Location and timing are everything when observing meteors. This years Leonids were predicted to have higher than normal activity at peak, which unfortunately for me would occurred over Asia. However, one never knows what might happen with this infamous shower so I was intent on observing it. After monitoring weather conditions for days it was obvious I had to head west to find clear skies.

The image on the right (click for larger version) is looking south from my observing location at ‘Point of Rocks’ in Cimarron National Grassland . A Leonid meteor streaks through the sword of Orion over the town of Elkhart, Kansas. I directly observed this meteor and stopped the camera shooting sequence after seeing it. Whats amazing is that  I observed a fairly bright meteor streak across the sky and what the camera caught was this small streak. Capturing meteors is difficult!

My count of Leonid meteors was small, less than 10 per hour, which is about normal for this annual shower. As predicted a peak occurred over Asia and I bet it was a nice show. Below is a graph adapted from the IMO Leonid 2009 live data with my observing time frame highlighted. Timing is everything.

All things wear out and fade away. My trusty ST4 autoguider, while still functional, is nearing that time. While I love its simplicity it suffers from poor sensitivity. Many of its critical parts are no longer available, repair would be difficult. Its better to have a new system ready than have the old fail in the middle of nowhere.

Friday I received my new Orion Star Shooter Autoguider (SSAG) and last night was its first light. Right out of the box it worked, the latest version of PHD Guiding works very well. Last nights 50 minute test was done using PHD’s default configuration and my G11 was setup like I was using the ST4 (2x guide rate).  The guide rate maybe too high. While tracking was good (+/- 1 pixel) there was some RA overshoot on corrections.  So I need to spend some time tweaking the software and finding the proper drive rate for this setup. Overall I am extremely pleased with the SSAG plus it weighs 80% less than the ST4/flipmate setup.

Oh, and sorry everyone in the midwest. I’m sure it will be cloudy for a week now!

Four years ago the Okie-Tex Star Party was having the Saturday night great give-away. At the end of the event I had my first digital SLR (300D) setup to capture the crowd. After an exchange with Ann, a fellow OTSP and NSP amateur I revisited this forgotten image.  Ouch! Bad color and noisy – it needed serious improvement.  Tonight almost exactly four year later I think the image is much improved. Click here or the image on the right!

Picture on left taken Monday night at the Nebraska Star Party, click here or image for larger view.  The Milky Way was fantastic that night and I think the picture represents closely what the sky looked like.  I noticed a tiny meteor captured in the middle left side. Just recently processed the image, still have another widefield for NSP to finish as well.  Amazing how usable ISO 3200 is on the 5D.

Okie-Tex Star Party 2009: All I can say is the weather was poor for astrophotography. Two (full) clear nights out of the seven I was there. Now in truth there were one or two partial nights, cases where the sky cleared up after 1:00 or 2:00am,  but I missed them both. I’m not good at getting back up

Nevertheless the star party was a good time. Its a pleasure to see my Okie-Tex friends once a year (at best!).  I did try several new ideas out for  time lapse camera placements.

On Tuesday night Chuck and I climbed the east Mesa around midnight. Unfortunately this was about the moment the clouds rolled in but it was very satisfying to sit up by the flamingos looking down on the star party.

2 minutes of the Okie-Tex star party Thursday night (click for larger image)

Thursday night it cleared and I had a new crazy person companion, Joe, that climbed up the west mesa around midnight with me. This is a far easier hill to ascend at night but you must go through a line of brush, tricky in the dark. Transparency was excellent at the time: while taking a few test shots I noted the Milky way was casting shadows. Hows that for dark skies?

Picture on the right is the  Zodiacal light thursday morning shot at the very end of astronomical darkness (click image for larger version).  Venus is the bright point just above the horizon in the middle of the Zodiacal light.

I missed a golden opportunity to do a time lapse Friday night with black puffy clouds rapidly moving through the sky, the Milky way blazingly bright behind them.  Just didn’t think of it until the next day.

Star parties are a crap shoot, with their date planned well in advance you never know what the weather will be like. Its just something you have to live with. Can’t wait till next year!

I am easily enticed by meteor showers,  or at least the prospect of seeing an unusual display.  Such was the case for the 2009 Perseid meteor shower that peaked August 11/12th.  Weeks ago I had no plans to go out in the middle of nowhere because the waning gibbous moon would be washing out the sky.  But I could not resist after getting an email update August 4th from Spaceweather.com discussing a possible outburst. I’m there!

The possibility of enhanced activity changed my mind and I spent last night out in the Flint Hills with friends.  The weather was great, clear sky, little wind, comfortable temperatures.  When I arrived my buddy Phil and his wife Jana were already there. And a new visitor to our observing site was there as well: Kyle Gerstner a fellow photographer. Three photographers in one location all trying to catch shooting stars.

The night kicked off great with a bright Earth grazing Perseid streaking across the eastern sky around 21:45.  Of course nobody had a camera pointed in that direction. Once all my stuff was up and running I  watched for shooting stars  but the display was weak.  At one point I had three cameras running with each pointed in a different direction. The results? Out of nearly a thousand images only a couple of meteors!

There was a possible outburst. I have not seen other reports yet but from our site around 02:45 to 03:15 CDT (08.12.2009) the meteor activity significantly picked up. At one point in that time frame there was at least one meteor per minute, not bad for moon lite sky.

On my drive home I pondered the nights events, reminding myself I had already learned this lesson ten years ago. After seeing the incredible 1998 Leonid fireball display I returned to the same location the next year under a nearly full moon.  Its not the same,  without a dark sky you miss the many fainter meteors. But, if you don’t go out and look you never know what you might miss!

Update, 08.12.2009 @ 11:50

I set my equipment back up tonight at home base, aligned everything and observed for awhile. I have not seen a single Perseid yet tonight. There is a big difference being back at my place, much of my horizon is blocked. Particularly in the north and east.

The IMO website preliminary report appears to support the low ZHR we saw until 03:00 CDT (08:00 UTC). With an abrupt increase in meteors after that time. Should be interesting to see the rates through Thursday morning.

Heard from Kyle who reported capturing a few Perseids.

Its Thursday night and while the Nebraska Star Party is still in progress I only attended the first half of the week.  Their skies look clear as I write and I’m sure those there are enjoying the dark skies. I’m going to write a full review later but here is a brief recap:

Sunday, July 19

First day of NSP, I arrived in the evening and immediately setup. Partly cloudy skies got worse and I was unable to polar align. So I crashed around midnight. I awoke at 2:30am or so with a strong storm passing over.  When the wind is gusting this  strong I’m concerned about my telescope blowing over but its pretty heavy. Next morning it was fine.

Monday, July 20

Overcast all day and it rained on dinner with a brief downpour. No sign it would be clear at night. Ever the optimist I had my scope uncovered and ready to go at sundown.  Around 11:30 it cleared off and the sky was spectacularly dark and transparent  for the next hour. Summer milky way was a sight to behold. Clear the rest of the night but dew (humidity) was a serious problem.

Tuesday, July 21

Clear day so very hopeful for the night and indeed  it turned out to be  very good.  I was observing the northern sky off and on since sunset because it appeared there were clouds there. As time went on I came to the conclusion this gray arc across the northern sky had to be something else besides clouds and indeed it was. The photo on the right is from some trial and error to get the tent illumination right. Click for larger version and more info.

Wednesday, July 22

Clear morning as I packed up for the trip home.

Altogether a short first visit to the Nebraska Star Party at Merritt Reservoir but mother nature was good to me.  Look for a more in depth review in the coming weeks.