[meteorite-list] 2008 Perseid Maximum approaching

From: bernd.pauli at paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: 11 Aug 2008 13:31:22 UT
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000009400002F37_at_paulinet.de>

Hello Listees and Listoids,

I'm getting ready for this year's Perseids here. I've just loaded my good, old
Canon AE1-Pr from pre-digital times with an ISO 1000 color reversal film
and am now hoping for better weather conditions (it's cloudy and overcast
at the moment). The camera is mounted on a tripod and I' m going to try
exposures between 20 seconds and 1 minute - more eposure time is out of
the question because our suburban sky is severely light-polluted :-(

The maximum is supposed to be in the early afternoon hours of August 12th for
Central Europe, about sunrise time in the Eastern part of the US and about three
o'clock a.m. for Arizona - so get ready for very favorable conditions in the Far
West.

Here in Europe, the best time to observe and photograph the Perseids will be
tomorrow morning (August 12) after moonset at about one o'clock a.m. and also
tomorrow night (August 13) after the Moon sets at about 2 o'clock.

I will point my camera again toward the constellation Cygnus because I succeeded
in photographing two Perseids shooting through the Swan some years ago and this
constellation is far enough away from the shower's radiant point in northern Perseus.

By the way, against all odds, I also succeeded in taking one picture of the partial
solar eclipse on Friday, August 1. It was very cloudy here but right during mid-
eclipse (ca. 20% for my location) I was able to glimpse the sun for a brief moment,
held my digital camera to the eyepiece of my C-90 and took the shot :-)

Happy Viewing
of the Perseids
everywhere,

Bernd
Received on Mon 11 Aug 2008 09:31:22 AM PDT