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(meteorobs) Ursids and a catalog of errors!
Probably the worst attempt at observing a meteor shower...
When I set off last night for the East coast,there were fog patches
everywhere,but there was no cloud cover apart from that and i was
encouraged on by occasional glimpses of stars through the haze and light
pollution as i drove.
After driving for 2 hours i suddenly realized that id forgotten to bring my
sleeping bag and deck chair and to make matters worse,the road which led to
my planned observing site turned out to be a private road(not marked on the
map!) which was not open to the public.
I parked the car and went to look for a suitable alternate site as i was
already within walking distance of the sea and soon found a spot which i
thought would be good,close to a kiosk for some shelter,and with dark but
somewhat hazy skies above and in front of me,looking out over the sea.
So i got my stuff from the car and returned to the site to set everything
up... which is when the next catastrophe occurred ... In the dark ,i
managed to kick my rotating shutter,separating the blade from the shaft,and
as luck would have it,id forgotten to bring any super glue!!
Then literally 30 seconds before i was ready to start my first exposure a
-3 mag URS passed straight through the area of sky which my camera was
covering(usually the fireballs appear AFTER I've finished an exposure or
just as I've repositioned the camera!)
I stayed there for about 2.5 hours,before i could no longer stand the
constant brisk wind,too cold to take any notes and i was having difficulty
seeing due to my eyes watering,but i did see 2 other URS (0mag and +2 mag)
and 11 SPOs in that time (from 0030 UT to 0300 UT Dec 22) and i managed to
use up 3 x 36 exp of Kodak Elite Chrome 200,which was my main objective.
One spectacular 0 mag SPO seemed almost like an earth grazer to me...
travelling 50+ degrees in about 2 seconds from low on the
horizon...impressive!!
..all in all,an interesting experience but one i wouldn't wish to repeat in
a hurry!!
Clear skies
Leo
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