'Cloud dodging' in the early hours - Perseids 2019

The early hours of the 13th of August 2019 -
A Perseid meteor close to the radiant dodges between the clouds
- Dual Camera Meteor Rig - Credit: Pip Stakkert.

Wide sky image - Perseid meteor in the Constellation Pegasus
 - Note the Andromeda Galaxy - the elongated patch of nebulosity centre left in the image
 - Dual Camera Meteor Rig - stack of 20x30sec lights at ISO 1600 - Credit: Kurt Thrust.

Two Perseid meteors in this composite image - tracked back to determine the approximate position of the radiant - Dual Camera Meteor Rig - Credit: - Archie Mendes

A sporadic meteor shoots across the the 'W' asterism of the Constellation Cassiopeia - Dual Camera Meteor Rig - Credit Pip Stakkert.

 " The weather forecast for the night of the 12th and the early hours of the morning on the 13th August 2019 was poor to say the least. I put all the Observatory staff on standby but was not very hopeful about seeing, let alone imaging, meteors. In the event, things turned out better than any of us expected.

High winds, fast moving clouds, high levels of humidity and moonlight all conspired to present the team with a number of challenges. The moonlight illuminated the clouds and made photography quite difficult. We did see more meteors than we imaged  but that said, the number spotted this year was quite disappointing. The majority were seen after 2:30am. BST and one or two of these were quite bright. The Perseids are fast moving meteors and can be quite spectacular. One very bright meteor flew fast and directly over the Observatory, sadly we were unable to photograph this fireball! 

At midnight, we measured the relative air humidity in the Observatory grounds and it was +80% saturated. In the early hours we fought a losing battle in preventing condensate forming on the lenses of our two imaging cameras. I have asked our instrumentation engineer - Jolene McSquint- Fleming - to manufacture a pair of matching battery operated lens heaters -(known in astro-circles as 'Dew Zappers'). She is on the case and will hopefully have the issue 'sorted' before the 'Leonid Shower' in November.

" Comet the Observatory cat was out and about all night, sitting on the Observatory roof and mewing at the Moon. " - Kurt Thrust acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.