(meteorobs) Perseids 2009 photo results (from Eastern Ontario)

[Leo S]

Superb Pierre!

Thank you for sharing.

Leo


Pierre Martin wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> To be honest, this year's Perseids were the most active I've ever seen  
> of them (not having been in the right area of the world to see the  
> 1991-94 outbursts).  Ivo Leupi and I experienced two wonderful full  
> nights (Aug 11/12 and 12/13) at Westmeath Lookout, a beautiful rise  
> overlooking the Ottawa valley.  The second night was especially  
> stunning, with a good transparent sky and a decent limit mag average  
> of 5.8 despite the bright gibbous Moon (my tripod-mounted umbrella did  
> the trick quite nicely in blocking the glare).  I observed all of both  
> nights (minus just a bit of early evening dissipating clouds on the  
> 11th).  Was it ever worth it!!!
>
> As evidenced on the IMO's Visual Data Quicklook page (which shows  
> exactly what happened with the Perseids based on several thousands of  
> Perseids collected from observers around the world) at http://www.imo.net/live/perseids2009/ 
> , the 2009 Perseids were unusually active with three distinct peaks!   
> We can thank Saturn for steering the Perseid stream's dusty core  
> closer to Earth's path.  I was fortunate to witness much of this  
> activity, including the brief surge which occurred at 4:00am EDT on  
> the morning of August 12.  Then, a significantly more intensive  
> outburst occurred on the following morning of August 13.  Around  
> 2:00am EDT that night, the hourly zenithal rates exceeded a zenith  
> hourly rate (ZHR) of 200 meteors per hour!  For a while, there was a  
> continuous stream of several meteors every minute, with occasional  
> bursts of nearly simultaneous meteors!  I couldn't believe how busy  
> things were, especially considering how high up the Moon was.  At the  
> end of the night, I had seen a total of over 400 meteors.  This kind  
> of overall activity appears to have been the strongest that the  
> Perseids have been since the early 1990's.  Large numbers of bright  
> "classical" Perseids appeared, many with trains.  I can only imagine  
> how much better of a show it would have been had the skies been  
> unaffected by moonlight.  It was a night that I won't soon forget!
>
> After several hours combining frames and processing in Photoshop, I  
> finally have my photos!  Each photo is a composite of frames  
> containing meteors captured over the course of hundreds of 20 seconds  
> exposures taken continuously between roughly 10:00pm and 5:00am (for  
> almost 7 hours).  Processing was done to enhance levels, brightness &  
> contrast, plus some noise/artifacts and CA reductions.  The colors  
> that you see in the meteor streaks are unaltered and true to the way  
> that the camera captured them.
>
> Here's what I got on the first night (August 11/12)...
>
> This first image is the composite taken by the Canon 30D running at  
> ISO 640 or 800 and a 16mm lens set at f/2.8.  It shows the sky  
> surrounding Ursa Minor and Ursa Major.  As you can see near the  
> horizon, it was becoming quite foggy, but our elevation on top of the  
> hill was helpful.  Many of the bright meteors that you see here  
> occurred near 4:00am EDT, so they are likely part of the dust trail  
> that Comet Swift Tuttle shed back in the year 1610.  The Earth  
> encountered this trail near 4:00am on August 12, which produced a  
> brief surge of activity...
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/3841919408/sizes/o/
>
> The second image is the composite taken by the Canon Rebel (300D)  
> running at ISO 800 or 1600 and a 35mm lens set at f/2.2.  I left this  
> camera centered into Cygnus all night, which was a bit less affected  
> by the moonlight.  Some nice colorful meteors scooted by this area...
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/3841126859/sizes/o/
>
> Next are my results for the second night (August 12/13) which had  
> overall MUCH higher activity!!  The Canon 30D and a 16mm lens at f/2.8  
> managed to capture scores of meteors over the course of the night!!   
> I'm thrilled to share this composite of 54 meteors (all Perseids),  
> which is probably the one I'm most proud of.  The large number of  
> meteors define the radiant as a sharp point.  Look for the tiny  
> Perseid just left of the famous Double Cluster in Perseus...
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/3841920210/sizes/o/
>
> The second composite is the result of the Rebel (300D) and a 35mm lens  
> at f/2.2.  This one got five nice meteors in Cygnus, scooting across  
> the Milky Way.  The North American neb is visible (barely) below  
> Deneb.  The trade-off with this lens is less meteors captured due to  
> the longer focal length's narrower field, but a closer view on the  
> ones that do show up...
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/3841127545/sizes/o/
>
> It turns out that this August has had my most successful observing run  
> in recent memory, with 9 separate meteor outings!  My observing  
> partner, Ivo, also managed to capture several beautiful images with  
> his DSLR.  Sorry for reporting so late, but my busy schedule (and my  
> catching up on sleep ;) has prevented me from doing so earlier  
> (although I was able to get my raw data out to the IMO fairly  
> quickly).  My standard NAMN summary reports containing the details for  
> both peak nights, as well as my post-max sessions should be coming  
> soon :)
>
> Clear skies!
>
> - Pierre
>
>
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