2009 November 17: Leonid Meteor Shower
I set my alarm and woke up to find mostly clear skies. It was a crisp but mild November morning. Clouds and haze threatened from the north, but only closed in after I had gotten in 2.25 hours of observing time and counted 64 meteors. I started observing at 2:30am PST (10:30UT). Leonids were active (I counted 36), with a couple of nice spurts and some mind-numbing lulls. The most spectacular meteor I've seen in a long time occurred at 10:54UT, a magnitude -5 Leonid with a terminal burst that changed from blue to violet and left a train that was visible for 10 minutes. Other than that, the Leonids were quite bright but with no other fireballs.
Sporadic rates were OK (a total of 21), and the Taurid radiants each kicked in a few meteors. It wasn't the most impressive observing session, but it was pleasant enough. I'd really like to see the Geminid peak this year...
October 22: Orionid Meteor Shower
I set my alarm a couple of times Thursday morning, and woke up to clouds each time. Finally, at 3:40am, the clouds seemed to be lifting. I dragged myself out to a retreating cloud bank and began observing at 4:00 (11:00 UT). I saw a couple of Orionids and an Epsilon Geminid as I was setting up. Meteor activity was decent, and skies were clear (if a bit moist) except for a few clouds at the beginning and end of my watch. Limiting magnitude hovered around 6.5, a couple of tenths worse than a normal morning here.
I observed for 1.67 hours and saw 70 meteors. Of these, 44 were Orionids for a fairly normal show. The Epsilon Geminids and Leo Minorids each put in 4 meteors, and each Taurid radiant kicked in 2.
The morning was fireball-free, but there was a -2 Orionid and a -1 sporadic/South Apex that was impressive for the way that it shot through the center of my field. Even more impressive were a very slow reddish Taurid of magnitude 0, and a point Orionid that lasted for several seconds.
I would have observed for 15-20 additional minutes, but the clouds came back and ended my watch.
2009 August 11/12 and 12/13: Perseids
I got in two cloud-plagued observing sessions around the Perseid maximum. The timing of the clouds was a bit exasperating, as they kept me from seeing the best of the two apparent outbursts visible from North America this year. Brief highlights below; full reports on the meteorobs mailing list archive (follow links).
- August 11/12: variable clouds, 118 Perseids and 12 other meteors in 2.64 hours of observing time. I saw 2 nice Perseid fireballs. Skies were pretty nice in the clear holes in spite of the moonlight.
- August 12/13: scattered clouds, 85 Perseids and 18 other meteors in 2.59 hours of observing time. Nothing too exciting; due to evening clouds I started observing after the peak of the outburst reported by other observers.
July 27/28 and 28/29: Meteor observations
I got out for an hour and a half Tuesday morning. Skies were OK with just a hint of smoke decreasing transparency. Meteor activity (55 total meteors in 1.54 hours) was consistent and bright with good activity from the Alpha Capricornids and about normal activity from the South Delta Aquarids and Perseids. Sporadic rates were quite high, and the sporadic magnitude distribution was impressively bright (looked more like a shower distribution).
July 28: 0926-1100 UT
Teff: 1.54 hours
F: 1.00
LM: 6.73
Total Meteors: 55
CAP: 7
ANT: 1
SDA: 12
PER: 5
Spo: 30
On Wednesday morning, I got in two hours of observing this morning. The first hour was rather slow. It took almost an hour before I saw my first South Delta Aquarid. I also saw one Anthelion and the only Alpha Capricornid of the morning. Total for the first hour was 18 meteors.
In the second hour, rates picked up and included 10 SDAs. The Piscis Austrinids made a rare showing with 3 representatives. I saw 5 Perseids, versus 2 in the first hour, and sporadic and Anthelion rates also increased. There weren't any spectacular meteors; the best were a sharp -1 SDA and a reddish magnitude 0 PAU. Total for the second hour was 38 meteors.
2009 July 28/29
Interval 1: 0858-0959 UT
Teff: 1.01 hours
F: 1.00
LM: 6.82
Total Meteors: 18
CAP: 1
ANT: 1
SDA: 1
PAU: 0
PER: 2
Spo: 13
Interval 1: 0959-1100 UT
Teff: 1.00 hours
F: 1.00
LM: 6.70
Total Meteors: 38
CAP: 0
ANT: 3
SDA: 10
PAU: 3
PER: 5
Spo: 17
July 24/25: Jupiter and Comet 217P/LINEAR
I did a morning session to observe the Jupiter impact spot. Initially, Io and its shadow were both in transit (the shadow visible and Io itself invisible). The impact site was fairly vague on the following limb, but sharpened up as it approached the central meridian. The site appeared to be elongated E-W and sometimes presented a bipolar appearance with two nuclei. During unsteady moments, or when I pushed the magnification too high, the spot appeared to shrink to a single intense black point. Seeing was average to mediocre, roughly comparable to that on the morning of the 21st. The spot didn't seem to have changed much in size or in ease of detection. During the observation, Io became visible as the bright disc of the satellite approached the darkened preceding limb of Jupiter. This is one of those quiet, ethereal moments of observing, when Io or Europa is transiting a bright zone on Jupiter and then becomes shiningly visible near the limb of the planet. Also of note, at about 3:46am PDT a faint artificial satellite (maybe 9th magnitude and moving at about 0.8 degrees/minute from west to east) crossed my field and actually transited Jupiter.
Before looking at Jupiter, I added to my comet count with a short look at Comet 217P/LINEAR. The comet was in Cetus, and still fairly low in the sky. It was visible at low power as a nearly stellar fuzz. At 114x, it showed a small fan-shaped coma (1.5' in minor axis and extended more or less southward) and a stellar nucleus. Sketch.
July 20/21: Observations of possible impact scar on Jupiter
After reading the accounts on Spaceweather.com, I decided to take a chance on observing the possible impact site in Jupiter's South Polar Region (SPR). I put the 10" Dob out to cool down, rested for a couple of hours, and went out just after midnight. Seeing was initially mediocre, and no fine detail was visible. During steadier moments, I thought I could make out a small dark blotch in the SPR. I wasn't sure until about 12:45am, when seeing improved markedly. I couldn't push the power too far (190x was about it), but that was plenty to see the "dark mark". The spot was closer to the pole than I had anticipated. It appeared angled, with its preceding edge tilted northward. There was a thin dark line trailing the spot, and I wasn't sure if this was part of the spot or just another atmospheric feature on Jupiter. During the best moments, the spot appeared to have a penumbra and to have a diffuse extension southward.
I was so intent on getting a sketch done that I didn't try a polarizing filter until the seeing had worsened again and the spot was pretty close to the preceding limb. The filter put an edge on a white oval that I had suspected, and also brought out ropy structure in the South Equatorial Belt. I wonder whether it would have brought out more detail in the impact spot when it was closer to the central meridian.
Like others, I have fond memories of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts of 1994. This reminded me a bit of that first night and the AH! I got when I realized that the dark spots weren't in my eyes but were actually the A and C impacts that a lot of people didn't think would be visible.
July 17/18
I went out to look for a couple of comets and to observe some events on Jupiter. There was a bit of high haze (and eventually some clouds after midnight), so the sky lacked contrast. Limiting magnitude at the zenith was still around 6.7.
C/2006 W3 (Christensen): I first observed this comet during last year's Oregon Star Party. It has brightened to magnitude 8-9; I think I could detect it in binoculars, but it was involved with some bright field stars. The comet showed a well-defined parabolic coma extended to the south. There was a bright stellar nucleus and some subtle filamentary structure in the short tail. The coma was about 3.5' in diameter, and the tail was about 5' long. Sketch.
22P/Kopff: I first observed this comet back in 1996. This is its second approach to the Sun since then. Some patchy clouds were moving through, and I wanted to catch it before moonrise, so sky conditions weren't the best down in Aquarius. I didn't see the comet at first, but eventually tracked it to its hiding place near a couple of 12th-magnitude field stars. The comet was rather dim, diffuse and small with a visible coma diameter of about 2'. It may have been slightly elongated N-S, but there was no visible tail. The center was slightly brighter, but without a stellar nucleus. Sketch.
Jupiter: Io's shadow had a busy night. First it transited across the disc of Jupiter, then it eclipsed Ganymede. The shadow transit was visible in mediocre seeing at about 12:45am. The seeing improved, and the Great Red Spot was also visible. Unfortunately, a band of clouds came through and messed up the view. Even when they departed, seeing wasn't as good as it had been.
I retired until 4:30am, when I went out to monitor the eclipse. Seeing was OK, but not great. The side of Jupiter on display then was fairly bland except for one looping feature in the North Equatorial Belt. I chose to observe the eclipse with 165x, instead of the 76x that had worked well a week ago, and the eclipse seemed fairly subtle. Ganymede dimmed to about the same brightness as Io or even a bit dimmer (a slightly greater drop than last week), but at the higher power the light drop didn't seem as steep and the minimum wasn't so obvious.
July 15: Io eclipsed and NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS!
I got up to observe Io's eclipse by Ganymede's shadow this morning. Seeing was poor at a quarter after four, and only Ganymede was really showing a disc in my 10" Dob @ 165x. Because Ganymede was closer to Jupiter and more affected by glare, it didn't appear much brighter than Io. Near the start of the umbral eclipse around 4:20am PDT, Io (always a bit warm in hue) seemed to redden a bit, then dull, then dim precipitously. It bottomed out around 4:22:15, about a minute earlier than the maximum eclipse suggested by the predictions I was using. It was maybe a bit dimmer than the two magnitude 9.5 field stars, maybe not because Jupiter's glare made comparisons difficult. Then it brightened back up over the next couple of minutes. I didn't notice the redness as it came out of eclipse.
A few minutes after the eclipse ended, seeing improved tremendously. I had already noted the beginning of Europa's shadow transit, and the presence of the Great Red Spot near the preceding limb. Now there was gobs of detail including a huge disruption or spot/spots near the trailing limb, south of the latitude of the GRS. I started a sketch, but I never finished it. I stopped it abruptly when I happened to look eastward and see...
Yes, a bright patch of Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs) hugging the horizon. My yard unfortunately doesn't command a panoramic view of the horizon, but I could tell that the clouds extended along the entire NE horizon. I walked down my street for a broader view, but already the sky was brightening enough to dim the clouds' luster. I first noticed the clouds at about 4:40; by 5:00 they were seriously starting to fade into the twilight background.
This was my first sighting of NLCs. When I returned to the scope, the seeing had deteriorated again, but I took some looks at the Moon and Venus.
July 10/11: Artificial Satellites and Io's Eclipse of Ganymede
Friday evening, I stood in the somewhat buggy evening with bats swooping around me to get a look at a couple of artificial satellite passes. First, there was a bright flare from Iridium 95. A couple of minutes later, the International Space Station made a pass high overhead and then flared a bit as it neared the eastern horizon opposite the Sun. It was still bright twilight, so I never located the Progress 33 ship that is supposed to be following it.
I got out for half an hour on Saturday morning under a bright waning gibbous Moon, a bit of cirrus (thankfully only near the horizon) and mediocre seeing. Why?
An annular eclipse of Ganymede by Io's shadow. I finished setting up about 10 minutes ahead of time, looked in the eyepiece for a while to get a feel for the brightnesses of Jupiter's moons, and at 2:09am PDT Ganymede started to dim. The light curve seemed pretty steep. I played around with different eyepieces, but I appreciated the magnitude drop best at a medium-low 76x in my 10" Dob. During steadier moments before the eclipse, I had been able to make out the moons' discs at higher powers, but seeing wasn't good at all during the eclipse and I certainly didn't see the shadow march across Ganymede. The whole umbral event lasted four minutes and seemed to fly by; in no time at all, Ganymede was back to full brightness. At maximum eclipse, Ganymede dropped to roughly the same magnitude as Io, but I wasn't feeling really confident in my estimates.
Elsewhere in the sky, Neptune was in the same mid-power field as Jupiter. The Moon, well, the Moon was bright and very detailed although the seeing was rippling the edges. I went for a few colorful double stars and my token deep-sky object of the night was NGC 404 (Mirach's Ghost). I couldn't see it at all with my left eye which I had just used to look at the Moon, but it was immediately visible when I switched to my right.
2009 April 23 + 27: Sun Halos
After my April 22 observations, we had some variable weather including some very cold mornings and some cloudiness. I undertook one short, unspectacular nighttime observing session on April 24, but the sky contrast just wasn't yielding the best deep-sky views.
On the other hand, occasionally the high clouds offered their own diversions in the form of sun halos caused by sunlight being refracted as it passes through ice crystals. I saw notable displays on the morning of April 23 and on the evening of April 27.
On April 23, there was a colorful circumzenithal arc, a "smile" high in the sky above the Sun. At the Sun's altitude, there were the usual bright parhelia or sundogs, with the added bonus of a partial parhelic circle passing from the Sun through the left parhelion and continuing beyond.
On April 27, there was a fainter but more complex and colorful display as I was driving home. Segments of a 22-degree halo around the Sun were visible, along with bright parhelia and a bright upper tangent arc. After a while, the circumzenithal smile appeared, but extending downward from it was a huge, faint supralateral arc, like a misplaced rainbow. Subtle, but absolutely beautiful!
April 21/22: Lyrids and Venus Occultation
I got up at midnight to do some morning observing. The main course was the Lyrid meteor shower, but the appetizer of deep-sky sights was pretty good and the dessert of Venus being occulted by the Moon was definitely a hit.
First, I looked at the clumpy galaxy NGC 4088 in Ursa Major and its 14th-magnitude supernova, nearby galaxy NGC 4085, and some other galaxies in the region. NGC 4088 is a very interesting galaxy. Its nucleus is not very prominent, but there is a central bar with several knots along its length. On each side of the bar there is a dark patch and then a ring-like segment of a spiral arm. The spiral pattern is inferred, but not obvious. The supernova was faint but readily visible near the center of the galaxy. Sketch.
Next, I settled down to watch some Lyrids. I saw a decent display with normal rates and some bright meteors. I started at 2:00am (9:00 UT), and the two brightest meteors appeared within the first seven minutes. The first was a -2 Lyrid that shot overhead, and the second was a Lyrid of at least -4 that had a violet "head" and orange "tail". This fireball streaked through western Ophiuchus and left a persistent train that lasted 3.5 minutes.
There were the normal spurts and lulls, with several dead periods of up to 14 minutes. I think my perception slacked off a bit later in the observation. I ended up with 64 total meteors (37 Lyrids) in 2.63 hours of observing time. The mean magnitude of the Lyrids was a surprisingly bright 1.7; otherwise, it was a pretty normal session.
I have a tree-lined ridge to my east, and that made me wonder whether I would get to see the occultation of Venus. It was pretty close, but by 5:12am the Moon was creeping up through the trees with Venus seemingly in tow: Photo at 5:16am
It was a long wait from 5:19 to 6:15am and the reappearance, but there was a spectacular zenithal pass of the ISS that gave me my best telescopic views yet. Jupiter didn't look too bad in the twilight, either.
At last, with the contrast of the Moon lessened against the impending sunrise, I caught a glimpse of a tiny point of light emerging from the hidden dark limb: Photo at 6:15:39am
That point of light proved to be just the tip of the crescent: Photo at 6:16:15am
Finally, Venus was fully revealed: Photo at 6:16:42am
The surface brightness of Venus was pretty amazing, and of course it was easily visible to the naked eye even well after sunrise.
Not a bad morning's observing!
February 20/21
I managed to dodge clouds once again to view Comet Lulin. The comet was an obvious naked-eye object of magnitude 5.1, with a coma diameter of 21'. In 8x56 binoculars, there was a bright, straight tail (antitail) that reached for about 1 degree in PA ~115 degrees. A broad, faint tail stretched for 20' in PA ~300 degrees. Naked eye limiting magnitude was 6.5.
In the 10" Dob at 36x, the tails appeared much as they did in the binoculars. Some faint structure was visible within both. The coma was bright and more or less round, with a stellar nucleus. A cyan hue was faint but perceptible. The comet's motion was obvious while I was making a sketch.
February 17/18
I got a brief clearing window early Wednesday morning and took a look at Comet Lulin. The comet was immediately obvious to the naked eye as a fuzzball of magnitude 5.3 and over 20' in diameter. 8x56 binoculars showed about a degree of fairly bright, broad tail in PA~110°. In my 10" Dob, the same tail was visible, plus a very faint tail about 15' long in PA~300°. The coma showed a stellar nucleus surrounded by a very bright inner coma, then a large area of even illumination before the edges faded out. There wasn't much (if any) fine structure in the coma. The comet's movement was very noticeable when I stepped away for half an hour to wait out some passing fog.
January 30
I viewed Comet Lulin on Friday morning (it was 15°F in Chiloquin, and felt colder). The comet was easy in my 8x56 binoculars and appeared as a fuzzy 15' x 10' blob with a brighter center. I estimated its magnitude to be 6.7. The comet was not visible to the naked eye.
In my 10" Dob at 44x, the comet showed a stellar nucleus surrounded by a bright coma. The coma was extended PA~90° in a faint, thin anti-tail about 10' in length. A rather bright, broad tail perhaps 1° in length extended from the other side of the coma, centered at PA~300°. There were several faint jets visible in the coma. A magnification of 76x gave better contrast at the expense of field of view.
I also viewed Saturn (rings still tightly closed with the dark ring shadow visible across the globe). Faint belts were visible in both hemispheres, and the north polar region seemed bright. Seeing was average at best and then fell apart.
Other targets for quick looks: M5, NGC 4038/39, NGC 4361, NGC 4565. 90 minutes goes by really fast when you're racing morning twilight.
January 18/19
I've been precessing my observing sessions with the retreating Moon. Tonight I was out from 10pm to 2am. My main observing objectives were to sketch the Flame Nebula and to get a good look at Saturn. While transparency was above average, the seeing was very poor. There was a bothersome breeze and very rapid twinkling that made stars into tiny, angry balls. Luckily, this didn't really affect deep-sky observing at lower powers, so I was able to go ahead and spend maybe 90 minutes sketching the Flame (NGC 2024). This is a classic, picturesque nebula that sits just east of bright Zeta Orionis. At 76x, I was able to put the star out of the field and get a good view of the brightest part of the nebula, although faint tendrils reach right up to Zeta. The brightest part of the Flame is about 20 arcminutes in diameter and is full of dark lanes and complex structure. I slightly preferred the unfiltered view over that with my UltraBlock. Sketch.
I continued an informal hop around the wonders of the winter and early spring skies. It was just pure therapy to be able to scan the Virgo/Coma area at moderate power and watch galaxy after galaxy appear in the field. Other standout views for the night: M94, M106, NGC 4565, M3, M97, M108, M109, M64, M51. It was really, really cold (22F plus the aforementioned breeze). This along with the poor seeing combined to dull my appetite for sketching, so the Flame was the only object I put on paper. Several random meteors punctuated the night. When Saturn was at a decent elevation, I took a look. The rings appeared as a fairly short, thick line. I was occasionally able to glimpse the rings' shadow across the disk, but the air was unsteady enough that I didn't discern any other detail or attempt a sketch.
January 16/17: Comets plus
An extended break in the weather allowed me to get in a couple of telescopic observing sessions this week. After a brief shakedown run on Tuesday (I haven't had the Dob out in a while), I put in a couple of hours on Friday night. While I revisited a lot of old deep-sky friends, the objects I sketched were two comets. Comet C/2006 OF2 (Broughton), a bit of an old acquaintance itself, remains a small and condensed object. It seemed brighter than when I viewed it in late August (now about 10th magnitude), and also has developed a prominent stellar nucleus. The coma was about 1.5' across and appeared slightly elongated to the south. Sketch.
I got a quick glimpse of Comet 144P/Kushida on Tuesday evening, and then made a sketch on Friday evening. On both occasions, there was an 11th-magnitude star in the coma that altered my perception of the comet's symmetry. The comet itself was about 9th magnitude and faintly visble in 8x56 binoculars. In the 10" Dob @ 76x, the comet's coma was about 5.5' across with a prominent nonstellar nucleus. The comet was to the north of the field star, and the coma appeared slightly elongated and brighter to the north, but this may have been a result of the field star competing with the southern part of the coma. Sketch.
On Saturday evening, I scanned some of the winter's deep-sky wonders with binoculars, and then turned my binoculars to Cetus for a pass of the ISS tool bag. The "satellite" was about 7th magnitude and dimmed and brightened at seemingly irregular intervals.
2009 January 3: Quadrantid Meteor Shower
After a couple of months of terrible weather (no Leonids, Geminids or Ursids here), Saturday morning looked pretty promising. I managed to wake up at around 3am and look out at clear sky. Temperature at the start of the observation was 17F (-8C), which is actually pretty balmy for a clear night in January. It dropped a few degrees while I was out there. I didn't see any meteors while I was setting up, which worried me a bit, but I started seeing Quads once I settled into my sleeping bag. After a bit of trouble with my watch and tape recorder, I got things straightened out and enjoyed a spectacular meteor shower on par with the 2004 Perseids.
In 2.63 hours of Teff, I saw 289 Quadrantids and 40 other meteors under nice dark skies. The Quadrantids seemed to be of average brightness. There was a brilliant -5 fireball late in the watch. Most of the Quadrantids appeared pure white to me, although there were a smattering of greens and blues and one red. Only about 5% left notable wakes/trains. I picked up a lot of meteors fairly close to the radiant.
Other minor showers were nearly absent, and sporadic rates were roughly normal. The most notable background activity featured 8 fast, trained meteors appearing to radiate from the Corvus/Virgo/Crater boundary region (South Apex?).
The Quadrantids came in the normal spurts and lulls. I didn't see a sharp peak, although rates were apparently higher in the middle of my watch. The Quadrantids were definitely still going strong well into twilight as I watched the ISS glide by and then dug out my binoculars to see the infamous toolbag (about magnitude 7.5) skip by Eta Draconis.
Observer: Wesley Stone (STOWE)
Location: Chiloquin, OR (42d 35m N, 121d 52m W)
Method: Counting: Watch/Tape recorder
Date: 2009 January 2/3
Interval 1: 1120-1230 UT
Teff: 1.03 hours
F: 1.00
LM: 6.85
Total Meteors: 113
QUA: 94
AHY: 1
COM: 1
ANT: 0
Spo: 17
---
Interval 2: 1230-1333 UT
Teff: 1.00 hours
F: 1.00
LM: 6.76
Total Meteors: 146
QUA: 133
AHY: 0
COM: 1
ANT: 1
Spo: 11
---
Interval 3: 1333-1410 UT
Teff: 0.60 hours
F: 1.00
LM: 6.72
Total Meteors: 70
QUA: 62
AHY: 0
COM: 0
ANT: 0
Spo: 8
Magnitude Distributions:
QUA 1120-1230 UT
-1(3), 0(7), +1(18), +2(22), +3(23), +4(16), +5(5) Total=94, Mean=2.3
QUA 1230-1333 UT
-3(1), -1(4), 0(11), +1(21), +2(36), +3(40), +4(17), +5(3) Total=133,
Mean=2.2
QUA 1333-1410 UT
-5(1), -2(1), -1(2), 0(6), +1(12), +2(14), +3(20), +4(6) Total=62, Mean=1.8
Spo 1120-1410 UT
-1(1), 0(3), +1(3), +2(4), +3(18), +4(7) Total=36, Mean=2.6
AHY +2(1)
COM +2(1), +4(1)
ANT +2(1)
2008 October 22: Orionid Meteors
I got out to observe for just under 2 hours this morning (actually just over two hours, but my tape recorder ate the first 7 minutes of my observation). In that time, I observed 57 meteors, 35 of which were Orionids. The Moon was a thick waning crescent and caused some obstruction issues in the second hour, but skies were still good with limiting magnitude overhead ranging from 6.5-6.7. Orionids seemed to be performing at around their normal maximum rate, which was pretty good for a day past maximum. Other reports suggest above normal Orionid activity (ZHR ~40) on the mornings of October 20 and 21. On those mornings, I had to be at work early and the skies weren't so good, so I didn't make an attempt.
The Orionids were slightly brighter than normal, with a mean magnitude of 1.9. The brightest Orionid was magnitude -2. Sporadics were few and faint, with only 9 counted. Several minor showers were active and produced interesting meteors, including a -2 South Taurid with a purple tinge and a very long Leo Minorid.
2008 August 13: Post-peak Perseids
I pulled one last short Perseid session on Wednesday morning. Still fighting a foggy head, I managed to see 100 meteors including 77 Perseids in just over 90 minutes observing time. Just a nice morning to be under the stars, even though I had some trouble getting myself going at the start.
2008 August 12: Perseids
I had been anticipating this morning for the last four years. In 1996 and 2004, the Perseids had performed spectacularly for me, and 2000 was right up there when I factored in the bright Full moon and the aurora (which was an amazing show in itself). Based on these past leap years, I thought I had the potential to see 100 Perseids in an hour on the morning of 2008 August 12.
Well, it didn't happen. Skies were OK with just a little smoke to drop the LM one or two tenths. I was still a bit weary from my slowly retreating illness, which probably didn't help my perception. And the Perseids gave an OK performance, but just an OK performance. I averaged 66 per hour over 3 hours of Teff. The first hour was OK, on par with last year's nice display, but there were some long dead periods after that. Sporadic and minor-shower activity was down from the previous night, which may also point to lowered perception.
The Perseids were noticeably dimmer than on the previous night; no fireballs tonight. I saw five meteors from the August Eridanid radiant area. Kappa Cygnids were conspicuously absent. My final totals for three hours of observing: 197 Perseids and 40 other meteors.
2008 August 11: Pre-peak Perseids
I was sick all weekend and wasn't feeling so great on Monday morning, but I decided to give it a short predawn shot. In just over an hour and a half, I observed 97 meteors including 62 Perseids. Skies were pretty normal for Chiloquin with a limiting magnitude of 6.8. Luckily, the smoke is out of the way for now.
The highlight of the session was a -6 Perseid fireball that traced a long path before terminating with a bright flash down in Sculptor. Seven other Perseids and two of the sporadics were of negative magnitudes, so there were quite a few bright meteors out and about.
I hope to put in three hours on Tuesday morning.
2008 July 12: Four comets in the morning sky...
and two of them are named "Boattini". I've gotten out under the stars three times in the past couple of weeks. Smoke from fires in California has been a show-stopper at times, but when the wind is blowing the right direction the skies are really nice. Seeing just hasn't been good enough to make Jupiter worth spending a lot of time on given its southerly declination. So, I've gone after comets instead. On July 9, I viewed comets C/2008 J1 (Boattini), C/2006 OF2 (Broughton), and C/2007 W1 (Boattini). On the morning of July 12, I added C/2007 N3 (Lulin) to the mix.
C/2007 N3 (Lulin) in Capricornus was a very small (1' in diameter), condensed object, although it appeared nonstellar even at 44x. At 165x, it showed a stellar nucleus surrounded by a very bright inner coma and a faint and small outer coma. The comet's motion was apparent over a few minutes. Magnitude was about 11. Sketch.
C/2006 OF2 (Broughton) in Perseus was similar, although a bit fainter at magnitude ~12. Its fairly bright central condensation was nonstellar and embedded in an inner coma of about 1' diameter. A faint outer coma doubled the objects diameter and appeared to be elongated toward the SW. Sketch.
C/2008 J1 (Boattini) in Cepheus was a bit brighter (maybe magnitude 9.5-10; I couldn't pick it up in my 8x56 binoculars). This comet was quite diffuse with a coma diameter of about 6'. There was a a broad fan-shaped coma with a faint stellar nucleus, a couple of faint jets, and a suggestion of elongation of the coma toward the ENE. Sketch.
C/2007 W1 (Boattini) in Cetus was a faint naked-eye object on the morning of July 12. I estimated its magnitude as 5.6. The coma diameter in 8x56 binoculars was about 15'. The comet looked round with a bright stellar central condensation in the binoculars. The 10" Dob revealed a nice cyan color. The large inner coma was slightly offset toward the north of center. There was a faint stellar nucleus and the suggestion of several spidery jets. Sketch.
May 5: Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower
I was clouded out Sunday morning (Tuesday morning looks bad as well), but Monday morning was just fine and with a bit higher meteor activity than I was expecting. In one hour (3:40-4:40am local time), I saw 18 meteors including 9 Eta Aquarids. Nothing especially bright showed up, but I was glad to get out under the stars again.
February 28
Wow, what a winter! Neither the weather nor my personal schedule were very cooperative. I got my 10" Dob out for the first time in months. It was a short session. Seeing was absolutely awful, so I didn't spend much time looking at Mars or Saturn. Sky darkness and transparency were below average, but I did view and sketch the slowly fading comet 17P/Holmes and the smaller, fainter comet 46P/Wirtanen. Comet Holmes is still an obvious binocular object, albeit very large and diffuse. The comet is hardly brighter toward the center, and has no real edges. I suspected a faint elongation to the WSW.
Observations from 2005-2007 are now archived.
