2014 Perseids

The weather here was great for viewing the Perseids this year, but the waning Moon was very bright. I didn't stay up to watch the show. Instead, I set up the cameras and let them do all of the work. This year's haul wasn't spectacular, but I did catch a few.

I set up the Canon T3 (1100D) on the telescope mount. It caught at least three meteors, but they are very faint because the Moon is just outside of the frame. The best images came from my new fisheye lens on the Canons XS (1000D):

The meteor is a very small streak located on the right, above and to the left of the lens flare near the constellation Lyra.

This meteor is a fireball located to the right and slightly below the center.

This fairly bright meteor crosses the Milky Way through Cygnus.

The following are time-lapse movies that I compiled with the individual frames from both cameras.

And, finally, a star trail image from the fisheye lens. One of the reasons that I like star trails is that they help bring out the natural colors of the stars.

Camelopardalid Meteor Shower!

If you came here expecting to see pictures of Camelopardalid meteors, then you're going to be disappointed. I make no apologies for misleading you. Disappointment is a part of life. If you are not used to disappointment, then you are probably:

• Too young to have experienced how soul-crushingly disappointing life can be.
• Rich, in which case you don't care because you can probably buy what you missed or substitute it with something else.
• Living a sheltered life, where the real problems of the world never reach your comfortable little bubble.
• Indifferent, possibly from watching too much MTV. You are probably a sociopath.
• Oblivious to what's around you, in which case you're probably not even reading this.
• Content no matter the circumstances, probably due to brain damage or self-delusion.

If you fit any of the categories above (except, perhaps, the last three), then feel free to thank me in the comments below for presenting you with disappointment.

The weather was lousy across much of the North American continent, but that didn't matter so much because the number of meteors was far below the most commonly reported predictions.

A brief window opened in the cloud cover here at my place during the predicted peak period, so I went outside with a camera to try to catch a few images and to observe. The window closed about 45 minutes after I went out. My tally was one meteor (that was not a Camelopardalid), an airplane, a firefly and an armadillo (which was on the ground).

Those of us who are used to disappointment often learn to make the best of things. We look for the silver lining, even if that lining is made of highly toxic mercury. We take lemons and make lemonade, even if we have a mild allergy to citrus. At any rate, here are a couple of "false positives" that I identified in the few images I got before the clouds took over.  Both of these are satellites.

Not a meteor. The bright star above and to the right of the trail is Deneb, in the constellation Cygnus.

Not a meteor.  The bright star below and to the left is Vega, in the constellation Lyra.

And here is a star trail image composed of the best images before the clouds got too thick:

Star Trails

If I was a conspiracy theorist (which I'm usually not), then I'd say that the hype behind this meteor shower was intended to entice a bunch of amateur astronomers to stay up late. The theory falls apart, though, because I don't know what that would accomplish, unless it was just some cruel joke. Still, if anyone has any ideas how making a lot of folks sleepy, grumpy and disappointed on a Saturday might affect global affairs, please feel free to post your theories in the comments.

2013 Perseids

I went out to the Sam Houston State University observatory the night of August 12/13 to watch the Perseid meteor shower and try to catch a few on camera. The shower wasn't as active as I'd hoped, and as the night progressed some thin clouds rolled in; but, there were still quite a few really nice fireballs and several fainter meteors. Here are pictures from the event.

Meteors:

Meteor over the dome.

Perseid fireball.

Faint meteor right of center.  The Andromeda Galaxy is the fuzzy patch located to the lower-right of the meteor, just above the power line.

Things that Looked Like Meteors, but were not Meteors:

I got really excited when I saw this bright streak on the camera preview, but after examining the images before and after I found that it was just a satellite. I have not been able to determine which satellite this is. Two more satellite trails are visible a little to the right of the streak at the bottom edge of the image.

I am uncertain about this little streak, which appears above the Milky Way in the constellation Ophiuchus. Its trajectory seems to point back in the direction of the Perseid radiant, but it may also be a flare from a satellite. The image was taken a little before 10:00 PM, which supports my satellite hypothesis since sunlight would still be shining over the horizon at the altitudes where many satellites orbit.

Other Shots:

This is the dome that houses the big telescope. The building to the left is the classroom. The streak on the left edge above the classroom building was created by an airplane's running lights.

There was a break in the clouds right along the line of sight with the Milky Way. I enhanced the Milky Way a bit in this image to bring out the detail.

Mike Prokosch, the observatory administrator, watches for meteors as the clouds start rolling in.

The Milky Way in the vicinity of Sagittarius, and a cloud.

Star trails over the observatory.

Star Trails to the South!

This is the view to the south from my place. The glow in the sky is mostly from the city of Huntsville, Texas. The contrast has been enhanced a bit to eliminate some of the sky glow, but it's awfully hard to compete with all of those prisons and retail centers.

The stars of the constellation Sagittarius dominate the lower half of the image. A few aircraft trails are visible--mostly air traffic from Bush International Airport (IAH). The two short, bright streaks near the top (center and near the left edge) are probably satellites, but I have not been able to confirm this.

This image is a composite of 111 30-second exposures.

Star Trails to the North!

The sky was beautiful last night! The Milky Way was bright, and there were tons of stars! I didn't have time or energy to set up the telescope, so I did a quick star trail before the moon rose.

The object at the bottom of the image is the roof of my deck, faintly reflecting the light of a sodium lamp several hundred feet away through the trees. The colors have not been enhanced. I adjusted the contrast a bit to reduce the sky glow. This is a composite of 163 30-second exposures.

The bright star near the center of the circle is Polaris, the North Star. Contrary to common belief, Polaris is not the brightest star in the night sky. It is, however, the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor.

The straight lines that criss-cross the starfield are the trails of aircraft. Also, there are several hot pixels scattered about the image because I forgot to take dark frames.

Star Trails

This is a star trail image taken from my front yard. The stars are seen here "swirling" around the North Celestial Pole (NCP), which is located near the bottom of the image. The bright star near the NCP is Polaris, the North Star.

Located about one third of the way between the NCP and the upper-right corner of the image are two bright trails that were formed by Kochab and Pherkad. They form part of the bowl of the Little Dipper. The bright stars at the top of the image are part of the Big Dipper.

The light trails of several aircraft and a few satellites are also visible.

This image is a composite of 282 30-second exposures (2.35 hours total). They were combined with a neat little program called Startrails.

Star Trails around the NCP; Canon EOS Rebel XS (1000D); 282x30