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RE: [APML] Meteors? Galen Rowell ---
Well i too was a little unimpressed with the show. I did see 10-15 in total between 10.30pm and 1am but i KNOW i missed a big one because i came out of the house and there was this huge perfectly straight trail of some sort. I had 2 cameras going hoping to capture something, but with the London skies and my inexperience all i can do is wish (upon a star - ho ho ho) - i don't think i got anything. It was so clear last night it was a shame - tonight (at the moment) it is cloudy...
I did see a funny thing yesterday though. Looking from my back garden (just outside london) i saw what looked like a moving star (a tiny white moving pinprick - i understand these are satellites). What was particularly interesting about this one was that just as it was moving under Cassiopeia it flared brilliant white for perhaps 1 - 2 seconds... and i mean REALLY flared - it was like watching a firework... i don't know if it continued on it's way or not - i was just too amazed at what i saw. Anyone else see it or know what it was?
Lewis.
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas W. Earle [mailto:twade@bmi.net]
Sent: 13 August 2002 21:14
To: astro-photo@seds.org
Subject: Re: [APML] Meteors? Galen Rowell ---
> Two topics:
> 1. Did anybody see a reasonable show of Perseids? I had very foggy
> conditions at two different sites (Sunday and Monday nights) and saw only
a
> few. I shot some film but I'm not optimistic.
I saw quite a few Perseids. One was really awesome. It feel just to the
right of Polaris, and probably was by far the brightest of the night with a
very long trail. However, it came from the south which is strange. I'm
uncertain of its origin. Was it really a Perseid. I was under the
impression that the Perseids emminate from a particular radiant. Can you
get Perseids from the south when the radiant is in the northeast? The
meteor moved from south to north. I saw several other impressive fireballs
too. Most were in the southeast. Hopefully, I captured a few. I'm sure I
missed quite a few visual meteors since I was manually guiding the
telescope. I used my Pentax 67 a 75 and 105 mm lenses.
I'm not sure how I would rank this years Perseids, but I wasn't too
impressed. I was under very dark skies too. I guess I've been spoiled by
last years Leonids. Why can't all meteor showers be that good? Despite its
showing, the fireballs were worth staying up all night. Unfortunately, most
of the good meteors occurred where the camera wasn't pointing. Such is the
life of an astrophotographer.
>
> 2. Galen Rowell was not an astro-imager but was famous for his superb
nature
> photography National Geographic, several books) and is one of my idols.
> This morning's newspaper reported the death of both Galen and his wife
> Barbara Rowell, as well as the pilot and another pasenger of the chartered
> plane in the Sierra. Cause unknown at this time.
That's some very sad news. He was an exclellent landscape photographer.
.....Wade...
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