Perseids tonight

[2hats]

Clear last night, if a little chilly. Saw 6 bright meteors in under 15 minutes, close to midnight, from a slightly light polluted location in central England. Saturn and Mars (quite red) easily visible too.

e2a: current observations support increased activity this year. Friday night into Saturday morning may well be the peak.

Smoke trail of a large Perseid fireball seen over the NE US last night:

 

[not-bono-ever]

something bright wooshed over me tonight in the direction of herne hill- I know it was probably like Miles up, but it did seem to skim the house. well impressive

 

[ska invita]

Sadly cloudy here in my bit of London
I did instead watch Independence Day 2, so ive had my fill of space alien invasions for tonight

 

[DotCommunist]

I was bangout. Set a phone alarm for 2 to see what I could see and slept right through it. Next year my burning angels

 

[Signal 11]

Just seen 9 in about 20 minutes before it clouded over again and got a couple of photos.

 

[Vintage Paw]

There has been nothing but cloud all night long here. Really disappointed. It's been years since I've seen any decent meteor activity.

 

[clicker]

Sat on beach until 3am and they didn't disappoint.Counted and wished on at least 15 of the beauties. Apart from the perseids, the stars looked amazing, so many clusters .

 

[Celyn]

I am very very envious. for me. And for you!

 

[pogofish]

Closed-in totally here last night.

 

[Fez909]

I'm going to Wales on Wednesday. Any chance of seeing them then? Leeds is way too light.

I've never seen a meteor before

 

[Signal 11]

I'm going to Wales on Wednesday. Any chance of seeing them then?

Not sure about perseids by that time - there might be some but a lot less I think. Normally at a good site you'd see a few random ones at any time of year if you're out there for a couple of hours, especially after midnight. The Moon will be full on Wednesday though, which won't help. It wouldn't stop you seeing a bright one if one came along, but I wouldn't bank on seeing any. If you're interested enough to spend some time out there looking at the constellations you might get lucky though.

 

[2hats]

Spend an hour sitting out any night of the year under clear skies and you'll see at least one sporadic meteor.

 

[2hats]

As per usual the Perseid meteor shower, which delivers more fireballs (magnitude -4 or brighter) than any other, is about to peak (technically predicted for 2000BST tonight, but that should be ignored).

Follow the assorted advice above; watch from after sunset tonight through till dawn tomorrow, sit back in a deckchair on the lowest rung or lie on something cosy on the ground so you can drink in as much of the sky as possible.

Unfortunately the recent full moon (rising around 2300BST) will hinder viewing somewhat this year. Activity in the UK will tend to appear to peak after moonrise, through till dawn. Try to shield yourself from the Moon ie sit in moonshadow; not only will meteors close to the Moon be ‘washed’ out but their paths will tend to be foreshortened anyway - the more spectacular trails will often be away from that part of the sky.

(above: green Perseid caught yesterday in skies over Japan, illustrating the dispersing smoke trail.)

Occasionally you may see other fainter, slower meteors from the concurrent Delta Aquarid-S and Alpha Capricornid showers (or just sporadics - there are typically several of those every night).

Note the Perseids actually last for weeks (it is just that it has a strong maximum for a few days, ie this weekend) and it would be worth looking tomorrow night into Monday morning as well if clouded out tonight (the main weather models ECM/GFS/WRF NMM suggest clear skies for most parts of the UK tonight and then cloud moving in late Sunday with only central/SE England tending to stay clear into Monday morning).

Added bonus: solar activity is picking up driven by a solar coronal hole. Worth glancing north on the off chance of aurora over the next 24 hours.

 

[twentythreedom]

Currently sailing round the south of the Isle of Wight, really beautiful clear night, seen a few already

 

[Voley]

Perfect clear evening for it down here at Lands End. Fingers crossed.

 

[2hats]

Plenty of very bright ones (-4 or better) here in Devon with lingering trails. Also seen a couple from the other showers plus usual spy satellites, spent rocket stages, etc. Beautiful night.

 

[Voley]

First one!

 

[twentythreedom]

Plenty of very bright ones (-4 or better) here in Devon with lingering trails. Also seen a couple from the other showers plus usual spy satellites, spent rocket stages, etc. Beautiful night.

Yeah I saw a satellite too

 

[Voley]

Just come back in as it's getting a bit nippy. Saw 11 all in all. Some were higher up and looked like your usual shooting stars but two were lower in the sky and looked yellow/more fiery and left a smoky trail. Ace. Never seen ones like that before.

Might pop out for a bit more later.

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

Was all set with my sleeping bag on a deck chair; saw a few and was waiting for the big display when it started to pelt down rain.

Back inside now and heading to bed.
I've the alarm set for 4 am so I might get to see some more later on.

 

[Sirena]

Lovely night for watching them. Just saw several fireballs shoot across the sky whilst sitting out in a dark meadow.

I hope you made a wish

Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight

 

[sheothebudworths]

Went out on the balcony with my daughter at 11, wrestled with the reclining chairs and got ourselves comfy with blankets - saw three in the first five minutes but then the totally clear skies started to fill up with enough cloud cover that the whole thing became pointless. Fucking clouds We gave up at half past when it became obvious it wasn't going to clear again...supposed to be better again by four, when it's about over WELL fucked off!

 

[Leafster]

I've been outside for about an hour and have seen five. May have been couple more on the edge of my vision. A few clouds about obscuring some of the sky at times but much better than the complete cloud cover when I tried to spot some yesterday.

 

[Corax]

Just half-heartedly stuck my head out the window for a bit.

After about three minutes saw a meteor flash overhead.
Couple of minutes later spotted one of the Iridium sats pootling its way across the night.

Good job, sky

 

[2hats]

30+ bright meteors, all with visible trailing, in under 2 hours with only about half the sky in view. Additionally several hooting owls plus a cat chasing small mammals in the undergrowth.

 

[Corax]

I assume it'd be fairly simple for the likes of SpaceX to create an artificial meteor shower?

In which case, why isn't Musk raking it in by charging the super-rich insane amounts of dosh to lay one on for their 'special event'?

 

[JimW]

Nipped out for a fag and saw one streaking long and low

 

[Fez909]

I'd never seen a meteor before tonight. I've always had a look out the window when it's the Perseids, but living in a city, I knew I wouldn't see any.

Have a rare, free Saturday night and, for the first time in years, a car. So I drove to Malham to the 'Dark Skies Discovery Site'. Even with the moon out, the stars looked incredible.

Stayed for about 90 minutes and saw about 30! One of which was so bright, and looked so low, it felt like someone had let a firework off over my head.

Met a couple from Manchester and they gave me coffee and we chatted while watching the skies.

Perfect night

Need to sleep now. Zzzzz....

 

[Signal 11]

We had a lot of cloud, but saw about 20 in 3 hours. The camera missed all the best ones though.

 

[Thimble Queen]

I think i woke up in the middle of the and saw a few but the memory is barely there and hazy. I'm not sure of it was a dream or not. Ive woke up this morning and the bedroom curtain is open so I'm really not sure