h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is where you can post your results!

Please put results in the following format:
Date:

Start time:
Stop time:
Total number seen:
Number seen by half hour increments:
--10:00pm- 10:30pm:
--10:30pm-11:00pm:
--11:00pm-11:30pm:
--11:30pm-12:00am:
--12:00am-12:30am:

And so on and so on...

Of course, if you can record things like which direction each of them was headed, how fast it went, how bright it was, whether the trail was left in the sky afterwards, its colour, etc. etc. that would be fabulous.

And any information on especially bright fireballs will be equally well received!

Thanks for all your help!!

11/12 Aug.



Started main at 3:30 (after moon set)
Ended at 5 (at sun rise [SR])

Total 42 ( )
Half hour incraments.... (err I did 1 hr then a half)

3:30 - 4:30: 38 (divide by 2 I guess)
4:30 - 5:00: 4 - hazy and SR

The brightest seemed to head south and were about 5 degrees long, there were no very long trails. One did seem to hit directly as it's trail was about <1 degree.

I witnessed 2 fireballs both just before SR:
4:40 yellow white, SW, trail length 7-10 degrees
4:45 orrange yellow, E to SE.
-both at about 45 dec.

Fantastic night, and I'll try again to night.

Nick who has found that car roofs make good beds!

Hi there
shazz here!
Please see TM's sign-up for map co-ordinates.
Report for 11-12/08/2000
started 12.15am (11.15 BST)
ended 02.05am

Total meteors seen 29
1st 1/2 hour:
Only 5... one very bright with a clearly visible trail, fairly low down on the horizon, starting just below Cassiopeia and travelling towards Perseus.
2nd 1/2 hour:
8... Not many bright ones, but three very close together, travelling from Cepheus towards Pegasus (not yet risen!)
3rd 1/2 hour:
Things are hotting up!:
13... With one so bright that it vied with the jumbo from Schipol airport going the other way!. A long trail on this one, visible for about 2 seconds. This was on more-or-less the same trajectory as the first bright one mentioned above, the others all viewed between 230 and 270 degrees. (Horizon obscured by flats and street light(!!).
4th 1/2 houror part thereof)
Moon setting, eyes start to droop:
3 more... all bright, all lasting about 1/2 to 1 second, still on pretty much the same path.
Tonight I should be watching from 2am to 4am roughly... hopefully from a more night-sky friendly location.
shazzPRME

Posting for the night of 11/12th of August:

Start: 3.00 am Hawaii time, 1.00 pm GMT
Stop: 4.30 am Hawaii time, 2.30 pm GMT

Total: 46

1.00 pm GMT:
Moon was still out, so only meteors of 2+ magnitude were really visible, and the vog was fairly bad (from the active volcano just south of us)
10 meteors, mostly towards the west and south, mostly in the northern half of the sky. Nothing notable about size, etc.

1.30 pm GMT:
Moon set at 1.45 and wind picked up, so sky got clearer.
23 meteors, similar direction and magnitude, but one streaked by at approx. 1.55 pm GMT that was at least twice as bright as any of the stars out, with a tail that lasted for about 10+ seconds, bright white, maybe a tinge of red or orange.

2.00 pm GMT:
Moon set, but vog got worse, and the early dawn light was creeping in.
13, mostly faint, mostly northward.

p.s.
19.48 N, 156.06 W

There was too much rain in Britain to see anything!

Too true, I sadle only saw 1 or 2 meteors, think Lisa saw 10 but cannot connect to H2G2 to give her results.

I was also a tadge tyred from the 1 then 2 hours of sleep the previous night. It's a crazy odd experience sleeping outside under the stars (on top of a car), but cool.

Keeping an eye out for the following days. (and for aurora)

Hi all, here are the results of the Manchester Jury, Norway nul points Whoops, sorry wrong subject.

Start time 00:00 12/08/00
Finish time 02:00 12/08/00

location as logged.
Meteors

00:00 - 00:30 5 (3 east to south, 2 east to north)
00:30 - 01:00 11 (7 east to south, 3 east to north, 1 east to south west)
01:00 - 01:30 3 (1 east to south, 2 east to north)
01:30 - 02:00 2 (2 east to south)

Fireballs

12:05 White North to South trail length ~ 16cm (I would've worked out how many seconds of arc, but I'm a little busy)
12:17 White East to West trail length ~ 18cm.

Thanks to our neighbours new security light, we had to observe from our front garden and we suffered a lot from the effects of light pollution, but we've submitted results anyway, hopefully another researcher somewhere near Manchester but with less pollution can give better counts.

Next year, we're going to arrange to be away somewhere dark!!!

11/12th -
Partial cloud and heavy light pollution so I'm ashamed to say I gave up pretty quickly.
Start time 01:30 (BST)
Stop time 02:00(BST)
Location: Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, UK (53.583,-0.648)
4 meteors sighted

12/13th - Back here in Glossop, Derbyshire.
Complete cloud cover so saw nothing

11/12th
22:00-22:30GMT
Widderhope Manor (nr Much Wenlock, Shropshire)
0 Meteors
Bright moonlight and very tired after car journey from London.

12/13th
Total cloud cover.

U53507 - Crescent - Aberdeen Beach

22:00 - 23:30
Totally overcast, both days, with both low cloud and high cloud obscuring anything

BCNU - Crescent

Cambridge, UK: beautifully clear until about 12:30am, then over came the clouds. Went to bed at 1:30 without seeing A SINGLE FRIGGIN METEOR! Grrrrrrr...

I'm moving to Ecuador.

Saw three of them on friday-night between 01:50 and 02:15 hrs.
These sightings obviously coincide with Shazz' observations, so I hereby refer to my personal favourite astronomer's data

TM.

I kind of figured you two would 'work' together on this one.

World-wide cloudiness, or what? Clouds were certainly streached from horizon to horizon here in Kona, and I had run out of patience.

Did you get clouded-out on Saturday night too?

Was there anywhere NOT cloudy?
This is the best year for solar activity too (it comes in an 11 year cycle), and it's too cloudy to see anything! We were supposed to see the Aurora Borealis here in Britain, but it's been too cloudy! Are the clouds and solar activity related?

There were about five hours that I caved in and slept awhile, but I have a feeling that nothing cleared up. Offshore breezes usually garauntee clear nights here. Of course, I wasn't out there at the same time that the English and Mainland Americans were... I did get good stats for 11/12, though. That's the weird thing... it seems like that's the case for almost everyone...

Aurora, were you rained out on both nights?

Cenchrea, you were rained out on Saturday night?

Yeah, the weather must have been awful world-wide!
A stalled low pressure system that clouded me up all weekend dumped 14 inches of rain on New Jersey - so I'm not complaining! I'll take clouds over a foot of rain any day!!

It's a bit of a larf that Beeline and I both missed out on the show since we were running the project!

Friday 11th Aug into Sat 12th Aug

10pm
02am

over 30 seen

10-10.30 none
10.30-11 one
11-11.30 seven
11.30-12 ten
12-12.30 five
12.30-01 five
01-1.30 four
1.30-02 none

Looking up at Cassiopeia, most were coming from around that direction, travelling east to south, but there were some as far as the Plough, {The Great Bear, Big Dipper, whatever!}I saw one "cut" the constellation!}
By far, the best one occured at 11.57 pm...not only was it the biggest, brightest and the best, but it also made a loud "whoosh" as it streaked over my head...it started directly between Cassiopeia and the Plough, travelled from North to South.
That one made the night's viewing worthwhile!
If I'd known Saturday night was going to be totally cloudy, I would have stayed up later Friday, as it was, I saw none on Saturday!
Sorry those who didn't get to see any....
Roll on next year!

Thanks! The page has been updated!