Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Day Two

For the second early morning in a row we went out to the Stone Barn to view, and hopefully photograph the Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower.  It was another beautifully clear night with the temperature in the upper 30s and only a slight wind.  Again, the stars were sparkling and the Milky Way showed its glory.  The meteor shower this morning was even better than yesterday, although there was not a long-lasting fireball, the vast majority of the meteors we saw were extremely bright and were all over the place.  They occurred at the horizon, and at the zenith and all points in between.  We observed the sky from approximately 2:30 AM until around 4:30 AM when the sky really lightened up from the Nautical Dawn.  The moon had less impact than it did yesterday, as it is heading toward a new moon.  The major problem in capturing a meteor in the camera is that you set the camera up to point in a certain direction and hope that meteors occur with the cameras pointing.  I had one camera pointing to encompass Southeast to Southwest and the second camera initially aimed at the East, which I later changed to point at the North star.  If I had utilize my fish-eye lens and named it toward the zenith, I probably would've captured a lot more of the meteors.  Oh well, I did capture some, but it was just worth being out there and watching the show. 

The only problem I had, was in the period Just prior to nautical dawn was that the dew point increased and the lenses fogged up, despite having heating pads on them.  The heating pads that I had did not seem to get very warm, so I must look for ones that will give out more heat and keep the lens from fogging.

Well, the next meteor showers will be in July; Southern Delta Aquari
ds Meteor Shower, and in August; Perseids Meteor Shower.  I will let people know when and where we will be viewing and photographing these showers in the blog.