Good place to watch Perseids - Dublin

quad_red

Hey,

Presuming the clouds did clear tonight, where might a good place to watch the perseids be?

We live in the centre of Dublin city so it's light pollution central. Have a car so would be willing to travel.

Cheers,
Quad

Hal1

Phoenix park? along with other hopefulls I'd imagine.

Flukey

If you have a car, you could head a lot further. Try heading to the mountains, to a point where the city lights can't be seen. Don't forget, the Perseids will be going on for days yet, so while we are around the peak, there is more to come in the coming days.

AtomicHorror

Cloudy evening... it's not looking great wherever you are sadly.

quad_red

One look at the sky and the radar on the web put paid to an attempt last night.

Would love to see a few though. If it clears up later may give it a whack.

I was trying to think of places outside the city where it'd be safe to stop ie. not on the side of the road.

Was thinking of the car park up on Howth head. Said it to a guy in work and he broke himself laughing saying I'd get more than I bargained for if I went up there at night!!

Suppose you could say the same about Phoenix Park though :P

Flukey

We had some very heavy rain in Dublin for much of Tuesday evening, but it did clear and left a nice clear sky. I took the opportunity to have a look and saw a few meteors.:)

Supercell

Nice clear skies out here at the moment, great view of the shooting stars.

ronbyrne2005

Saw a few streaking ones over north Dublin as cloud cleared. Also saw some weird objects that were as bright as average star but were moving across sky quite quickly (they did not change ) direction. Maybe a few high weather balloons reflecting light down, dont think satellites as moving lot quicker than ISS Mir etc.

ronbyrne2005

On 2nd thoughts , no way were they weather balloons, travelling way too fast and high for that.

boneless

We got an hour of clear sky last night. I made the housemates get away from the TV and watch. They actually had a good time as we did see a good few meteors despite being in Cabra.

Flukey

Ronbyrne2005, those probably were satellites you saw. This is a good time of year for seeing them, as the sun still isn't too far below the horizon. I saw some last night myself. You'll know them for a few reasons. As you mentioned, they did not change direction and looked like an average star. Also they would not have any flashing lights, like a plane would. They would appear to be much higher of course. One final giveaway is that as they move, they brighten up and then fade away as the amount of sunlight they reflect towards your location changes. When you are out looking for Perseids, you'll often see satellites, often more than meteors. So keep looking this week.

JimmyJay

i was extremely lucky enough to catch one through my binoculars!!

Flukey

They are well within the scope of the naked eye. You just have to be looking in the right place at the right time. On clear nights around the late spring, summer and early autumn, you will see some if you are looking around for long enough. I was out looking for Perseids earlier. It was a very clear night, but I had no luck in seeing any. However, I did see a satellite. Given the amount of time I was out looking - a good 15 minutes or more - even that was below my expectations. A couple of years ago I was out looking for Perseids and saw quite a few satellites, although I was out longer that time. I have often seen several satellites in just a few minutes, so they are up there. Keep looking.

boneless

I saw a few earlier tonight. The cloud is clearing intermittently so I'll pop out every so often.

Saw a few satellites too.