August 2024 – News

12th August

Friends Observing: 35 Friends joined GKWJ and JAG at the Observatory over the course of two hours for the annual Perseid meteor shower watch. Conditions were good with no moonlight and some hazy high cloud that came and went through the session, but cleared up significantly towards the end. Chairs were set up across the car park area with observers looking to all areas of the sky. 35 meteors were spotted in the first hour and 21 in the second hour, a total of 56, the majority being Perseids with just three sporadics noted. The second hour’s data was incomplete as the group were thoroughly distracted from meteor spotting by the appearance of the Aurora Borealis! One friend had set up an imaging rig on the northern side of the Observatory and at around 22:30 UT questioned whether there was auroral activity to the northern horizon. It soon became very evident that there was indeed Aurora, with grey-white vertical streaks very clear in the sky. Phone photographs showed the pink nature of the display. A stunning an unexpected finale to a successful meteor watch!