Streaking

I'm currently working from home so I can provide ambulatory acquisition and relocation services to Fliss as she recovers from her gammy foot. Running X clients over broadband is a bit of a pain but I haven't had a chance to get my VPN setup working properly yet.

After prompting from Katie's post I stayed up way past my bedtime in an attempt to view the Perseid Meteor shower. I did see about 7-8 streaks over an hour or so although most were while I was facing south (the meteors radiate from between Perseus and Cassiopeia in the North East sky). I suspect the brightness of the moon was obscuring a lot of the view. I did have a scout around the rest of the sky with my binoculars and I think the very bright blob in the south of the sky was Jupiter. In fact it was as I've just checked with the rather marvellous Stellarium which gives a glorious "personal view" sky map rendered in OpenGL.

I may head out again tonight but the current cloudy conditions do not look good for the evenings viewing. Maybe one day I'll borrow my Dad's telescope. The view in Cambridge may not be as good as it was in the grasslands of Oz but it certainly not that bad once you've let your eyes adjust for a while and use a little bit of magnification.