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.
Showing posts with label Astronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astronomy. Show all posts
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Friday's Northern Taurid Meteor Shower
I have not been to one of my local astronomy club meetings in quite a while so I thought that since there in one tonight I would catch up with what is happening in the world of astronomy. The first thing that I did was look at events that are going to occur in the near future and I was surprised to see that I was about to miss the Taurid meteor shower. I love meteor shower and I hate missing out on them.
Because of our location and the time of the year we are about to observe the Northern Taurids. The frequency of the shower should be anything from about 5 to 8 meteors coming from the constellation of Taurus - hence it's name. The showers will start on Friday and end on Sunday morning with some stray meteors that might be seen in the weeks before and after the main stream. The content of the shower is actually larger than just dust and sometimes we can see bolides with spectacular light shows and if you are in a place that is quiet enough you can even hear them.
The Taurids are said to be part of a large comet that came close to earth sometime in the last 30 000 years and that has slowly broken up into the debris that we see and the comet Encke. Currently most people say that the cause of the shower is the comet Encke and they are not wrong but there was a larger source as previously mentioned.
There is actually much more to the shower than I have mentioned. Due to the break up, over a long period of time, of the original comet it has caused a very large stream of matter which is considered the largest in the inner solar system. It is so large that the Earth takes a couple of weeks to pass through it causing an extended period of meteor activity.
Due to the trajectory of the original comet and gravitational effects of the planets the Taurids have spread over time creating what we call the Northern and Southern Taurids. We have also got the Beta Taurids that occur in June/July that fall part of the mentioned band of matter.
The Taurids have peaks every 300 years but there are smaller peaks that occur every once in a while that cannot be predicted. So every time you go out to see a shower you don’t really know how spectacular the shower is really going to be.
I have looked at the planned weather for the 3 days of the showers and it does not look good for me. The weather forecast is for rain from Friday evening until sometime next week. If I am lucky, this cold front will only hit in the early hours of Saturday morning so at least I will have Friday to watch the showers.
Because of our location and the time of the year we are about to observe the Northern Taurids. The frequency of the shower should be anything from about 5 to 8 meteors coming from the constellation of Taurus - hence it's name. The showers will start on Friday and end on Sunday morning with some stray meteors that might be seen in the weeks before and after the main stream. The content of the shower is actually larger than just dust and sometimes we can see bolides with spectacular light shows and if you are in a place that is quiet enough you can even hear them.
The Taurids are said to be part of a large comet that came close to earth sometime in the last 30 000 years and that has slowly broken up into the debris that we see and the comet Encke. Currently most people say that the cause of the shower is the comet Encke and they are not wrong but there was a larger source as previously mentioned.
There is actually much more to the shower than I have mentioned. Due to the break up, over a long period of time, of the original comet it has caused a very large stream of matter which is considered the largest in the inner solar system. It is so large that the Earth takes a couple of weeks to pass through it causing an extended period of meteor activity.
Due to the trajectory of the original comet and gravitational effects of the planets the Taurids have spread over time creating what we call the Northern and Southern Taurids. We have also got the Beta Taurids that occur in June/July that fall part of the mentioned band of matter.
The Taurids have peaks every 300 years but there are smaller peaks that occur every once in a while that cannot be predicted. So every time you go out to see a shower you don’t really know how spectacular the shower is really going to be.
I have looked at the planned weather for the 3 days of the showers and it does not look good for me. The weather forecast is for rain from Friday evening until sometime next week. If I am lucky, this cold front will only hit in the early hours of Saturday morning so at least I will have Friday to watch the showers.
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