Bob has been interested in the stars as far back as he can recall His first experience with meteors was a biggie, the 1966 Leonid shower.
In 1980, a major awaking occurred. He received a sample copy of Meteor News. He was amazed to learn there was a group actually devoted strictly to meteor observing! He joined the group also started to view some of the minor showers list among the pages of Meteor News.
Lastly, he was contracted by Springer Publishing in 2007 to write a book on observing meteors. The book is now available and hopefully will be a useful guide to all interested in the enjoyable field of meteor observing.
3 comments
VandenHurk12 years ago
Saw a very bright fireball streaking from northeast to southwest over the ocean at Hunting Beach State Park, SC, about 9-10 last night. Beautiful! Others saw it too.
Yesterday morning one meteor appeared just after 5:00am and this morning one appeared again at the same time next to a constellation whose name escapes me but looks like a cone with a handle pointing north.
Each object emitted more white light than anything else in the sky for no more than one second and seemed larger than any other.
The observation was made from within a block of the corner of Yale and Arapaho in Richardson, Tx 75081
I looked for Gamma Delphinids from Plain, WA (47.770186° -120.662612°). The skies were dark and clear.
I witnessed 4 or 5 meteors from 11:59 PM to 12:06AM, and one more at 12:30AM. I logged these (sloppily) on paper. Most of them appeared near 12:06AM. I would have had better results logging the observations on paper instead of trying to use the camera. Next time I need to set up a better log sheet for counting.
They were all very short, dim and reddish-brown. Those first 4 meteors were almost certainly Gamma Delphinids. A few of them appeared close to Delphinus. However, there wasn’t enough data to determine a radiant, which was my primary goal of the evening.
I attempted time-lapse photos with 2 cameras. Although I saw a lot of meteor-like streaks on my images, all of them were very likely satellites. Even the ISS showed up.
Camera 1 was a Nikon D700 with a 58mm f/1.2 lens, 30 second exposures at ISO 3200, tracking with a telescope, centered at Gamma Delphini. I observed from about 12:00AM to 2:00AM with negative results. A bright street light caused lens flare in many of the the images.
Camera 2 was a Nikon D90 with an 18mm f/2.8 lens, 30 second exposures at ISO 3200, on a tripod, centered at the Zenith. I observed from about 12:00AM to 2:30AM, with negative results.
My eye detected almost no activity after 12:30. Just one meteor showing up at 2:42AM.
Conclusion: When observing Gamma Delphids, don’t blink or you’ll miss them! However I do consider these observations as confirming the June 11th, 1930 observation: yes, they do indeed exist.
American Meteor Society
Saw a very bright fireball streaking from northeast to southwest over the ocean at Hunting Beach State Park, SC, about 9-10 last night. Beautiful! Others saw it too.
Yesterday morning one meteor appeared just after 5:00am and this morning one appeared again at the same time next to a constellation whose name escapes me but looks like a cone with a handle pointing north.
Each object emitted more white light than anything else in the sky for no more than one second and seemed larger than any other.
The observation was made from within a block of the corner of Yale and Arapaho in Richardson, Tx 75081
I looked for Gamma Delphinids from Plain, WA (47.770186° -120.662612°). The skies were dark and clear.
I witnessed 4 or 5 meteors from 11:59 PM to 12:06AM, and one more at 12:30AM. I logged these (sloppily) on paper. Most of them appeared near 12:06AM. I would have had better results logging the observations on paper instead of trying to use the camera. Next time I need to set up a better log sheet for counting.
They were all very short, dim and reddish-brown. Those first 4 meteors were almost certainly Gamma Delphinids. A few of them appeared close to Delphinus. However, there wasn’t enough data to determine a radiant, which was my primary goal of the evening.
I attempted time-lapse photos with 2 cameras. Although I saw a lot of meteor-like streaks on my images, all of them were very likely satellites. Even the ISS showed up.
Camera 1 was a Nikon D700 with a 58mm f/1.2 lens, 30 second exposures at ISO 3200, tracking with a telescope, centered at Gamma Delphini. I observed from about 12:00AM to 2:00AM with negative results. A bright street light caused lens flare in many of the the images.
Camera 2 was a Nikon D90 with an 18mm f/2.8 lens, 30 second exposures at ISO 3200, on a tripod, centered at the Zenith. I observed from about 12:00AM to 2:30AM, with negative results.
My eye detected almost no activity after 12:30. Just one meteor showing up at 2:42AM.
Conclusion: When observing Gamma Delphids, don’t blink or you’ll miss them! However I do consider these observations as confirming the June 11th, 1930 observation: yes, they do indeed exist.
Rick DeWitt
Mill Creek, Wa