Torrid Taurids

The weekends Taurid meteor shower display did not work out exactly the way I had planned. As mentioned in my previous blog the weather predictions were not that great. The weather predictions were spot on for the weekend and the bad sky viewing has continued through out the week. On Sunday I got excited because the weather was good during the day but starting clouding over in the late afternoon.




I got my hopes up on Friday when I got home and the sky was clear. I got my telescope (Celestron 130SLT) and my binoculars ready for action. I also took out my video camera and my digital camera just in case I wanted to take pictures. I have not used my digital camera to take pictures of astronomical events for a long time and the only pictures I have take in the past are of the moon and its phases and a couple of constellations.



I did not get to see any meteors on the short period that I had clear skies on the Friday, I don’t know if it was bad luck of the light pollution in my area but I was a little disappointed to miss out on the meteor shower. Even thought I was there to look for meteors I used my time constructively by looking at the Pleiades, the various stars in the Taurus and Orion constellations and I had a good look at the Orion nebula.



My photography didn’t turn out that well in the sense that I don’t have pictures to post on the blog but it was good for I managed to test out various things like my home made adapter for my telescope. I still need to make a couple of changes to the adapter and I cannot use my digital camera to take the photos because it is too heavy for my little telescope but I can use my webcam and my helmet cam. My other video camera didn’t help at all for what I wanted to do.



There are a lot more interesting astronomical events that I would like to see before the end of the month but the weather looks like it will be overcast for the rest of the month. It is hard to believe that a month ago I was telling people that we need rain and now I wish that I could get a clear sky so I can see certain astronomical events.