Astroblog: Southern Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower, 28-29 July, 2012

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Southern Delta Aquarid Meteor Shower, 28-29 July, 2012

Location of the radiant of the Southern Delta meteor shower. Left; location of radiant at 10:00 pm ACST on 28 July. Right; location of radiant at 3:00 am ACST 29 July (it is almost due north at this time), similar views will be seen a similar local times elsewhere in Australia, click to embiggen.

If you are up looking at the occultation of omicron Scorpii, why not look for some Southern Delta Aquariid meteors as well?

The number of meteors you will see depends on how high the radiant is above the horizon, and how dark your sky is. At 10 pm you should see a meteor about once every 15 minutes (the light from the nearly full Moon greatly reduces the numbers you will see) . At 3:00 am, when the radiant is highest and the Moon has set, those with dark skies can expect to see a meteor every 4 minutes.

When looking, be sure to let your eyes adjust for at least 5 minutes so your eyes can be properly adapted to the dark. Don't look directly at the radiant site, because the meteors will often start their "burn" some distance from it, but around a hand-span up or to the side. Be patient, although you should see an average of a meteor every four minutes, a whole stretch of time can go by without a meteor, then a whole bunch turn up one after the other.

Make yourself comfortable, choose an observing site that has little to obstruct the horizon (and doesn't have street lights getting in the way), have a comfortable chair to sit in (a banana lounger is best), or blankets and pillows. A hot Thermos of something to drink and LOTS of warm clothing will make your observing time comfortable. As well as meteors, keep an eye out for satellites (see Heavens Above for predictions from your site).

The sky will also be beautiful, with the Milky Way sinking in the west, and Jupiter, the Hyades and Pleiades rising in the east.

Use the NASA meteor shower flux estimator for an estimate of what the shower will be like from your location. You need to choose 5 Southern Delta Aquarids and remember to set the date to 27-28 July or 28-29 July 2012.

Labels: Meteors

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 7:33 am

Comments:

Hello,
Today at 03:45 in the early morning on the island usedom in deutschland there has been a huge lightning.
I awake a few seconds before it comes over my tent.
A few seconds later there was a hard sound like an explosion that made me come out of my bed.
I went out going to ask people for what has been happen.
There were two young boys coming over from the near town zinnowitz on the beach.
They said that there has been a huge meteor in the sky wich burned and broke in several parts. Then it must have been impact in the north of the ostsee or maybe sweden.
No i cant get no sleep anymore.
I am really sad about not have been seeing this.
Only the lightflash wich came through my tent.
In the news there were no comments about that at this time.
I think you will even know more than i do at this time ;)
Greetings from northern germany at the ostsee, insel usedom, camping place zempin.

Dominic

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:28 pm

Hi Ian,

I'm sorry but I couldn't work out from NASA sight if we will see anything and where to look. i'm in Brisbane southern bayside so could go down to the water's edge for more darkness. When would be best and in what direction to look? Thanks
Tamara

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:11 pm