Perseids Meteor Shower Tonite!!! 12 August 2009


Where it occur

Hi all,
Hope you still able to look this before late and sorry for late notification.
I dont know this is accurate and true or not from my observations...
But no harm to take a try



July 31, 2009: Earth is entering a stream of dusty debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, the source of the annual Perseid meteor shower.
Although the shower won't peak until August 11th and 12th, the show is already getting underway.



Screenshot on Winstar 2.0



For easy identify, Look at the Moon, The moon will rise at 12.00AM ( 13/8/2009 ) and by looking at the screenshot above, I believe you guyz could identify where the Meteor Shower actually occur.


Source : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090810-perseid-meteor-shower.html

After the August 2009 Perseids, the next big meteor event will be the Geminids, which begin in early December and peak close to the middle of that month. With typical peak rates of about a hundred shooting stars an hour, the Geminids always spectacular, experts say.

"Those who miss 13 August 2009 (Thursday Morning) meteor shower may still catch a “lesser version” after midnight Thursday, or early Friday morning." (Resource : The Star Online)


METEOR SHOWER DETAILS

Period / Duration	: 24 July 2009 - 17 August 2009
Peak Date	: 12 August 2009
Peak Meteor Shower Hour	: 11PM ( 12/8 ) - 4AM ( 13/8 ) +8 GMT
Direction	: 30 Degree / 1st Quater - N30E
Meteors/Hr/Observer	: 50-70+
Associated Comet	: Swift-Tuttle
Indecator / Constellation	: Persues & Cassiopeia

How to observe meteor showers
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=5802


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OBSERVATION RESULTS
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Date	13 August 2009
Time	00:00 - 03:00
Venue	Matang Jaya, Kuching
Observers	Chin Ann Ah Jong (Khai Ian)
Meteors Spoted	13

Meteor No.	Chin Ann	Ah Jong	Color of Meteor
1	X		Blue
2		X	Orange
3		X	Orange
4	X	X	Orange
5	X	X	Orange
6		X	Orange
7	X		Orange
8	X	X	Blue
9	X	X	Orange
10	X		Orange
11		X	Blue
12		X	Blue
13	X	X	Orange

Summary of Observations :
Basically we start the observation at a open field behind my house and I spoted the 1st Meteor which is around 1.30am. I though that was an illusion, and whos know Khai Ian saw the 2nd one which i miss out. Along the time we keep observing the meteors and we leave at 3AM

The wired thing we found is from the information I gathered before observation, the Meteor should occur at the spot which in between the 2 constellations (Cassiopeia & Perseus) which located at Degree between North & East. All the meteors me and Ah Jong spoted was occur at at diffrent spots which is in between the Degree of North & West.

From 12AM to 1.30AM, we keep look at the North - East spot until I saw one which occur at North West spot, and i thought that was illusion, but Ah Jong do spot the following meteors at North West too. End up, we spoted all meteors which occur at North West path but not North East path.

This is very wired, Another thing is we cant even capture a single of the picture or record the meteor video cause it fly over too fast and disappear. It only appear the longest at 1.5 Seconds. Besides, the place we go are not totally dark, so is hard to take picture on sky as well.

Anyway, We do enjoy observating the meteors and very excited when we saw the meteors pass by, (Ah Jong says : Neh neh neh, Hip Peng!!!) I think I will have another observation tomorro night and invite more friend to share this experience. This is really valuable experience for me which I actually spoted 8 Meteors in 1 Night.



Here are the place when me and Ah Jong observe those meteors, It is a construction site behind my house which is quite dark. (Red Square = Observation Spot, Blue Square = EMart)



The red arrows indicate the path meteor pass by. From the resource, it suppost to appear at North East Quaters but all the meteors we spoted are on North West Quaters. Wired



I've told my cousin this info and he replied me that he thinks he saw 2 as well.

Date	12 August 2009
Time	10.45PM - 11.50PM
Venue	Sibu
Observers	Gabrial
Meteors Spoted	2

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Date	16 August 2009
Time	01:00 - 03:00
Venue	Telaga Air, Matang
Observers	Chin Ann Chee Shing Marcus Joycelyn
Meteors Spoted	About 20

Summary of Observations :
Althought we spoted about 20 metoers but almost all of them are not that visible.


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Resources / References :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/aug/12/perseids-meteor-shower-stargazers
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/31jul_perseids2009.htm
http://iya2009.com/perseid-meteor-shower-peaks-on-tuesday.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090811/sc_space/strongmeteorshowerexpectedtonight
http://www.wwu.edu/depts/skywise/a101_meteors.html
http://www.wwu.edu/depts/skywise/calendar_current.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/photogalleries/perseids-meteor-pictures/index.html
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/12/nation/20090812181736&sec=nation

Going out to investigate and observation, It is the time now!!!
Wish me luck!!!

Just come back from observation,
Result : Successful!!! 13 Meteors Spoted
More details on 1st post

Currently preparing some new info for tonite observation, hope tonite will get more with correct direction and venue.

I believe tonite will be easier to spot as the moonlight are not that bright (Half Moon tonite)

MISSION FAILED
13 August Night
Due to cloudy sky,
Dont even saw single one Meteor passby...

14 August 2009
Tonight Skies is quite clear and have chances to spot some of metoers

Tomorro night, me and my friend will be going to another darker place to spot them.
Hope the skies tomorro are as clear as posible.

Meteor Shower Online wrote:It is possible to spot five Perseids per hour at the beginning of August and perhaps 15 per hour by August 10. The Perseids rapidly increase to a peak of 50-80 meteors per hour by the night of August 12/13 and then rapidly decline to about 10 per hour by August 15. The last night meteors are likely to be seen from this meteor shower is August 22, when an observer might see a Perseid every hour or so.
Resource : http://meteorshowersonline.com/perseids.html

16 August 2009
Observation Successful!!!
Managed to spot about 20 Meteor with Chee Shing and his friend @ Telaga Air, Matang from 1AM - 3AM

Although we could spot it but almost all are not that visible compare with the peak once.
Maybe is because it is near to the end of the season.

Anyway, I will be waiting for both the next meteor shower

Metoer Shower	Peak Date	Number of Spot (approximate)
Geminids Metoer Shower	12 - 14 December	50 - 80++ / Hour
Quadrantids Metoer Shower	2 - 4 January	40 - 100++ / Hour

Hope there will be more people joinning me the coming Meteor Shower...