Perseids Meteor Shower

[Mikeaber]

The night of Aug 12/13 marks the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower. This shower, on dark nights (moonless) can yield up to 50 and 60 meteors per hour. Even on nights with the moon shining brightly, an observer is likely to see a few bolides or really bright meteors. I've seen them split into two trails before.

If you happen to be outside at night tomorrow night, sacrifice a bit of time and see if you are lucky enough to catch a falling star!

[Brutus]

scope it out!

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...l_perseids.htm

[KenSmith]

I hope the cloud cover cooperates. We've been socked in with clouds for two straight months here. My new telescope is gathering dust. (And, no, in case you're wondering, a telescope won't help a bit in watching the meteor shower.)

[zengrifter]

Meteor Shower alerts belong in the ZenZONE!! zg

[Mikeaber]

Originally Posted by KenSmith

I hope the cloud cover cooperates. We've been socked in with clouds for two straight months here. My new telescope is gathering dust. (And, no, in case you're wondering, a telescope won't help a bit in watching the meteor shower.)

When you attend a meteor shower, what shampoo do you use?

What kind of scope Ken? I built one several years ago....8" reflector that I ground my own glass for at better than 1/16 wave peak to valley or as near as I could determine with the Foucault tester that I built. The Focal length is 72" (or F9). This sucker is so long that I broke the tube in half and connect the two halves with suitcase fasteners! It's on a Dobsonian mount (civil war cannon type swivel).

It's not fantastic on deep space since the field of view is so narrow, but it kills planetary views! The thing has been in a closet for so long that the coatings on the primary and secondary mirrors are probably corroded and need to be refreshed, but one of these days, I'll drag it out again and shew the spiders out of it. It needs use!

[KenSmith]

In February, I bought a 10" Meade reflector with the full electronics package. It's been a joy so far. You can read more about my experiences here:
Ken's Personal Blog

This is the first scope I've had since a really poor quality one I had as a teenager, and wow, it's nice to discover the night sky effectively for the first time.

[Mikeaber]

10" Meade...what is the focal ratio Ken? Much more than 5 or 6 would really make it difficult to transport. I have a 12.5" mirror that I started grinding and got it down to the polishing stages and sort of gave up on it. Man, there is a WORLD of difference in grinding an 8" and a 12.5" blank! I bought a 13" Coulter from a place down south of Oklahoma City. They sold some astronomical goodies as well as bowling supplies! On the way home from picking up the scope, we had a blowout on I-35. The guy who owned the truck couldn't get the spare tire unbolted and needed some WD-40 to break it loose. We tried for probably a half hour to get someone to stop and render assistance. Finally, I drug the 13" out of the truck and set it up on the Sun with a piece of white cardboard box to use as a projection screen. I guess seeing the image of the sun along with that huge red scope on the side of I-35 finally got a trucker's attention. He stopped and provided us with the WD-40 we needed. I'd let him look at oil derricks with a low powered eyepiece while we changed the tire. He left before we got the tire changed but as we were getting ready to load up the scope, I noticed that the ocular was smoking! He'd left it pointed directly in the sun's path across the sky and when it entered the field of view, it was worse than focusing any magnifying glass! That eyepiece was totally burned up!

Were you observing back when comet Shoemaker-Levy collided with Jupiter? I was glued to the scope during that unbelievable happening! Later that year, can't recall right offhand when but it was early 90's, I was at the Texas Star Party down at Ft. Davis. Supposedly, all evidence of the impact spots (all were dark black!) has disappeared. I was really magnifying the view with my long focal length 8" reflector and noticed something in the upper left quadrant (south west I believe) of the sphere. It was sort of an elongated blur but very faint. There was a guy close to our campsite who had one of those 6" aprochromatic fluorite reflectors that probably cost in the neighborhood of $10,000. Compare that to mine that I'd built myself for a total of about $150! Anyway, this guy zeroed in on the planet with the reflector and after messing with it for several minutes, he confirmed what I'd found. Word spread over the polo field and folks started coming by look at the reflector that had "rediscovered" the impact remnants. First they couldn't believe that an 8" mirror found it and the after seeing the scope, couldn't believe that ANYONE would make an almost f10 8" reflector! It is an ugly booger, but it is effective for planetary work.

[KenSmith]

Mine is a Schmidt Cassegrain 10" f/10. It's heavy, but manageable.

[Mikeaber]

Originally Posted by KenSmith

Mine is a Schmidt Cassegrain 10" f/10. It's heavy, but manageable.

I'd love to turn that puppy on Planets and double stars and clusters! Did you go with the NGP catalog? That device or computerization of the scope was the rage back when I was really into the pastime. Heck, equitorial drive would have been fantastic enough for me, but that's sort of hard to accomplish with a Dobsonian mount.

[sagefr0g]

Originally Posted by Mikeaber

The night of Aug 12/13 marks the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower. This shower, on dark nights (moonless) can yield up to 50 and 60 meteors per hour. Even on nights with the moon shining brightly, an observer is likely to see a few bolides or really bright meteors. I've seen them split into two trails before.

If you happen to be outside at night tomorrow night, sacrifice a bit of time and see if you are lucky enough to catch a falling star!

heh, heh i just went out and looked. we got almost a full moon here. i looked east and north. didn't see anything. which direction is it best to look?
i'll try again tomorrow night.

best regards,
mr fr0g :D