(meteorobs) perseids and the full moon

[Tony Markham]

Its also the case that in the half of the sky opposite to the Moon a lot more meteors will be seen than on most moonless nights at other times of the year.
The effect of moonlight is reduced the further north you are. I observe from central England at Lat 53 deg N. From here, the Full Moon at Dec -14 deg  will only be at 23 deg altitude at its highest and so much less of an impact than a Full Moon high in the sky during the Geminids.
Tony

--- On Mon, 4/7/11, Bruce McCurdy <bmccurdy at shaw.ca> wrote:

From: Bruce McCurdy <bmccurdy at shaw.ca>
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) perseids and the full moon
To: "'Meteor science and meteor observing'" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Date: Monday, 4 July, 2011, 7:13

I haven't missed a Perseids maximum since 1987 and I won't be missing this
one, Full Moon or no Full Moon. 

Best technique that works for me is to find an observing station that is in
the shade of some natural obstruction, be it a permanent one like a camp
house or row of trees, or a temporary one like my car. I'm going to lose
that part of the sky with the Moon in it, but that's just a cost of doing
business. If I'm in the shade it's easier on my eyes and I am unlikely to
get a blast of direct moonlight either. Typically my rates with a bright
moon are 50% or so of what I might expect under ideal conditions, so a
Perseid every two minutes instead of one a minute. That's still a lot better
rate than the Zero I can expect if I stay in. :) 

Same technique works well for daytime observations of (for example) Venus.
Get in the shade of a building or solid obstruction and scan to your heart's
content, even with binoculars, and there is no danger of getting a blast
from the Sun. Plus it is way easier on the eyes. 

Bruce
*****

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Ian & Ronnie
Sent: July-03-11 11:20 PM
To: Meteor science and meteor observing
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) perseids and the full moon


Right on

Ian & Ronnie
ianronny1 at bigpond.com
0428211018

On 04/07/2011, at 2:24 PM, Chris Peterson wrote:

> Your experience is different from mine. At my high altitude location, 
> the sky is black 45° from the full Moon. If I'm out of direct 
> moonlight, I can see stars magnitude 3 or even dimmer over most of the 
> sky. My meteor camera, which is sensitive to mag 1, catches only a few 
> more meteors in a moonless year than in one with a full Moon, and my 
> eye still beats the camera.
> 
> Of course, technicalities aside, I think you might be confusing what 
> "fun" is to a serious meteor watcher, and what "fun" is to a bunch of 
> Boy Scouts on a camping trip! <g>
> 
> Chris
> 
> *******************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
> 
> On 7/3/2011 8:07 PM, dfischer at astro.uni-bonn.de wrote:
>> 
>> But it's no fun - and tiring to the eyes - to stare at the bright 
>> blue sky a full moon creates. In 2003 the Perseids coincided exactly 
>> with full moon, and I had - otherwise - perfect conditions in Turkey. 
>> Yet the moonlit sky was so unpleasant to monitor visually that I soon 
>> quit and rather had a video camera do the work. Which saw 42 meteors 
>> in one hour, quite a lot for an unintensified system. The rate I had 
>> seen visually was much lower. (IMO never calculated a ZHR for that 
>> year AFAIK, so the nice video data were useless for cross-calibration 
>> purposes in the end.)
>> 
>> Then the 2000 Leonids peak was also strongly moonlit - and IMO 
>> analysts discovered that those who had clear skies and thus stared 
>> continuously had a significantly lower meteor perception that those 
>> who only encountered a hole in the clouds now and then. The lesson 
>> thus would be to hope for clouds (just kidding) or to rest your eyes
frequently.
>> 
>> Dan
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