Updates to this blog have been far and few between. There are lots of reasons for this but a major culprit is the recent stretch of inclement weather here in southern Arizona. I usually blog about objects I can observe but there has been no observing here for close to a month.
The months of July and August are usually the height of the Arizona summer rainy season, or monsoon. This year is no different. Though the ramp-up to actually rain in Tucson was slow, the nights have been consistently cloudy for weeks. As a result I have not made any new comet or meteor observations and even my automated cameras have only been able to catch the rare meteor between the clouds.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. My Bachelor’s is in Atmospheric Science and I love the weather. It’s just I spend less time thinking about observational astronomy this time of the year. As a result, I haven’t had much to write on the blog.
Still I am looking forward to at least a clear evening or two to set-up my latest meteor camera. For the past 2 years I’ve been using PC164C and PC164CEX-2 cameras with 4mm f/1.2 lenses. These cameras are relatively cheap but do not have the sensitivity of cameras used by other video meteor observers. Last week I purchased a Watec 902H2 Ultimate which I plan to use with a 6mm f/1.4 lens. The increased sensitivity and larger aperture lens should allow the detection of more meteors, perhaps even twice as many. So here to a clear evening or 2 and some clear nights during the upcoming Perseids.
The Transient Sky - Comets, Asteroids, Meteors 