APOD: Draconid Meteors Over Spain (2011 Oct 19)

[APOD Robot]

Draconid Meteors Over Spain

Explanation: What are those streaks in the sky? They're meteors from the Draconids meteor shower that peaked earlier this month. The above composite image captured numerous meteor streaks over 90 minutes above the Celtic ruins of Capote in Badajoz province, Spain. The particles that caused these meteors were typically the size of a pebble and were expelled long ago from the nucleus of comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. Most of the above meteors can be traced back to a single radiant emanating from the constellation of the Dragon (Draco). Reports from this year meteor shower indicate that the Draconids were unusually good this year with activity was concentrated around 8 pm UT on October 8. The most intense Draconid meteor showers in recent history occurred in 1933 and 1946 when thousands of meteors per hour were recorded as the Earth plowed through particularly dense streams of comet debris. Although the Draconids occur every October, it is usually difficult to know just how active each year's meteor shower will be.

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[geckzilla]

I counted 40, using the highly sophisticated method of occluding the image with a piece of cardboard from right to left until I had counted all the streaks.

[Watsisname]

Good question. My first thought was perhaps it's a composite (90 minutes for meteors, short duration for stars), but then how'd you remove the star trails from the 90 minute frame?

As for the meteor count, I'mma go with 44.

[neufer]

As for the URL count, I'mma go with 2: comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner

[keerthi2kiran]

I counted 42 (which is also the ultimate answer to life universe and everything)

[Beyond]

As for the URL count, I'mma go with 2: comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner

As for the link in your post, I'mma go with -webpage cannot be found-. At least until you fix the link.

[keerthi2kiran]

I counted 42 (which is also the ultimate answer to life universe and everything)

Oops... There are 40 meteors... I think I counted some meteors twice.

[geckzilla]

As for the URL count, I'mma go with 2: comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner

As for the link in your post, I'mma go with -webpage cannot be found-. At least until you fix the link.

Fixed the robot's postand sent a msg to RJN in case you guys actually thought he has the time to read all the posts we make.

Turns out the robot just fails sometimes.

[Beyond]

Robots fail What's this world coming to However, neufer's link is still -webpage not found-, at the time of this posting.

[islader2]

Chauvinism lives! Fifty {50}, one for each State.

[geckzilla]

Robots fail What's this world coming to However, neufer's link is still -webpage not found-, at the time of this posting.

Yeah, well, it wouldn't make sense anymore if I fixed it, would it? It is hard enough as it is to make sense of some of his posts.

[Ann]

I counted 42 (which is also the ultimate answer to life universe and everything)

I'm far too lazy to count, but if you, keerthi2kiran, found 42 of them, then that's obviously the correct answer (for exactly the reason you stated). So now we have found two of the questions to the ultimate answer, which is of course 42. One of the questions is how many Draconids there are in the APOD of October 19, 2011, and the other question is (obviously) "How many roads must a man walk down?"!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

As for today's APOD, it is very beautiful. The ruin in the background is picturesque. As for myself, I appreciate the blue moonlit sky, as there was an almost full Moon on the night of the Draconids. As David Malin has pointed out, the moonlit sky is also blue, just like the daytime sky! It was a beautiful night, as I said, but really light-polluted. I saw five Draconids, and I kept watching for about half an hour. The Draconids in this picture look relatively faint, undoubtedly because the background sky is so bright.

That's a nice APOD!

Ann

[agulesin]

Robots fail What's this world coming to However, neufer's link is still -webpage not found-, at the time of this posting.

Not that difficult to remove the (mis)leading "http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ " from the start of that link, is it?

counting meteors? no, until I find a program capable of counting them I'm not going to guess! call me lazy if you really want to!

[Maureen]

I pasted the image into PhotoShop and placed a dot over the streaks. I counted 45, although I prefer '42'! ~~Maureen

[Erika]

ich zählte 39! E.

[neufer]

I counted 42 (which is also the ultimate answer to life universe and everything)

Oops... There are 40 meteors... I think I counted some meteors twice.

Perhaps geckzilla could direct you to some astronomy supply outfits that sell cardboard.

[geckzilla]

Ok, the cardboard method definitely had its shortcomings, especially with me being drowsy and about to go to sleep. I have now updated my count to 43. And that, I would put money on. Here's a pic of my count. No, I did not get tricked by Andromeda...

Click to view full size image

PS - Maureen, there is a count tool in Photoshop. At least, there is in CS4, which is my version. It's in the same button stack as the eyedropper tool.

[orin stepanek]

I didn't count them; but I liked the picture!

[neptunium]

Count me in with 43.
It's hard to count meteors with my phone; luckily, I can download high-res images to see them better!

[donendusted]

My hightech excel overlay tells me there were 44

[RickM]

Good question. My first thought was perhaps it's a composite (90 minutes for meteors, short duration for stars), but then how'd you remove the star trails from the 90 minute frame?

I didn't see the question you refer to, but the question in my mind when I came to the discussion page was how you get a 90-minute exposure without star trails.

This has to be a composite image using an equatorial mount for the stars and meteors, and a fixed camera for the landscape. Otherwise you get either star trails or motion-blurred ruins. Right? And to keep the stars from overpowering the meteors, maybe instead of a single 90-minute exposure, you take a series of shorter exposures and combine only those that include meteors.

[donendusted]

In spite of the constant dust over Abu Dhabi my wife and I caught a brief glimpse from our balcony of one coming in over the Abu Dhabi airport then it broke into two bright red/orange pieces as it passed overhead and into the desert dust filled sky. And no camera!

[donendusted]

oops! 44 streaks minus one andromeda equals 43 meteors

[StarCuriousAero]

Why hello there Andromeda!

I counted 43 streaks, but I'm thinking that the extra long streak at the top of the image is in fact two meteor streaks overlaid, which puts my final answer/guess at 44 meteors. Although I wish the answer was 42 to give us another question to that ultimate answer. :-/

[geoffrey.landis]

This has to be a composite image using an equatorial mount for the stars and meteors, and a fixed camera for the landscape.

Ah, that's a good solution. I was wondering how this was done-- my guess was one exposure for the stars, multiple frames for the meteors, and then the meteor frames each had the dark level adjusted so that stars were adjusted from "faint" to "completely black" before adding.

But an equatorial mount for the sky, and then composite in the foreground later, is simpler.

There's a very noticible shadow in the foreground landscape-- if the moon is bright enough to cast that shadow, I'm amazed you could see Draconids at all. But then, the foreground image could very well have been a daytime image, if it's a composite.