Astronomy Notes

Aurigids above the clouds. A composite of 4 bright meteors imaged in less than 5 minutes

Congratulations to Dr.Peter Jenniskens and Dr.Jeremy Vaubaullion for the correct meteor outburst prediction. He rode on a plane that day above the sky to watch the show. Aurigids were the debris of the ancient comet, Comet Kiess. I hope that none of you was affected by the cloudy curse. I was the unlucky.

The Auriga was at my north equatorial sky but it was always covered with clouds. It was exceptionaly thick that day. It’s quite funny that I just realise that Kluang is actually a basin after my ex-physic teacher told me today. The cloud easily forms here, thus our viable skies are only available for roughly 120 days per year. I am yet to confirm this very rough figure yet. I am going to start the counting from today. The best sky here is around Chinese New Year, roughly January to March.

Dr.Jenniskens and his crews

he above image shows the Aurigids before passing through the clouds which are always the obstruction to our line of sight. Dr.Jenniskens and his colleagues were 15,000 km above the sea-level in 2 privates jets imaging the meteors with spectrometers, cameras and telescopes to measure the velocity, penetration, and chemical composition of incoming meteoroids.