As usual, the best time to watch meteor shower is before the dawn.  This year is especially good since the moon is almost new, no moon light will interfere the show. As you get under the night sky, you will notice that the winter constellations (for northern hemisphere) are up which makes the sky spectacular again. For example, Orion, Gemini and Taurus. *I love winter celestial objects the most, especiall the Great Orion Nebula.

Set your alarm and enjoy the shower.

Since the show this year sounds to be good, I will be going with George Zhou tonight to Mt. Stromlo at 12.30am till 3am. I also borrowed Joan’s D90, hopefully I will catch some Orionids.

Why have Orionids become one of the best showers since 2006?
According to Japanese meteor scientists Mikiya Sato and Jun-ichi Watanabe, Earth first encountered some very old debris in 2006 which results in fireballs rich shower. The encounter produced good displays in 2007 and 2008. The good news is the meteoroids are expected to encounter earth in 2009 again.

More info at Science@NASA

When to watch? As usual, the best time to watch is before the dawn or sunrise at around 4am to 5am. Good luck!

Oh yeah~ It’s time for Geminids meteor shower. The show peaks on 13-14 Dec 2008. The rate of the meteor, ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) is supposed to be 100 meteors/hour but the biggest moon spoilt the show and reduce the rate to around 20/hour. However, from my experience, last Geminids performed very well with a large number of fireballs which were so bright that the moon and artificial light didn’t affect at all.

How to look? Good question asked! Just make use of your bared eyes will do. Meteor is too fast for telescope to catch. Someone please prove me wrong~

When to look? Basically, you can catch the most meteors just before dusk. This law still applies but you may unexpectedly catch more earlier that time. So, when the sky turns dark, it’s time to look.

Where to look? Excellent question, indeed! This is a tough question for me to answer as I found both ways work for me. One is to look away the radiant and another is to look to the radiant. Radiant is the point where all the meteors “come” from. It’s an artificial point as meteors don’t really come from there. For geminids, the radiant lies very near to Castor, a star belongs to the constellation Gemini. Gemini nears to the constellation Orion. Orion is well known of its belt composed of 3 stars at a line.

Too technically speaking? Okay, find a place without many obstacles that block your view and lay down on a mat or enjoy yourself on a lounge chair. Head up and dressed well!

Local advice: The radiant point is highest around 3 a.m. in Kluang, Johor, Malaysia. It won’t be much different nationwide.

From 3 May to 7 May, we’re gifted one of the year best meteor shower – Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Aquarids are the debris left by Halley’s Comet of which last closest approach was in 1986. For this year, the moon is new and the Aquarids stay at full strength over the 5 days. This time, Aquarids favor us and the southern region. Expect a spectacular meteor shower!

The radiant of Aquarids lies low at eastern sky in northern latitude region and lies at zenith (overhead) in southern hemisphere. So, Aquarids favor southern hemisphere more. You can observe the most meteors when the radiant is overhead. However, Aquarids are usually bright meteors so the northern people can occasionally catch them too. The peak rate in northern hemisphere is 30/hour and increased to 70/hour in southern hemisphere.

Tips:

1. Look east before dawn
2. Choose a site where obstruction is minimal and sky is the darkest.
3. Dress warmly

You may see the fireballs

Earthgrazers are meteors that skim horizontally through the upper atmosphere. They are slow and dramatic, streaking far across the sky. The best time to look for Earthgrazers is between 2:00 to 2:30 a.m. local time when Aquarius is just peeking above the horizon.

Facts

1. Eta Aquarid meteoroids hit Earth’s atmosphere traveling 66 km/s.
2. Typical eta Aquarid meteors are as bright as a 3rd magnitude star.

First, it’s the Quandrantid meteor shower. The radiant is near to the Draco’s head. In a simpler way, the radiant is at the NE. For us in Malaysia, it’s close to the horizon before dawn. Its ZHR is 100 and peaks at 3pm on 4 January 2008. The wanning crescent, 25 days old moon will not interfere this shower. Even though its great ZHR and no moonlight interference, we still can’t get a very good view because of the extremely low radiant.

Comet 8P/Tuttle Close Encountered with M33

Secondly, it’s the Comet 8P/Tuttle which is closest to us during 1-2 January 2008 at 38.4 million km. It was having its very close encounter with the Triangulum Galaxy – M33 on 30 Dec 07 to 1 Jan 08, a great new year photo opportunity. Its green colour atmosphere is comprised of Cyanogen (CN) and diatomic carbon (C₂). When they’re exposed to the UV sunlight, they show emerald-green glow.

Thirdly, this may be the most interesting event throughout the 2008. The asteroid codenamed 2007 WD₅ will HIT the Mars. The odd of the collision is 4% at the moment. I hope planetary scientist can refine its orbit data and possibly the odd will be increased. We are able to get a fine model of the impact of an asteroid to a rocky planet. Hopefully, if Earth is the victim many years later, we’re able to defend it.

I was watching the meteor shower with 4 CHHS Astronomy Club members. It’s very nice to enjoy the show with friends. My sisters joined us very shortly after they heard us screaming. Haha.. it’s really a cool show. Meteor shower is definitely one of the best phenomena that everyone on the earth can enjoy without any expense.

I just find out that my record doesn’t have any scientific value so I decided not to expose my Geminids observation report on the 15 Dec night. Look at International Meteor Organisation Visual Report Page. It drove me away from reporting… You might say that I’m not suitable for science. However, I prefer a report that the public can make, not just amateur astronomer and even the professionals.

14 Dec 2007

Whoa! It was really fantastic this midnight. I started my observing since 1:40am UT+8 14 Dec. The cloud rolled in since 2.00am and was carried away by the wind soon. Another huge cloud rolled in just after several minutes but the strong wind blew it away again.

2:00am, I saw my first Geminids. It’s the brightest one throughout the whole session. It travelled from Orion to Taurus
2:08am, second Geminids, from Gemini to Orion
2:14am, *forgot to note the direction…
2:15am, third, between Canis Major and Canis Minor
2:17am, Canis Major to Canopus
2:23am, Canis Minor to Saturn
2:27am, X to Canis Major (I didn’t catch this meteor quite well)
2:40am, Between Mars and Orion

One funny thing was that I saw a cloud looked like the God of Gods, the Zeus.