Tau Herculid Meteor Storm, May 30, 2022

While I can't confirm that the Tau Herculid meteor storm delivered as a storm, I think it qualified as a shower, and as good as any I've seen or probably will see from my backyard balcony since the LED lighting revolution.

The meteors were notably slow and dim. Since I was pointing my camera near the radiant (apparent origin in the sky), the trails appear short because I'm looking at their paths head on. I also over saturated the color in the meteor images. The colors in the meteors, and the changes of color, confirm that these are burning light sources rather than reflected light sources from satellites. (I'm seeing more and more stock meteor photos that really are satellites, not meteors.)

Meteors, comets and clusters

Comet 21P is visible in the morning sky. Over the past week it has moved through the constellation Auriga. Here are images taken with a 3" telescope and digital camera.

8 Sept. 2018, 30 seconds, 1600 iso, f5

10 Sept 2018, 21P near M37, ISO 3200, F5, 20 seconds.

Meteors remain one of my favorite targets, being that the equipment set up is simple, tracking errors are easily forgiven, and success is related to opportunity. I've seen meteors brighten, dim, and then brighten, but this is first I caught on camera:

Sagittarius with meteor. 28mm, F3, 60 seconds

jg

What goes up vs what comes down

This past weekend was action-packed, so to speak, of objects making the upward or downward trip to and from space.

First, the upward trip:

On Friday, Dec. 22, the southwest United States enjoyed the launch of a Falcon 9 two-stage rocket. The twilight was perfect for illuminating the exhaust plume. From my vantage point, the event lasted about 5 minutes, from seeing the rising glow in the north until the rocket disappeared behind mountains to the west. This was enough time for neighbors to alert each other and run into the street and for friends to start texting. It was enough time for me to correct my original poor choice of camera location , run downstairs and across the street barefoot, dodge one car, and get numerous shots.

Falcon 9 launch viewed from in front of my home:

Moon, stage 2, with stage 1 falling away:

 A second burn from stage 1 occurred a second after the first:

And now the downward trip:

On Christmas Eve, at 5:15pm, I saw an amazing fireball, or bollide. Like the Falcon 9 launch, the event lasted a long time, that is, long for a meteor. I was parked and about to exit my car when I saw it. I had time to contemplate grabbing my camera, and chose not to. As a result, I saw a colorful break-up and burn that reminded me of a newspaper bursting into flame and being sucked up the chimney in fragments. My wife and daughter also saw it from about 5 miles away from my location. They also reported a red color to the burn.

However, my friend Andy Abeles from the Temecula Valley Astronomers, captured it from his dash camera. The full burn is cut off by the mountains, and I think most of what I saw is where it goes behind the mountain in this video.

jg

Lyrid, Meteor of the Century (again)

Smoke and Meteors:

I captured a Lyrid meteor last night, shooting 30-second exposures between 11:20 and 11:50 pm. I caught two meteors in this time, but one made it easy to quit for the night.

I didn't see the meteor, and noticed it only when examining my photo on the camera view screen. On a whim, I took a second exposure and noticed that the vapor trail was visible:

"This is interesting," I thought, so I tried to see how long the vapor trail would remain visible:

After about 5 minutes, the vapor trail drifted off of my field of view. I moved the camera twice before the trail was gone, and even captured a faint, second meteor next to the vapor trail. You will probably have to enlarge the image to see the 2nd meteor near the star cluster (Coma Berenices) in the top of this photo.

The last image I captured was very faint, so I boldy tweaked the contrast:

I also made a video of my images, but think just viewing the still photos in sequence is more effective:

• Lyrid Meteor on YouTube

jg

Perseids 2016

This morning was the peak of the 2016 Perseid meteor shower. A friend who watched from out of town observed 164 meteors between 2:30 and 3:30 am. That was the same time window in which I took these photos, but from by backyard. Some sky glow, hazy conditions, and a field of view limited by my house and trees reduced my count to around 20, however, I did capture five meteors with my camera, four of which are worth showing:

Composite of 4 photos, each at 30-second exposure

The following are cropped close-ups of each:

The Perseids are known for their fireballs and green trails. The green is evident in each of these.

jg

My best photos continue to be accidents

In March 2016 I was photographing the constellation Orion and got this:

Obviously, the camera moved during the photo, its movement is hard to create. The movement was fast at first, creating thin, faint streaks, and then slowed creating ever thicker and finally stopped points. The motion was caused my the clutch on my camera mount slipping, but the slipping action was sudden followed by increasing braking. I'm not sure how to get my mount to slip and brake like this again for other photos, but I think cold weather will play apart.

Another accident from this trip is catching the morning sunrise through a stunning orographic cloud:

"Klaatu Barada Nikto," as they would say in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

And of course, catching meteors are always accidents. This one is from April 8:

jg

Fog bow

I saw fog bow on May 16, 2016. A fog bow is the same effect as a rainbow but the sunlight is being refracted by fog droplets instead of rain. The result is a bow that is white but of the same angular size as a rainbow.

This fog bow sighting followed a night of star gazing at Palomar Observatory Campground, the first Explore the Stars event for 2016:

Meteor in Delphinius

Milky Way in late spring

jg

Ursid meteor splits 33 Capricornus

While looking for comet Finlay, which can be found next to Mars throughout this week, I bagged a meteor. Last night was the Ursid meteor shower, a light sprinkling offering 5-10 meteors per hour -- not the type of thing I stay out for on a cold night, but it was a clear night and good for star gazing.

Wide field:

Close-up:

Any meteor that crosses a star is suspect; that is, it could be a plane that blinks or a satellite that rotated its more reflective side toward Earth, but the star it passed through is listed in star charts as 33 Capricornus.

And of course, before after shots include the star:

I did find Comet Finlay, a feat that attests to my community's fairly dark sky. The following photo shows the faint green comet amid 9+ magnitude stars.

The 9th magnitude stars appear brighter than Finlay. Within the circle around Finlay, there's a 10th magnitude star and a few that are probably 11th magnitude (anything fainter is probably camera noise). Finlay is clearly brighter than 11th magnitude but very close in brightness (accounting for its being more diffuse) to the 10th magnitude star.

jg

One Minute of the Meteor of the Century

During the previous 3rd quarter moon, I was taking wide-field photos of constellations for my March What's Up presentation to my club, the Temecula Valley Astronomers, and to the Orange County Astronomers.
I was able to get the photos I needed over two clear nights. We were expecting a winter storm, and the night before the storm arrived was surprisingly clear. Also, my neighbors didn't have their 15 bright, white, un-shielded lights on, so that made a good opportunity to get better images of Canis Major.

After taking about four images like the photo below, I decided to get an image of Monoceros, which is left of Canis Major:

Wide-field image of Canis Major (Sirius is the bright star)

I moved my camera and took a short exposure to test if I was pointing where I wanted:

Overlapping images show my repositioning of the camera.

This wasn't quite right, so I moved my camera a little farther:

As I studied my photo in the camera viewer, a fireball lit up over head. I saw that it was headed for Canis Major. "Move my camera?" I thought, but rejected that idea. Next thought: "Maybe I'll catch a piece of it", so I pressed the shutter release.

I had the mirror lock setting on. So this first press merely rotated the mirror to reduce camera vibration. I pressed the release again just as the meteor fell out of sight. Once the meteor was gone, I figured there's no need covering it with more exposure, so I stopped my exposure. To my surprise, I captured a fragment of the meteor. I'd describe it as perhaps one year's worth of the meteor of the century, but "minute" sounds catchier.

Fragment of meteor in the bottom corner of my 3rd frame

Trace the path of the meteor

I, of course, regret turning my camera away, but the fireball could just as well have passed through Monoceros. In hindsight, I'm surprised that I reacted in time to catch the fragment. I think this reaction was the result of many cumulative hours of night photography, a reflex I've developed with practice. Had this meteor struck Earth, astronomers would be asking for any image to help identify its trajectory, and my fragment would have been scientifically useful. For now, it's merely a fun story.

Meteor fragment at maximum size

jg

A shooting star off the shoulder of Orion and double meteors

I watched the Geminid meteor shower from Borrego Springs the morning of Dec 14th 2013. The moon had set by 4:00 am, which allowed for a dark hour or two before sunrise. I saw a few fireballs and captured six or seven faint meteors with my camera. I'm sharing the brightest of these faint meteors below:

Geminid passing through Orion's shield. 

Exposure: 800 ISO, 26 seconds, F2, 28mm lens

Most of my 35 photos between 4 and 5 am were 1 minute long, the exception being that when I saw a meteor in or near my field, I'd stop my exposure so the background doesn't get any brighter. My photos represent about a 1/2 hour of cumulative exposure. Catching six or seven out of 35 minutes suggests a rate near 10 per hour. If my camera's field of view were 1/10th of the sky -- I'm confident its field is smaller -- that would suggest that the predicted rate of 100 per hour under a moonless sky was accurate. Caution should be taken with this estimate as it's based on my small sample group.

Why do I keep saying "six or seven"? Because one photo has three streaks but two are so closely in line that they may be one meteor:

Three faint streaks can be seen in this photo of Coma Berenices.

Tracing the streaks reveals that two are on the same radiant.

I've photographed two meteors apparently on one radiant during the Leonids in 2001, but this was on slide film and the two meteors were far apart on the film. So, I expected some distortion: that is, the lens would introduce some distortion and the film's slide mounting (lack of flatness when scanned) would introduce more.

Two or one meteor passing near the Pleiades in Taurus.

Tracing reveals parallel paths that could be on the same radiant. 

Curvature of the slide film can be seen at the bottom center of the frame.

I never believed that I had captured a meteor appearing, then dimming, then reappearing, but I think I have now.


jg

Meteors and Mistakes

I believe it has been ten years since I first started making public presentations on behalf of my astronomy club. My first presentation was at a Lake Skinner star party. The event coordinator, their park interpretor, asked for presentation, so I cobbled together 40 slides that I had taken and made a show. After the show, a family approached me and said their son would like to think me. I looked down, and their 3-4 year old son hugged my leg. Presentations would become one of the worth while activities I'll do.

I recall another great act of gratitude when a child approached me after a show and gave me a quarter. First he said, "here's a nickel" and put it in my hand. Not looking at it, I said, "yes it is". Then he said, "no, I mean, it's a quarter". I looked more carefully and corrected myself. "Yes. A quarter." Then the boy said, "It's for you. Thanks for the show." I accepted graciously. One doesn't turn down a gift or reject a gesture of thanks. At the time, this was the most I'd ever been paid for show, and my friends assured me that I was probably worth every penny.

My one regret in shows is that I don't have an opportunity to correct my errors. I try to present my own photos so that I can show people honestly what I saw, though sometimes I'm mistaken as to what it was. Such was the case with a photo I took on slide film around ten years ago. I was tracking the asteroid Ceres, and on one of the nights, something passed through my field of view (click or double click to enlarge the image):

At the time, I thought that whatever caused the striek (a plane or satelite), I was impressed that it happened to intersect three stars, and I made this comment in a few presentations. Later, I realized my error: the plane or satellite also created the bright white star-like images on the film. Notice how evenly spaced and of similar brightness they are, and that two appear to have a dimmer companion at the same position.

With this lesson in mind, I dismissed a photo taken last month as a result of the same effect.



Faint erratic meteor, or blinking object?

Highlight of area containing meteor or blinking object

Here's a close up. Notice that the striek passes through several stars -- I was very suspicious.

Fortunately, I took more than one image. By switching the view between these last two images, I could see that the stars crossed by the meteor appear in the picture below taken a few minutes later:

It is a meteor!

jg