Perseids

For the first time in what seems ages, the sky cleared as the sun went down. As tonight is one of the best nights to see the Perseid meteor shower (and with a tent up in the garden, there's no danger of getting the scope out, assuming of course I could carry it anyway) I got out one of the sun loungers, setup the camera on a tripod next to me, lay back with a pair of binoculars and waited.

When I setup, the sky was still light enough to show some blue. And I watched as the sky darkened, the stars started to show. Cassie turned her face toward me, then as the sky darkened further, the great wings of Cygnus spread across me. To the accompaniment of small furry winged creatures... teeny bats whizzing around over the garden.. never noticed them before.

Watching the sky generally, I noticed other things, constellations, Draco, Lyra, Lacerta all showing up nicely. The band of the milky way, a faintly glowing ribbon, delicately connecting Cassie to Cygnus, almost as if the Celestial Queen was trying to capture the swan.

Over the course of an hour and a half I witnessed 9 Perseids, from the quite dim, up to the blazingly bright, leaving an incandescent trail across the sky behind it.

One in this skimming the bottom of Cassie


One in this passing just over M31


Two in this, both starting at the centre, one up to the corner, and one below it.


11 Satellites including a spectacular Iridium flare, at last a magnitude -6. I caught this one, it's actually a composite of two images, of course, the timing of the shots on the camera and the flare were not in sync.



and a seperate flare, not an Iridium though


The camera was set to jpg, so I might have a go at a couple of things, an animation and a trails.

I also, with the viewing of some autumn friends had a wander around with the bins, reaquainting myself. M31, and I was amazed at just how easily I found this one, M103, the double cluster and the Mirfak association, amazingly clear, all of them, given how low down, and the slight mist glow at those altitudes. I had a look around for the owl cluster, but I'm not sure a pair of 10x50's cut it. I also had a wander around Cygnus just lost in all those stars...

I really enjoyed that, the more so, given the total lack of opportunity over the past couple of months. It's got me thinking about what I want to achieve over the Autumn and Winter.