There was a possibility of a new meteor shower that might turn into a "meteor storm" and that would have happened at about 1 AM on Tuesday morning. Like many things in astronomy it was not a sure thing, so I didn't bother to drive down to the south shore beaches where the sky was darker. I was lazy and decided to look for and photograph from my side yard. I set up a lounge chair and then my camera on a tripod with a wide-angle lens on the camera set for 15 second time exposures. Here's the problem, if the meteors are faint, then my skies are too light polluted to see them. Well, there were reports from some club members from Robert Moses State Park and they did see some meteors, but it was not a meteor storm. I took exposures every 20 seconds and I did not see any meteors, and there were none to see on any of my exposures. What was wonderful. was to sit out in the dark, and the quiet of night and just gaze at the sky waiting for a white streak. I started observing at 12:30 AM and stayed out until 1:30 AM and it was a nice experience, meteors or not. If you enlarge the photograph, you can see the stars of the handle of the Big Dipper in the upper right of the photo, and the star Vega in the upper left. There were cirrus clouds drifting across the sky, which you can see, for much of my time out observing. It is a pretty sight, seeing the stars in the photograph.
1 comment:
This is a very cool photo as it reminds me of the Milky Way plus all the stars. I remember years ago I stayed outside in the middle of the night to watch meteor showers. It was so exciting! Haven't done it in recent years because I would have to drive a while to get to a decent viewing area. betsey
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