PERSEID'S 2021

Location: Prince of Wales, NB, Canada 

Date Time: Friday, August 13, 2021 from 2150-0041hrs 

Weather: Very warm(almost too warm for a jacket), mostly clear, with some haziness, lots of dew, lots of bugs, no wind, fog horn blowing from nearby Bay of Fundy during whole observing session, 21c, and 90% humidity. On the drive home to Saint John afterwards, ground fog to the highway, then it was foggy most of the way to SJ, with ocean fog totally engulfing SJ. 

Attendance: Edward O'Reilly, and David McCashion. 

Equipment: Canon Rebel t3 with 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses.  Images processed with Photoshop. Reclining lawn-chairs. 

Objective: To view and image as many shooting stars as possible. 

Report: 

•  There was a crescent Moon in Virgo, low in the west at 2150hrs that was quickly sinking towards the horizon, with bright Venus close to the western horizon, popping in and out from behind hazy cloudiness.

13s, ISO 800, focal length 27mm, f/5

1/40th second, ISO 100, f/5.6, focal length 300mm

• Jupiter and Saturn were low in the south-eastern sky as the sky started to darken enough to see stars at 2150hrs.

13s, ISO 800, f/5, focal length 27mm.  Facing South East.

• Ed seen the first Perseid at 2150 and I seen the second about 10 mins later.  In our reclining lawn-chairs, Ed watched the Southern sky, while I watched and imaged the North.  The Summer Triangle was almost straight overhead.  We seen 34 Perseid's, 10 sporadic, with 4 unconfirmed(out of the center of vision), from 2150 to 0041hrs.  We seen 8 Perseid's the first hour and 17 the next hour and 9 over the last 50 minutes.  Approximately 7 of the Perseid's were slow moving, left long smoke trails and were Jupiter bright.  Ed thought they were white, where I thought they had a yellowish ting.  Most of the shooting stars were around Vega, which was nearly overhead and around Cassiopeia, in the North.  All of the sparadics were faint, short, faster and didn't leave smoke trails.
  
• Dew ruined dozens of images. 
  
• A few satellites seen.  Not as many as we expected.  Many, many planes crossing the sky.
  

 

 Note:  Bring dew heater for imaging shooting stars, and frequently check the face of the lens for dew.  By checking the images on the camera view-screen, stars can still be seen, making it like there is no problem with the pictures...the problem won't become apparent until processing the images.  Check the face of lens.