Meteor shower starting tonight

[227bhp]

Hope the sky clears, should be quite a sight:

http://www.iflscience.com/space/dont-miss-annual-p...

[Puggit]

Clouded over

[Eric Mc]

Nice and clear down here but it is a bit early for the Perseids.

[C0ffin D0dger]

Had a bit of a look on Saturday evening as it was clear and moonless. Saw a few so it's worth looking even though it's a little early for it.

Think I must have seen the ISS as well, moving object high up giving off odd bright flashes. That or a UFO

[Moonhawk]

Building up to the maximum on thursday

[Eric Mc]

C0ffin D0dger said:

Had a bit of a look on Saturday evening as it was clear and moonless. Saw a few so it's worth looking even though it's a little early for it.

Think I must have seen the ISS as well, moving object high up giving off odd bright flashes. That or a UFO

The ISS won't and doesn't flash. It's just reflecting sunlight from its solar panels.

Flashing lights usually mean an aircraft.

Having said that, some satellites may brighten and dim every few seconds - especially if they are really a piece of dead rocket stage or dead satellite tumbling in their orbit.

[C0ffin D0dger]

Eric Mc said:

The ISS won't and doesn't flash. It's just reflecting sunlight from its solar panels.

Flashing lights usually mean an aircraft.

Having said that, some satellites may brighten and dim every few seconds - especially if they are really a piece of dead rocket stage or dead satellite tumbling in their orbit.

I stand corrected, it almost certainly wasn't an aircraft, and from this is sounds like it was an Iridium communications satellite that I saw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare

It was quite bright.

[SeanyD]

Slightly off topic, however ISS is due to make a half decent appearance over the UK at 9:45 to 9:48 tonight if anyone's interested, Westerly direction. -2.6 brightness.

[Eric Mc]

There's a specific ISS thread if you want to follow ISS sightings.

[hornetrider]

I went outside last night and spotted three really bright ones in about half an hour, plus two other smaller ones. Interesting that they weren't all streaking in the same direction.

Looking forward to hopefully seeing some more tonight.

[Eric Mc]

We had complete blanket cloud cover all night.

We haven't had clear skies for the Perseids for years, it seems to me.

[C0ffin D0dger]

No cloud over Worcester last night, too much light pollution but that is another matter.

Saw about 5-6 in half an hour, I'm sure the last time I made an effort to look for meteors they were appearing every few minutes, seemed a bit slow last night.

The kids trampoline is a good place to gaze from

[Eric Mc]

Whilst bouncing

[hornetrider]

C0ffin D0dger said:

The kids trampoline is a good place to gaze from

I did get a creak in my neck from gazing up from a garden chair, although the warming malt helped. I'll break out the loungers tonight.

[CrutyRammers]

Clear night here for the first time in ever. Just counted 7 in 30 minutes, so not a huge number of them really, and all but two were just the briefest of streaks. The other two were decent sized orange ones lasting maybe a half second.

[russ_a]

Clear here in the Midlands too. Not much activity though.

[phil-sti]

On holiday in Skegness and the sky is clear, seen quite a few persons but spotted a satellite crossing. Very high, fast but nothing on the tracker for iss or any other satellites?

[LordLoveLength]

phil-sti said:

On holiday in Skegness and the sky is clear, seen quite a few persons but spotted a satellite crossing. Very high, fast but nothing on the tracker for iss or any other satellites?

In west of Ireland at minute - bit of cloud but saw about 7 in 15 mins.
Also saw 2 satellites. Have a look on heavens above website for satellites - need to put your location and click on visible predictions or similar.

[Schmeeky]

Went out to see the ISS pass over, then stayed out and saw a good few meteors! Nice clear skies here in Cumbria.

[hornetrider]

Similar to above, lovely clear sky here in south Wales, caught about 10 in an hour, only a couple of really bright long ones though. Also saw the ISS and one other satellite (assume) as not on FR.

Had some fun with FR as well as an astronomy app. All in all a pleasant hour on the lounger with a few drams of Jura