The Perseids August 12, Allens Pond

PERSEIDS UPDATE - MONDAY - AUGUST 13 - 8 PM - As we saw it!

Spaceweather,com, which receives reports from around the world. wrote of this year's shower: "Meteor rates were lower than expected, but in recompense the display was spiced with many bright fireballs."

That fits our experience exactly. There weren't many, but there were a lot that were very bright - certainly brighter than Jupiter. A fireball is defined as a meteor that is brighter than about magnitude -3. Accurately judging magnitudes of meteors is very f difficult, but In two nights - perhaps three total hours of serious observing - I would say I saw 3-5 fireballs. Others I've talked with had the same experience.

PERSEIDS UPDATE - MONDAY - AUGUST 13 - 8 AM - POSSIBILITIES

Update - 8 am Monday - Miss the Perseids? Try again tonight. There still should be some around. Last night was beautiful - exactly opposite of what was forecast! The forecast for tonight (Monday) is mixed, but take a look and see what the skies are doing any time after 9 pm. We watched until nearly 2 am, so I do NOT have plans to observe tonight and the Sanctuary is CLOSED at night except for special, posted events like watching the Perseids last night. But any where the skies are clear and its dark, you should see some Perseids tonight.

Next event - half a total eclipse of the moon for early risers. Go here for details.

Last night, despite an almost totally cloudy sky at 8 pm, more than two dozen people came to the Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary parking lot in Dartmouth, MA and enjoyed views of the Perseids, Jupiter and its moons, the WIld Duck Cluster, the Milky Way and several prominent constellations. Most came about 9 pm whent he skies were starting to open up and we could easily see Jupiter even through the veil of thin clouds. By 9:15 it was goregeous, with the full impact of the Milky Way and Perseids on display. Although most people left by 11, at 1:15 am there were seven of us there to enjoy a spectacular ending. Well, the shower isn't over, it's just diminishing now - but what a cap to last night's viewing!

Jim Braga was looking north, I was looking south, and the others were looking every which way. Suddenly Jim said "Wow!" Now at a meteor shower you hear that often and you always turn your head to see what it's all about and it is always too late - the meteor has gone. Npt this time. This meteor was so bright ( at least -5) and moving so majetsically over at least 50-degrees of the northern horizon that we all saw it! Very spectacular. Very unusual. Certainly the best of a night that included several spectacular meteors.

Jim and I did a dedicated observing session from about 11:05 until 1 :30 am and saw 37 meteors, of which all but five or six were Perseids. I expected to see more given the clear, magnitude 5, skies and with the shower radiant high in the north east - but what we saw was wonderful and worth the lost sleep. Hey it's fun just to be out in the country, lying in a comfortable chaise lounge, and looking up at the universe. The meteors are a bonus. By 1:30 the clouds that were there at 8 pm came back, which was a good signal to pack it up, although I'm sure it got clear again later.

PERSEIDS UPDATE - SUNDAY - AUGUST 12 - 5 PM - Still IFFY

Update - as of 5 pm Sunday, the forecase for tonight (Sunday) remains iffy at best. But we may get a break, so I'll be at Allens Pond starting at 8 pm, There's actually a forecast that calls for clear skies right near the peak of the shower between midnight and 1 am. That's cutting it awfully fine, but who knows. - So I'll be ready for another try for the Perseid Meteor Shower - we'll be observing at Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary.

With fingers crossed ....

PERSEIDS UPDATE - SUNDAY - AUGUST 12 - 5 AM - FORECAST POOR

My morning missive:

Good morning:

What I mean by "forecast poor" is two things.

1. The forecast for tonight is for clouds to roll in before dark and for the skies, at best, to be murky. So the chances of seeing Perseids are slim. But . . .

2. Last night the forecast was dead wrong - very unusual for the Clear Sky Clock. The forecast called for nearly ideal, clear skies. We got those, but they steadily closed down between 9 and 10 as clouds marched in from the north. By midnight it was a bit better, but hazy. I got up at 3:30 this morning and 80 percent of the sky was clear, so I was able t observe..

Given this poor track record, maybe the forecast will be wrong for tonight. Let's hope. The Clear Sky Clock can taketh away - let's see if it can "giveth." ;-)

Meanwhile, Tuesday night is looking like a good possibility for clear skies without a moon and so an excellent time to focus on your August observing tasks if you haven't done them yet. Stay tuned. Might even be a leftover Perseid or two ;-)

Bottom line: I'll go over to the Sanctuary on schedule tonight - be there by 8 pm - and with the best display of optimism I can muster - but right now, I don't think it's going to be very good. Check back about 5 pm for another update.

I saw one exceptionally bright Perseid last night - about magnitude -4 - around 9 pm as I was showing a half-dozen people Jupiter and other objects in the telescope. I didn't have a chance to look for more, but a few other people saw some and Ben, using a night vision device that allowed him to see fainter objects, reported seeing nearly a dozen. This morning, in 40 minutes of observing from my deck, I saw 6 Perseids and one stray. One Perseid was distinctively yellow. But part of my sky was cloudy and part blocked by buildings and trees, since I was observing from an upstairs deck here at home. I have no doubt that given clear skies there would be significantly higher numbers tonight - but as I said, I have doubt about us getting clear skies.

I was reading recently about a Conn. businessman who got bored when he was 50. He had made a fortune and he invested it in a superb telescope - I mean, big-time, professional instrument , which he had erected on Kitt Peak where our national observatory is. (he also went back to school at Columbia and earned a PhD in astrophysics while his telescope was being built.) He spared no expense to make this an ideal scope that could adjust to changing atmosphere conditions a thousand times a second. (They call this "adaptive optics.") But he noted that despite all this effort and expense and his mountaintop location, he is still shut down by clouds quite often. "It's very humbling," he said.

Got that right!

"And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything." - William Sakespeare

Greg Stone

Driftway Observatory
http://www.giveyoujoy.net/awe/

PERSEIDS UPDATE - SATURDAY - AUGUST 11 - 7 AM

Right now it's looking good for observing both tonight (Saturday, August 11, 2007) and tomorrow night. Here's an email I just sent out:

Good morning:

As I write the dawn has lightened a crystal clear sky and there is a promise of excellent observing tonight, and with any luck, tomorrow night as well - though I expect more humidity then. The main feature will be the Perseids meteor shower, already underway, but likely to get better until it's predicted peak at 1 am Monday morning. You, your friends and family are invited to join me at the parking lot of Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary tonight or tomorrow night (or both) for a variety of astronomical fare, but particularly just sitting or lying under the stars and watching as some of them "fall."

OK - no star is falling - but you know that ;-) What will fall is little grains of dust, left over from a passing comet, and now crashing into our atmosphere and burning up long before they reach Earth. This is the annual Perseid meteor shower and it looks like we've lucked out - no moon and clear skies are predicted! If you think you'll attend, it will help me if you just send a brief reply to this email. I'll put weather updates, as relevant, on my Web site at:

http://www.giveyoujoy.net/awe/

But there's more than the Perseids on tap. What's on the agenda is this:

I plan to set up at 8 pm tonight and starting at about 8:15 we'll be able to observe the planet Jupiter and it's four bright moons.

At about 8:30 pm we may see an Iridium flare, a sudden, bright reflection of sunlight off the panels of one of our communications satellites.

By 9 pm we'll be naming the bright stars as they appear and picking out a few easy constellations to give you your bearings. We'll also have a couple telescopes trained on some bright stars of special interest. We also may get a glimpse of the International Space Station, low in the north west. The astronauts will be watching the Perseid meteors as well - but we'll be looking up at them, they'll be looking down!

By 9:30 we'll have made a search for the asteroid Vesta and we'll be able to look at the Lagoon Nebula, a place 5,000 light years away where right now stars are being born.

And the Perseids? Well, they're here. I was out at about 4:30 this morning and saw two in about 10-15 minutes. What a great morning! Mars was high in the East sandwiched between the Pleiades and Taurus and directly overhead I could see the Great Adromeda Galaxy with my naked eye, even though it was 2.5 million light years away! But that's what you see in the morning sky - the evening sky has differrent treats and the main one that stretches through the whole night will be the Perseids.

The Perseids will start slowly and build up as we near the predicted peak which is tomorrow (Sunday) night just after midnight - yes, that's Monday morning and if you're up to it, this meteor shower is better in the four hours or so of darkness we get between midnight and sunrise. Nature doesn't come with guarantees and I find meteor shower predictions generally overly optimistic, so I try to be realistic in my estimates. I expect from 9 pm on tonight we have a good chance of seeing some Perseids and after midnight they could be coming at a rate of one every five minutes. By tomorrow night I would expect them to be more intense and to peak at 1 am Monday when we should be seeing - assuming clear skies - one meteor every two minutes - maybe a meteor every minute - maybe even a bit more.

This is an especially good year to view this annual meteor shower because the moon will not be interfering, as it frequently does. We're near, or at. "New Moon" which means we're very lucky if we get even a glimpse of it right near sunrise, or just after sunset. That's good. The moon is beautiful, but it's light tends to drown out the fainter meteors.

It should be reasonably warm, but be sure to bring mosquito repellant and assuming you will be lying down and looking up for a long time, a thermos of warm beverage is handy as well as a blanket. (Long pants and long sleeves are also advisable to keep the bugs away and a chaise lounge or mat, can make it much more comfortable to lie back and look up for long periods of time.) Flashlights are OK, but should be red, or covered with red cellophane to protect your night vision and the night vision of those around you. Binoculars are fun for looking at the Milky Way and some other objects, but for the Perseids you want to just keep your eyes open and look at as much sky as possible. A star chart is helpful, but not needed - a Perseid may appear just abut anywhere and be gone before you have a chance to point it out to someone else.

I don't have a clue how many people to expect, but if there's a crowd you may have to park down near East Beach and walk up to the Sanctuary parking lot. The parking lot itself is relatively new and few people know where it is. It's on the East side of Horseneck Road - the Dartmouth side - and between the Bayside Restaurant and East Horseneck Beach. The headquarters is a small house, the only one on that side of the road and the parking lot entrance is about 200 feet south of the house. The parking lot itself is not visible from the road. Of course you can enjoy this from your own home - the advantage of the Wildlife Sanctuary is dark skies with little interference from artificial lights and a clear, 360-degree horizon.

(I've attached directions. The satellite view, while showing the small house, does NOT show the parking lot near it because the parking lot is new.)

How long do you stay? Up to you. I expect to be there most, if not all, of the night. You should plan on at least an hour.

Greg Stone

Driftway Observatory
http://www.giveyoujoy.net/awe/

"And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

- William Shakespeare

I've been developing a new series of programs called "Serendipitous Sidewalk Astronomy," drawing, of course, from the concept developed by John Dobson and many other folks. These are going to be done in cooperation with Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in South Dartmouth (well, almost in Westport). I've made a couple of "proof of concepts" effots there, and have permisison from the Sanctuary to use the property any time . It's a terrific location - dark skies and 360-degree horizon The first real program will focus on the Perseids meteor shower. Here's the announcement:

When: Sunday, August 12, 2007, 10 pm-to-3 am!

Where: Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary headquarters parking lot

What: The Perseids is one of the two best meteor showers of the year, and this year's event should be especially good – weather permitting - since there is no moonlight to interfere.

How: No experience needed! You observe meteors simply by sitting – or lying – and looking up. Critical items: cover-up with blanket or sleeping bag, long pants, and long shirt, not just to keep warm, but so you don’t give the mosquitoes anything to feed on; mosquito repellant; a RED flashlight only. (White light ruins your night vision, as well as that of others.)

But given the changing weather, how will we know . . . Check the Driftway Observatory Website home page for updates on observing conditions and plans, right to the hour if necessary. Go to: giveyoujoy.net/awe/

Extras: A lounge chair, beach chair, or something of the sort is nice. Binoculars can make it more enjoyable, but are not necessary. If you have some, bring them.

Come early to see Jupiter – From 9 pm – 9:45 pm there will be a special program, "In the footsteps of Galileo." This begins at 9 pm promptly and include a brief overview of what Galileo saw when he turned his telescope towards Jupiter and what his discovery meant to our world view. You will have a chance to view Jupiter and its moons through a small telescope, modified to use the same size lens and power that Galileo used, as well as with a modern telescope.

Do I really have to stay up all night? No. But we do recommend you stay at least an hour. The shower is predicted to peak at 1 am, so that's when the most meteors will be visible. (Perhaps one a minute!)

Can't I just observe this from my home? Yes. But Allens Pond offers very dark skies with little light pollution, a full, 360-degree horizon, and guidance from an experienced observer.

What's it cost? Nothing, but we urge you to share your enthusiasm by putting something in the handy Allens Pond Sanctuary donation box. We'll be glad to help you find it, even in the dark ;-)