmooned this year. Too bad to be in the South Hemisphere for meteors grrrr!

[gscratch]

Sorry it's taken so long to offer this one up - we had a tough observing night for the Perseids this year (with the full moon arrgh.)

Only a few images from up here in the great 'almost-white' north. Honestly - we were begging for snow given the hatch of mosquitos that we had to endure for just two images of fireballs. Sometimes you eat the bar...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scratch/6046798993/in/set-72157601903447657/lightbox/#/photos/scratch/6047348234/in/set-72157601903447657/lightbox/