eta-Aquarids - what's what with davealex

This year’s eta-Aquarids meteorite shower was one I’ve been waiting for as it was close to a new moon; with the moon rise just before dawn. This should be ideal conditions for watching a meteorite shower.

eta-Aquarids are produced from the debris left from Haley’s Comet. These are very fast shooters and have been said to be large and leave long trails; sometimes lasting for minutes. I’ve only seen a couple of meteorites that have left trails for longer than a couple seconds, so I’ve been looking forward to this particular shower.

eta-Aquarids Crescent Moon — Crescent moon on the eve of the eta-Aquarids rising above Larkspur Butte

The peak is Cinco de Mayo, so I went out and viewed them the morning of and the night after this date. The shower has a large window of time so hitting the peak on this day is sometimes off. It was somewhat hazy the morning of but I was able to see a few small shooters. Obviously it wasn’t the peak; or if so I was unlucky. I did do a timelapse and caught one on film.

eta-Aquarids meteorite with some color from light pollution and haze

I’m trying out a new lens, a Rokinon 14mm fixed f/2.8 lens which is often praised for astrophotography work. It is manual focus but so far I’m not having a focus problem like I have had with other lens. I took these at ISO 1600 for 15 seconds and am so far excited about the results. So far (it’s in the middle of the second night), there is a thin cloud cover at about 30k; you can sometime see through (barely) the clouds but the sky is mostly covered; making viewing difficult. I have seen several shooters but they have been relatively small and faint with the clouds; probably faint without the cloud cover too.

Aquarids Milky Way over Larkspur — Milky Way over Larkspur with Aquarids Satellite

On the morning of May 6th, there was substantial cloud cover. I went out about 11:30 and I could see the clouds coming from the South. They overtook the stars about 12:30; I looked again about 3:30 and it was still cloudy; but at 7:30 it was clear. These pictures illustrate that even living in a rural area the light from neighboring towns 15 minutes away is quite substantial. The could cover was relatively light, however, and for a while you could see the stars through the clouds; through open exposure on the camera anyway.