Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 5/22/85; site cbosgd.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!gatech!cbosgd!djb From: djb@cbosgd.UUCP (David J. Bryant) Newsgroups: net.astro Subject: Re: Pleiades, Meteors, Comet Halley Message-ID: <1428@cbosgd.UUCP> Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 10:59:34 EDT Article-I.D.: cbosgd.1428 Posted: Tue Aug 20 10:59:34 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 21-Aug-85 07:18:24 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Oh Lines: 52 I've heard stories about reliable observers back in the 1700's who reported seeing as many as 14 stars in the Pleiades. Obviously these were people with extraordinarily acute vision, plus they lived in an era before light pollution. I only see six, as do most people I've talked to. The best response I've heard to the question "If there are seven sisters, why do I only see six?" is "The seventh one is very young and can't stay up this late." I've never viewed the nebulosity naked eye, nor have I heard anyone claim to. A group of us here observed the Perseid meteor shower from 8:30pm EDT on the 11th until 3:30am EDT on the 12th. We saw quite a few meteors, although they did seem to be weirdly distributed (peak activity about 11:30pm and again at 3:00am). This year I specifically avoided attempts to photograph, count, trace or otherwise study the meteor shower since all my previous attempts have failed to the degree that I can only conclude that I am jinxed when it comes to such activities. Our metric of quality is whether the first-time meteor shower observers "oooh" and "aaah" enough to come away satisfied with the evenings viewing, which was clearly the case this year. For the record, the absolute best meteor was about 2:15am. It left a bright glowing first-magnitude trail over 45 degrees of the sky, disintegrating at the eastern edge of the "Water Jar" in Aquarius. Nice display for those few of us who were still up to see it. On another note - Anyone tried spotting Comet Halley yet? Theoretically it should be visible in a 10-12" scope under nearly ideal observing conditions. My wife and I got up at 4:30 last Sunday morning and looked diligently until sunrise, but saw no trace of the comet. We're convinced we were looking in the right area, so we can only conclude that it's still not bright enough to be seen with our 10" Newtonian. Admittedly our front yard is not the best of sites, so perhaps we'll have to wait until later in the month, or early September. While we were looking, we did spot a magnificent meteor that went streaking through Ursa Major and exploded in a flash bright enough to cast a shadow of the finderscope on the tube of the main telescope - clearly much brighter than Venus. * * David Bryant AT&T Bell Laboratories * Columbus, OH 43213 * (614) 860-4516 * . : djb@cbosgd.UUCP cbosgd!djb@Berkeley.ARPA * * ps: There have been many reports of sound associated with meteors. Most observers report a "whooshing" or "sizzling" sound, which matches closely the observations of psuvax1!santoro.