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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Perseids

August 2010

This year, the Perseid meteor shower promises to be a good show for meteor spotters. Already, many have spotted bright meteor trails - days ahead of the peak - and with the Moon out of our skies, will only get better.

We will intersect the debris trail of Comet Swift-Tuttle on the evening of the 12th and early morning of the 13th of August 2010.
The radiant of the Perseids will be to the Northeast, which is good for Chicago Astronomers, since that puts it over the less light polluted area over Lake Michigan...

Although the radiant is coming from the Perseus area, meteor trails can occur anywhere in the sky. It is recommended to bring a reclining lawn chair or blanket and look straight up, using your entire peripheral vision to catch a meteor flash and streak. No optical equipment necessary to observe the meteors...

And...

With the heavy rains of this summer, the mosquitoes are vicious this year and bug repellent is highly recommended.


Where to view the Perseids -

Anywhere there is an open wide patch of sky.

Of course, the darker the skies, the easier it will be to catch the fainter meteors...up to 50 or more per hour. But even in Chicago's heavily light polluted skies, many brighter meteors can still be observed quite easily.

The Chicago Astronomers will spend the night/early morning observing the meteor shower and conducting some telescopic observations at our private Chicago Astronomer Research Site (C.A.R.S), by the lakefront. Attendance by invite.

The weather is uncertain at this point. Some forcasting is calling for partly cloudy skies, some are calling for showers....it's a crap shoot at this point. But eitherway, we will be out.

Bring a radio, some beverages & the bug spray...and enjoy this year's meteor shower event.


---------------------

Also...

the Chicago Astronomical Society is sponsoring a free Persied observation night at a dark site:

Perseid Shower Party and a Reminder!

Reminder: Don't forget AstroFest Sept. 10-12. Registration deadline Aug. 20th. See www.chicagoastro.org for details.
One----
It's meteor shower time...
You're Invited! Bring your friends!
CAS Perseid Party
at Enjoy Flight Park, Clifton/Chebanse, IL
~free for all~
August 11th (raindate Aug 12)
7 PM till Dawn
Bring a chair; even better an outdoor chaise.
Bring a timepiece & pencil if you want to record your observations for the Amer Meteor Society.
Bring a telescope, binocs or picnic foods if you want.
Stay as long as you want... some will stay till dawn if clouds/weather is not an issue.

~RSVP not necessary but helpful~ contact [e-mail]

sunset 7:57... plan to get there before sunset if possible... especially if you are unfamiliar with the area.

American Meteor Society's excellent resource for the 2010 Perseid Meteor Shower : www.amsmeteors.org/showers.html

Directions and Coordinates

Address
3236 N. 700 e rd. Chebanse, IL in-Google-maps

Coordinates
N40°58.57' W88°00.087'

Directions from:
Chicago, IL 73.2 mi – about 1 hour 17 mins
Follow I-94 E 9.8 mi
Slight right at I-57 S 56.5 mi
Take exit 302 0.2 mi
Right at Chebanse Rd 121 ft
Right onto W 1st S St 0.5 mi
Turn left at 3400 N 4.4 mi
Turn left at 700 East Rd 1.1 mi
3236 N 700 East Rd


Champaign, IL 68 mi
I-74 W toward Bloomington 2.1 mi
Take the exit onto I-57 N 55.7 mi
Take exit 293 Ashkum/Pontiac 0.3 mi
Turn left at Co Rd 2600 1.8 mi
Turn right at East Rd 7.0 mi
3236 N 700 East Rd

Highly recommended if you are up for a drive to dark sky country....

[Paulie pchris00]

There is also viewing Friday night in Northwest Indiana for those who wish to see the meteor shower at a darker location.

Information links can be found on the following thread:

astronomer.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Observations&thread=2827&page=1#9849

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The skies are incredible clear here in Chicago.

Oh boy.....Gonna be a great night and early morning for space rock hunting!

Be sure to take some time to see if you can spot any and post back here.

[fawnc]

I'm looking for a place close to Bloomingdale, IL to take my kids to view the Perseid meteor shower...any suggestions?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Fawn,

I do not know of any in that area, but perhaps some of our members can suggest an area.

Sorry.

But we did catch a few meteors right off of Chicago's lakefront early this morning.

Story and pics shortly.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Chicago Astronomers catch the Perseids
- A night early -

11 August 2010

Although that the peak for this year's Perseids is tonight, the 12th into the 13th of August, I arranged for an observation session at Chicago Astronomer Research Site (C.A.R.S), for Wednesday evening into Thursday morning, due to the uncertainty of weather conditions later on.

Arriving on-site just after 11:00 pm, Chicago Astronomer Terry and I set up the site. I bringing along the C11 and he his massive Binoculars on a tripod.

Jupiter was already high with some partly cloudy skies...

While scanning the skies for Perseids, we also took advantage of the transparent skies, with good seeing and low upper atmospheric water vapor - even though it was humid - and sought out objects...

This was Terry's first time on-site and enjoyed the vista the locale provides.

We do Jupiter and find good banding on the planet...

Somehow, somewhere I have misplaced my power supply for the C11, (really bothers me... ), and it was to be an all manual tracking for us this session.

The Jupiter shots came out half decent even with no power...

Andromeda was out of the muck and we take a peek at our closet neighbor galaxy...

With no power, I wasn't going to try and take any images of M31.

We step away from the scope and take in some meteor watching...

We observed a handful of meteors this day-before-peak throughout the watch. One great fireball at 12 midnight was observed....leaving a golden trail.... ;D

I had my parabolic mirror in the van and would make a great opportunity to test it out in capturing trails...

I was unsure if this would work, but the principal was sound. It so happens that several faint Perseids were captured and one bright one...



Starting off, we have Jupiter to the right and Vega to the left.




Down low at 11 O'Clock a faint streak can be seen.



Another faint one at 1 O'clock



Here was the start of a meteor near the center, but the 15 second exposure just ran out.

Damn.

But here is the best shot of the series...



Yay...! #Yay#

The Perseids were not frequent, but always great to catch one!

Terry also tried his hand at some astrophotography....

...while I continued with the C11 and meteor spotting...

While looking over the lake, Terry mentioned if that smudge was indeed the Pleaides. Yep...sure is...

The Seven Sisters are making their showing...meaning fall is not far away...sigh...

Using the 50 Mw laser, it was a cinch to locate the Subaru in the LCD screen of the Canon Powershot S3..

The field of view in the C11 cannot take in the entire open cluster, even with the 2 inch 40mm eyepiece...

Astronomers enjoying a warm night out under the stars....

And the smell of wild prairie grass scented the air nicely...

Now with my new LG Ally Smartphone, not only did I use the astronomical apps, but was the first time I Tweeted and Yelped - sending updates on the session in real time. This will be a more frequent activity of the Chicago Astronomer.

We also compare apps on our smartphones, as the geeks we are. Terry also shared his music playlist and digs the oldies as much as I do and played them thorough our session. Sweet!

Here, we catch another meteor just to the right of the C11 in this one.

With experienced astronomer's eyes, I started to notice the approaching dawn as early as 3:30 am...

And waves of widely spaced clouds made their way over our site...

While searching for meteors, I was shocked to find the shoulders of Orion peeking above the horizon, Taurus high and Gemini close by. We all know what that means.

Winter is coming...and fast...

With Orion rising fast and the sky brightening...our session was soon coming to an end.

In this one, I don't think it's a meteor, but more likely an aircraft...

I try to squeeze every moment of observing from the session...

We also had a spider take up shop on my telescope, eating mosquitoes hopefully... (which were not all that bad surprisingly.)...

With the sunrise just minutes away...we relax and reflect on our very enjoyable six hour Perseid/Observation session on this warm summer night and morning.

(If it's clear again this evening, I will resume the Meteor Hunt... )

[John]

Joe,

You and Terry are intrepid astronomers to brave the bugs and humidity all night long. I wish I could have joined you. I applaud your use of the parabolic mirror along with longer exposure times.

Nice work!

[RobbW]

Hey Joe, are you still heading out tonight for the Perseids peak? If so, let me know. I need directs on how to get to the CARS site.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Robb,

Yes, I'll be heading out again to C.A.R.S tonight, at around 12:00 midnight and staying till dawn.

Call me for instructions before you head out and it will be great to have you join.

John,

The bugs weren't all that bad. We did apply repellent and only the bravest dared to land on us...which found their demise at the swatting hands of astronomers.

And Yay.....I found my power supply!

Why in the hell it was out from the rest of the gear is unknown.

Onward to the Perseid onslaught!

[RobbW]

Sweet, Joe. I'll give you a call. I have to wait until my wife gets back home from a going-away party she's attending for a former coworker. She's fully aware I intend to head out for the Perseids tonight. However, I'm fully expecting the last-minute guilt trip and questioning of whether I really need to go out. If I make it out tonight, I'll probably only stay a few hours. Tomorrow is a workday and an extremely busy one at that. I need to be on the ball. So I'll have to make sure I get home in time for at least a couple hours sleep.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Robb,

We are clear for set up at our Research site and have the area to ourselves till dawns early light.

Concur with Clear Sky Clock and weather forecasts on clear skies and good seeing.

Should be a good session for the Chicago Astronomers.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Two consecutive Perseid Sessions - No Waiting....

August 12th & 13th 2010

54 Meteors Observed

For the second night in a row, The Chicago Astronomers assembled to catch the Perseids at our research site #1 by the lake...and this time there were five.

Setting up at our usual site, we started our session at Midnight with an incredible amount of gear strewn all about the place...

(I risked life & limb to get this shot - set on top of the Van's roof... )

Chicago Astronomer Paulie & Hillary brought along their 6" Dob, 60mm refractor and laptop...

Chicago Astronomer Robb brought his Galileo 4" reflector and laptop...

Robb has made many mods and enhancements to his arsenal...included red light safety lights, foam filled tripod legs and now sports our "Do not Touch" warning badge hanging from his scope...

Sweet!.... ;D


Chicago Astronomer Terry brought along his 10" Meade SCT Monster, massive binoculars and a host of accessories...

And I, my C11 Beast...

This evening was more humid than last night's session. The air was heavy with moisture and soon, our equipment was dripping with dew. My Extended Dew Shield for the C11 (E.D.S) worked beautifully and kept the corrector plate clear for hours and it was only until the last hour of the session that it started to dew up.

Unfortunately, Terry's 10" dewed up quicker, even with his flexible dew shield mounted...

But, he put the Meade through it's paces and worked out the go-to options of the GPS telescope.

We took advantage of observing Jupiter, while prepping to catch the Perseids...and I am impressed on these following shots.

Not only did we observe the Great Red Spot...but caught three Transits during the early morning. Paulie first spotted the GRS in his Dob, but while examining the spot...I noticed that there was a shadow near a limb of the planet...

Zooming in more, indeed it was a transit in progress...but dig the GRS!...

Here, we have two Satellites in the same frame...

Checking Stellarium, good bet that it was Ganymede that was casting the shadow...

And I like the elongated shadows here as I catch the transit as it creeps from the limb...

We all enjoyed the show from our scopes, using filters and the tracking on the C11 working great...keeping Jupiter in the center of the FOV for as long as I left it running. Paulie took some video and I took some vids as well....



Very cool...

I dig the mumblings of the crew, but will remember the crickets during winter sessions...


I have never seen the GRS as colorful as I did last night. It's salmon colored now, but it was very faint just weeks prior to tonight. It's changing color is probably in reaction to the Sun waking up from it's Marauder Minimum. I will bet that the Southern Equatorial Belt will soon be re-appearing too.

After this great Jupiter show, we all settled in to look up and catch some space rocks...although Hillary was keeping vigil skyward while we were at our scopes...and the count was well in the 20's when we all joined in.

Some lay on the ground, others used chairs....I used this low-to-the-ground rocker thingy that allowed me to recline comfortably and observe the meteors.

Don't believe those who insist that you have to go to dark sky country to catch meteor showers. In total, the Chicago Astronomer crew caught 54 meteors, many faint, some bright and few with golden trails. In this shot, one meteor was caught as Orion was rising. I had better luck last night in capturing streaks on camera, as I kept missing the brief events.

We used our lasers to point out where one observed a hit...and they appeared all over the place, not just from the radiant.

As if there was not enough excitement for the early morning, the ISS was scheduled to make two low passes during our time out. I set my Android smartphone to a rooster crow with two minutes lead time...and we caught the space station low in the north...

Not very bright, but cool to catch...

The fall objects were now making their way in Chicago skies...

With the Pleaides and Taurus in this image, cool crisp nights are ahead of us, which always makes for better observation sessions.

While watching for Perseids, I took out the Strat and goofed around with it - playing along to tunes on the MP3 player. The high humidity really did a number on the strings....

It was now after 4:00 am and the sky changing with the approaching morning...

Paulie kept his observations going on Jupiter, but I was dewed over, ceasing any further observations...

I tried to keep the eyepieces clear with caps, but it was a losing battle...one of the worse dewings experienced!

With the City skyline illuminated now, the session was officially over and we break down the site...

But, Paulie still had his Dob set-up and was catching a double transit on Jupiter....

Here, the camera was set to take four shots in sequence...so what the hell...

A great two-hitter, two night back-to-back nights with friends under the stars....

Yay...!

[zeusdammit]

Probably not another night for this eh?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Gerry,

I would say that the Perseid spotting activities for 2010 are concluded.

But Chicago Astronomer sessions never end.

Side note on the after session:

The dew during the observation was intense.

At the end of the session, everything was dew covered and I was concerned about the potential damage the moisture could do, as I was putting wet accessories away and closing up cases. I do have some dissicant packs in the cases, but the items were dripping. I left the corrector plate cover off the OTA to air out on the way home.

As soon as I returned home, I unpacked the van and opened all the cases all over the garage. The C11 and mount were still heavily covered in moisture.

I'll leave them all open for a day and see how things are drying out.

But, I have been thinking about utilizing a portable 12v auto defroster to keep the corrector plate and eyepieces clear.

I'm sure the rest of the crew that night had similar situations.

[Paulie pchris00]

I know the CARS site is closed to the public, but I had been there once before for an observation, and din't think much about getting there early. Hillary and I arrived on site about 10:30 PM Thursday night, and I set up my 60mm refractor to kill some time, while Hillary waited in the car browsing Facebook. Oh, and I called into work to tell them I wouldn’t be in because I had an allergic reaction to something I ate.

Just before getting on Lake Shore Drive, I saw Jupiter already high enough for decent observation, and I wanted to get it targeted right away. Chicago Astronomer Curt Renz had notified us that in the early morning hours, Ganymede’s shadow would fall across Jupiter’s disk, and late in morning twilight, Io’s shadow would transit too. If it stayed clear all night, it would be the first time I’d seen two shadows on Jupiter at the same time. I wanted to try to get images and video of the transits, but I needed my Dob and my computer for that, and I didn’t want to set up any serious equipment until Joe arrived.





The city lights were mostly behind us.


It looks like a private security company operates in the area and few security guards went in and came out around 11, either starting or ending their shifts, and I thought I was going to be left alone until a guy came up and asked what I was doing. I told him we had permission to be there for a private astronomical observation, and he informed me that the entire area was closed, and that nobody else would be let in. He din’t know who Joe was, and even told me that Joe gave me “bad information.” I knew he was wrong, but I didn’t want any trouble, so slowly packed up, and drove down the street to the Adler Planetarium to call Joe. I waited at a meter (even put a quarter in it) and waited, hoping the police wouldn’t show up. Another security guard saw us parked and asked what we were doing. Again I explained that I was waiting for Joe, and that we had permission to be there for an astronomical observation. He didn’t know of Joe either, but said that if we had permission, it was good enough for him, and drove off. I was relieved that the next set of headlights to drive up belonged to Joe’s astromobile. Later, when Chicago Astronomer Terry arrived, he said that he was stopped by the guy who had kicked me out, only the guy didn’t know I was back!

Chicago Astronomer Robb drove in from Elgin, and brought out his Galileo Telescopes 4” Newtonian. Joe of course had his C11, Terry set up his huge tripod mounted binoculars, and I had my 6” Dobsonian. Terry eventually set up his 10” Meade SCT. Hillary was scanning the sky with my 10x50 binoculars. Not a lot of time was spent at the telescopes, but enough that Hillary probably observed the most meteors, since she wasn’t limiting her view of they as much as the guys were.

Once Ganymede’s shadow appeared on Jupiter, I was busy trying to get some rough video, and later observed the Great Red Spot. It’s been so much easier to spot without the southern equatorial belt hiding it this summer. Robb and I compared our views of Jupiter, and I have to admit, his 4” Newt gave a view of the giant planet equal to my 6” Dob, and he has raved about Galileo’s customer service. With the shadow transit and GRS observed and video captured, it was time to stare at the sky for awhile.

Joe put Hillary in charge of counting the meteors, and as a group we observed 54 for the night. I only saw about a dozen or so, having missed most of the early ones while viewing Jupiter. They seemed to peak around 2:30 AM, and pretty much died out after 3:30. Robb had to cut out around that time, and with the lull in meteor action, Joe helped Terry get oriented with his 10” go-to (the damn thing didn’t want to align right), and I went back to viewing Jupiter, and even caught Uranus. Hillary found Andromeda Galaxy and the Double Cluster with the binoculars. We also had two International Space Station passes to keep us entertained, one at 3:22, and another in morning twilight at 4:56. Joe even played guitar to the oldies tunes playing low on the radio. If he was playing by ear, he did a decent job, having only recently picked up a guitar.

The winter constellations were rising in front of us, over Lake Michigan, reminding us that soon we will be observing in the cold, even though we are currently in the Dog days of summer. (I haven’t actually observed Sirius as a morning star yet, though.) It gave me a chance to point out some constellations that were disappearing behind the Sun when I met Hillary. The Orion Nebula was observed, but dew was becoming a problem. No serious observations were lost though, as the sky began to brighten over the Lake. Telescopes and chairs were slowly packed away as we awaited the second ISS pass, and Io’s shadow to fall on Jupiter. Once these were observed, it was time to part ways, since workers were arriving, and we were using their parking spots.









Morning light came way too soon.




Joe helping Terry pack up.


I enjoy our public sessions, but I was glad this was astronomers only. We get so busy helping visitors at the public observations that it's hard sometimes to talk with the other astronomers. But last week we had several hours for conversation, and I enjoyed it.

I was impressed that Hillary stayed up all night with us, but wasn’t surprised that she fell asleep for awhile on the drive back to Indiana. She wanted breakfast when she woke up, so we ended our all night planetary and meteor observation at the same place we started it: Rosewood restaurant in Portage. Perfect.


(The story about our planetary observation in Portage can be found here):

pchris00pnc.blogspot.com/2010/08/planetary-viewing-in-portage-before.html

[mojocvh]

Smashing reports, it's good that a gang got together to enjoy the Perseids.

Have been sent this link, Perseids video, it's quite phenomenal.

Boot it up to full screen sit back and enjoy.

vimeo.com/14173983

Andy B.

[sgcancelli]

Nice , Just joined.
2 questions:
I am a satelite / space junk watcher and have found heavensabove.com to be very helpful.
Before I discovered that site I observed in the night sky about 10 years ago - the satelite type of objects in the sky keeping equal distance from each other moving at the same speed. They did not seem connected as I could see between them. Holding you hand up and three fingers apart represents the distance that they were from each other in the night sky. I wondered if there exists any such space debris with 3 objects.

2nd question:
Who can I send pictures of potential meteorites to for help in identification etc.

Thanks a bunch
Steve

w

[patrickm]

I have seen the shuttle and space station do this very thing either just before or just after docking. It is a cool sight! I miss the shuttle!

Don't know about the second one. You need a geologist for that one. Perhaps a google search or meteorite geology might turn up something or the Meteor Men website...

I think the Odessa (Tx) Meteor Crater museum has a website. From experience, I know they are not terribly busy. Perhaps give them a call.