From the indo - Irish skies set to host a clestial fireworks display

qwert2

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By Linda Stewart


Friday December 11 2009

Keep your eyes on the skies this weekend as we are to be treated to the best display of shooting stars in years.

This year we’ll have the perfect conditions for viewing the Geminid meteor shower so Ireland will be one of the best places in the world to enjoy the celestial fireworks.

Observers viewing from a dark site could see up to 120 meteors per hour, or an average of about two per minute.

Some of them will be quite faint, but others will be brighter than the brightest stars, and some will even be brighter than Jupiter, which will be visible low in the southwesterly part of the sky during the early evening.

The weather forecast is for dry weather and night frosts this weekend, but fog at night could still hamper visibility.

Meteors are tiny bits of comets — or sometimes bits of minor planets or asteroids — which collide with the Earth's upper atmosphere at high speed and get burned away, giving the flash of light we call a meteor.

There are several major showers of meteors each year, when Earth passes through a particular stream of such particles. The best of these occurs in mid-December, and is called the Geminids because the meteors appear to come from the direction of the constellation Gemini.

While this shower occurs every year, sometimes the maximum occurs during daylight in Ireland, or there is a bright Moon to spoil the show.

But this weekend Earth will be passing through the densest part of the stream of particles on Sunday night in Ireland, and there will be no moonlight, making for ideal viewing conditions.

According to Terry Moseley, spokesman for the Irish Astronomical Association, the shower will start to become visible above Ireland from about 7pm each evening as Gemini rises in the east, but you won’t see many meteors until after 9pm and the best rates will occur after midnight each night.

“If you are really keen, the best time of all will be about 5am on Monday morning,” he said.

“To find Gemini, follow the diagonal line across the ‘bowl' of the Plough or Big Dipper, ie. from the top left star in the bowl to the bottom right star, and continue this line until you come to a pair of brightish stars, Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins.

“The Geminid meteors are unusual in that they appear to be associated with a ‘dead' comet, called Phaethon. They are slower than most meteors.”

Terry advises observing well away from artificial light, which will seriously affect the number of meteors spotted.

The slow speed of the Geminids makes them ideal for photographing and you can send your best photos to the IAA website at www.irishastro.org .

- Linda Stewart

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Is this just media hype or can we expect somthing?

lord lucan

It's an annual event,normally potentially spoiled by a full moon but hopefully we get lucky this weekend. Forecast sounds good too.

Hal1

Just seen a really bright one that left a trail behind it. The trail looked like that of a firework. :cool:

Hal1

Hal1 wrote: »

Just seen a really bright one that left a trail behind it. The trail looked like that of a firework. :cool:

I was on Staellarium last night, and Im pretty sure I saw a meteor, or an astorid, not sure. it was huge too. But when I ran outside I saw nothing in the sky.
I cant wait for when the real show begins. We should have good clear skys anyway.

qwert2

Where is the best place in the Dublin region to get a good view of this?

lord lucan

qwert2 wrote: »

Where is the best place in the Dublin region to get a good view of this?

If you can find a field/large green away from houses that would be best,light pollution in a lot of Dublin makes it difficult sometimes.

qwert2

lord lucan wrote: »

If you can find a field/large green away from houses that would be best,light pollution in a lot of Dublin makes it difficult sometimes.

I was thinking the Dublin mountains. I think the action happens in a south westerly direction, so city light pollution shouldn't be a problem

lord lucan

qwert2 wrote: »

I was thinking the Dublin mountains. I think the action happens in a south westerly direction, so city light pollution shouldn't be a problem

That'd be perfect!:)

VeeEmmy

I'm a pathetic newbie, but love seeing this stuff, now that I live waaaaay out of town. Have only seen a bit of a meteor shower once before from here when Leonids was on last and a couple of lunar eclipses.

Begging your patience, could I ask some very elementary questions?

Is a telescope a help or hindrance for viewing a meteor shower?
Should I bother taking my new telescope out into the field to watch? or will it be overkill and limit my views, as a meteor could appear from most anywhere in the general area from south to west and 0degrees to 90 degrees upwards?

I'm in north Co Wexford. How low in the southwestern sky should we be looking? I have some little (compared to Blackstairs) hills fairly close by (south and southwest) which would eliminate the low horizon view... and it's not practical to go to the top of said hills to view from there. Am I scuppered?

Another basic dumb question: Just after 7pm at the moment. What planet is very bright body in the SW sky? Where does the kindergarten level astronomer find info on this type of basic info? Obviously, by midnight, this bright body will be in a different position. I do not have Google Earth professional, which, I understand, now features a celestial view from a given location at a given time??? I will try to figure out where the Gemini constellation is if I can see enough stars.

A bit cloudy here now, blocking all but the brightest. Hope it clears.

A friend in Iceland was out last night and said "saw the biggest meteor I have ever seen. Must have been the size of Reykjavik. It burned for about 5 minutes." I want to see something like that! I'm excited. He's under heavy cloud cover today and tomorrow, I think, so he was lucky.

Ban

skelliser

download and install stellarium
http://www.stellarium.org/
it will easily show you were gemini is
its between the plough and orion

jumpguy

Banished-She wrote: »

I'm a pathetic newbie, but love seeing this stuff, now that I live waaaaay out of town. Have only seen a bit of a meteor shower once before from here when Leonids was on last and a couple of lunar eclipses.

Begging your patience, could I ask some very elementary questions?

Is a telescope a help or hindrance for viewing a meteor shower?
Should I bother taking my new telescope out into the field to watch? or will it be overkill and limit my views, as a meteor could appear from most anywhere in the general area from south to west and 0degrees to 90 degrees upwards?

I'm in north Co Wexford. How low in the southwestern sky should we be looking? I have some little (compared to Blackstairs) hills fairly close by (south and southwest) which would eliminate the low horizon view... and it's not practical to go to the top of said hills to view from there. Am I scuppered?

Another basic dumb question: Just after 7pm at the moment. What planet is very bright body in the SW sky? Where does the kindergarten level astronomer find info on this type of basic info? Obviously, by midnight, this bright body will be in a different position. I do not have Google Earth professional, which, I understand, now features a celestial view from a given location at a given time??? I will try to figure out where the Gemini constellation is if I can see enough stars.

A bit cloudy here now, blocking all but the brightest. Hope it clears.

A friend in Iceland was out last night and said "saw the biggest meteor I have ever seen. Must have been the size of Reykjavik. It burned for about 5 minutes." I want to see something like that! I'm excited. He's under heavy cloud cover today and tomorrow, I think, so he was lucky.

Ban

A telescope with an ocular lens of large focal lenght (bigger focal lenght = less magnification = wider field of view) might be alright, pointed towards the Leonids, and that way you might miss some outside your field of view. With telescope though, fainter ones that cannot be seen with the naked eye would be visible.

The ones worth seeing though will be visible to the naked eye though...and this might be best.

The bright star in the SW at 7 was more than likely Jupiter. To check these things, look up Sky Charts on www.heavens-above.com (you have to enter your co-ordinates first or download Stellarium.

VeeEmmy

THANK YOU, both!

I will forego the telescope. Maybe I'll look thru binoculars a bit.

Thank you for the information from both.
VERY helpful. I thought it was Jupiter, but not sure.

Thanks for the links. I'm trying to learn too much at one time tonight. Overwhelming.

The sky is clearing, so I'm out to freeze to death in hopes of seeing a few.

Regards,
Ban

Stargate

Banished-She wrote: »

THANK YOU, both!

I will forego the telescope. Maybe I'll look thru binoculars a bit.

Thank you for the information from both.
VERY helpful. I thought it was Jupiter, but not sure.

Thanks for the links. I'm trying to learn too much at one time tonight. Overwhelming.

The sky is clearing, so I'm out to freeze to death in hopes of seeing a few.

Regards,
Ban

Hiya Banished-She

Its too damn cloudy here to see anything in Cork :eek: Hope you have some success

purplestar1986

Saw a few myself here in Castlerea. Anyone else seeing much?

Stargate

purplestar1986 wrote: »

Saw a few myself here in Castlerea. Anyone else seeing much?

Hiya purplestar1986 , were you out long? how many and in what time period ?


Tnx
Stargate

purplestar1986

Hmm I figure I saw about 6 and the missus saw about 4 and that was in a half hour. Came in there because there hasn't been much in 10 minutes (can only see a certain part of the sky) and it's freezing. According to Astronomy Ireland it's peak is around 3.30am so I'll be up a while yet.

Stargate

purplestar1986 wrote: »

Hmm I figure I saw about 6 and the missus saw about 4 and that was in a half hour. Came in there because there hasn't been much in 10 minutes (can only see a certain part of the sky) and it's freezing. According to Astronomy Ireland it's peak is around 3.30am so I'll be up a while yet.

Its 1:45am now , very cloudy here in Cork purplestar1986 , damn weather
If you do decide to stay up , i hope you see lots for the effort , good luck :cool:

purplestar1986

It's usually cloudy up here anytime there's something good happening in the skies but thankfully this time we have a very clear sky. Hope the sky clears up soon down there thank you

I was out in my back garden for around an hour or so at around half 10, and I counted 50 or so meteors, so that's not a bad result. That's about one every minute, which is pretty good.

VeeEmmy

N. Co Wexford

I was out for about an hour and a half, 1am til 2:30. Started out mostly clear sky by then (earlier in the evening the cloud cover was looking pretty disappointing). Got really cold. There's ice on the windscreens, and clouds started moving in, so I've come in.

But I saw 10-15 little ones and 5 pretty big ones (for me anyway). At first they were in the SW. I was lying on the car bonnet leaned on the windscreen. Then around 2:15 I started noticing them coming straight over head in different directions from the others. One was pretty big! Cool.

3-4 would happen -zip zip zip zip... then nothing. Then suddenly a really big one followed by a medium one. Then nothing for a long time. Then one... then a couple at a time. It was very erratic. No pattern. I didn't see 120 in an hour though! I couldn't count them when they were happening fast. I was enjoying it too much to be very scientific about it, nerdy as I am. ha.

But then it stopped for quite a while in the bits w/out clouds. My back and neck started hurting pretty badly. I don't know if I can stay up another hour+ to go back out.... but what I saw was really fun. We'll see...

purplestar1986

Just saw about 14 in 10 mins, seems to come in bursts. My neck's pretty sore too

VeeEmmy

We need sleeping bags, thick gloves, woolie hats, blankets, warm beverage of choice and chaise lounge chairs!

I think I'll go out for another peek. If I fall asleep, I could die of exposure.... oh well. Starry starry night....

Stargate

purplestar1986 wrote: »

It's usually cloudy up here anytime there's something good happening in the skies but thankfully this time we have a very clear sky. Hope the sky clears up soon down there thank you

Thanks for the report purplestar1986 , Thick cloud here , off to bed lol take care Nite !!

Stargate

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

I was out in my back garden for around an hour or so at around half 10, and I counted 50 or so meteors, so that's not a bad result. That's about one every minute, which is pretty good.

-JammyDodger- You always seem to strike it lucky :pac:

purplestar1986

Ooooh it's so cold. In for the night now, saw 21 in around 40 minutes. You still have another night or two to catch it Stargate so fingers are crossed for you

For my first meteor shower, it was pretty good

I feel like a total gob****e. I thought tonight was the metoer show.!!! If I had of known Id have been out the back last night. I had plans for tonight to go out and look up.
I did see a huge one on Stellarium again last night though.

fifilarue

Fairly good conditions here last night for viewing, though when it got hazy, I watched it on Stellarium-amazing. Started in ESE in the earlier part of the night and moved to S and SW towards midnight-very zippy ones, darting all over the place (excuse scientific terminology). Came in bursts too. Too dozy to stay up late, so I missed the peak - blaming the glass of sherry or three I had to drink to keep out the cold!:D

lord lucan

I spent half an hour in the garden after arriving in from the pub,didn't see much tbh but that may have had more to do with the level of alcohol involved!:)

RonMexico

I thought Stellarium was a computer program no?

squonk

Went out twice last night at about midnight and again at 2AM for about 15 minutes each time. I saw about 10 or so. Again, as was said before, what I saw came in bursts and then nothing again for a while. It was cold so I headed in quickly enough.

krobo

Jake1 wrote: »

I feel like a total gob****e. I thought tonight was the metoer show.!!! If I had of known Id have been out the back last night. I had plans for tonight to go out and look up.
I did see a huge one on Stellarium again last night though.

Jake, I think your in luck, tonight is good for viewing too - from Astronomy Ireland... "The Geminids Meteor Shower will be at its best on Saturday and Sunday nights, December 12 and 13 respectively, and into the early morning of Monday, December 14. We are urging everyone to conduct their own meteor count over the weekend as Saturday and Sunday will be the prime nights for meteor observing." Satellite images dont look so good for clear sky's though.

I spent about 45 minutes viewing last night, from 11:15 till midnight, first 20 minutes were relatively active with sometimes 2/3 faint meteors a minute, but then it sadly fizzled out and the cold convinced me to give up.