The Perseid meteor shower — which peaked last week — is one of the most dazzling celestial events of the year. Caused by debris left over from the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle; the meteors streak across the sky— some in a blazing flash of light — before fading into the darkness. A spectacular sight, and one that I had the joy of sharing with many other observers from across the globe thanks to the first ever Twitter Meteorwatch.
During the run up to the annual maximum I spent a couple of mornings making visual observations as well as imaging with the DSLR. Due to the local light pollution, Moonlight and changing weather conditions the results were sketchy to say the least. Nevertheless I managed to catch a bright, but brief Perseid — about -1 magnitude — barreling south eastward from just under Perseus towards Pisces and Cetus. The camera also caught two faint Perseids which you can see below.
Perseid in Cassiopeia: Mouseover the image for more information.
Perseid in Perseus: Mouseover the image for more information.
When cloud cover made visual and photographic observation impossible, I utilised an ordinary FM radio receiver to listen to the ionized trails that the meteors were leaving in the atmosphere high above. This proved reasonably successful with six radio echoes identified over the course of an hour — buzzes, oscillations and distant radio chatter — above the hiss of the white noise.
Thankfully Stenhousemuir was furnished with cloudless skies from August 12th through to the early morning hours of August 13th — the best time to see the meteor shower from the United Kingdom. Between 01:09 - 02:19 a.m. BST I spotted eight Perseids, all with magnitudes ranging from -2 to -1. No doubt I could have perhaps seen more meteors had I the benefit of a much darker setting.
Regrettably the DSLR, which had being firing off 30 second exposures, did not capture anything more exciting than some fetching star trails. A photograph of a bold Perseid would have certainly made a striking prize, but when all is said and done I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to witness this thrilling meteoric display firsthand.
Tags: 109P/Swift-Tuttle, Cassiopeia, DSLR, Perseids, Perseus, Radio Astronomy
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The weather this August has been awful, making it the worst month for any kind of observing where I live. It was such a dynamic month and I missed most of the action i.e. the partial solar eclipse, the annual peak of the Persieds’ meteor shower and then the partial eclipse of the moon. Astronomy can be a very rewarding hobby but it can also be a rather frustrating one to.
Any observing I have had a chance to do (two nights to be exact) has been superb and has been made all the better since purchasing a pair of Bresser 10×50 binoculars. It has been great to cast a more detailed eye once more on Jupiter and observe the orbital cycles of the gas giant’s moons’ Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto. While Jupiter is well placed for viewing, my main focus has been on deep sky objects, or to be more specific M31, M33, M51, NGC 891, NGC 884, NGC 869 as well as the open clusters M34 and M45.
With a completely clear sky and good seeing, Thursday night was one of the best nights I have had all month. I started things rolling by taking a look at the double cluster NGC 884 and NGC 869 in Perseus. This really is a breath taking DSO and one that never fails to amaze me. I spent a long time just sweeping this area of the sky drinking in the rich view. From here I star hopped to the constellation Andromeda to catch a glimpse of the distant M31 galaxy.
This close galactic neighbour resolved to a fuzzy ellipsoid disc that possessed an almost golden hue to it and I could just make out the bright nucleus. One thing that I can never quite get over is the fact that I am looking at a galaxy over 2.5 million light years away. I always catch myself wondering if there is someone on a world in some part of that galaxy looking at our Milky Way and thinking the same thing as me. Quite a bizarre feeling.
Turning my attention from M31 I began the hunt for an object I have never viewed. The M34 open star cluster in Perseus proved slightly elusive but after several minutes of searching, the 10×50s’ resolved the cluster really well and I was rewarded with a good view of what to me looked like an almost X shaped smattering of stars about 0.5° across. M34 aside, for me nothing compares to M45 or The Pleiades as it is better known, which is a fantastic sight, and one that I managed to catch early on Friday morning as the cluster rose over the eastern horizon. Theres’ an almost hypnotic quality about The Pleiades that keeps you glued to it - all in all, a really stunning view and one that I just cannot get enough of.
Moving on from M34 and M45, I began hunting (perhaps over optimistically) for the spiral galaxies M51 and M33 as well as the unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 891. I think I may have spotted them, but they were so faint even when using averted vision. The use of a larger aperture instrument is more than likely needed so I will be returning to these DSOs’ in due course.
Despite my limited success with M51, M33 and NGC 891 I am really enjoying my recent return to astronomy even if the weather is less than perfect. Hopefully as summer fades to autumn I’ll start to get some clearer skies.
Tags: Andromeda, Bresser 10x50, Callisto, Europa, Galaxies, Ganymede, Io, Jupiter, M31, M33, M34, M45, M51, NGC 869, NGC 884, NGC 891, Perseids, Perseus, The Pleiades
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