Southern Observers

From looking at fireball reports and the IMO calendar, it seems that the overwhelming majority of meteor observers are northern hemisphere based.
Is there anyone else south of the equator on here?

Ben and All,

We do have a few members from Australia and Brazil. These folks are very important to us as they can often see activity that is invisible from northern skies. There are also a few major annual showers that are better seen from the southern hemisphere. Unfortunately a lot is this activity is missed due to the lack of observers situated south of the equator. We wish we had more observers situated in the southern hemisphere but these countries are often sparsely populated when compared to those north of the equator. Probably the main reason for a lack of interest in viewing meteors south of the equator is a lack of really strong displays as the Quadrantids, Perseids, and Geminids are best seen from mid-northern latitudes.

Robert Lunsford
IMO Forum Moderator

Happy to be of service then.
My observing site the family farm at 38deg South, and no city within 200km.

Dear Ben,

Great to hear!
We thus look forward to seeing your meteor observing reports soon!
Must be quite deep dark skies seen your location, when the Moon is not in the sky!

Good luck, and clear skies for meteor observing in 2017!
Karl

Karl.
The Lm is generally 5.5-6.0. I suppose it's something we take for granted. Within a few hours drive of any of the major cities you can get to proper black dark skies. The farm isn't quite in that league, but not too far from it.
Will have a go at the Alpha Centaurids if I get the chance.

Dear Ben,

It's thus not that dark, as I expected the limiting magnitude to be up to +6.0 or +6.5, but all depends on the observer and other factors!
Good luck for the alpha-Centaurids! Just one month to wait from now ;-)

Best wishes,
Karl

20 years ago I probably could have seen 6.0-6.5...Not any more.

Ha, ha!
That's another illustration on how much lm is an individual personal measurement, and not only dependent on the atmospheric and light pollution conditions!

Clear skies to you, Ben!
Karl

Ben,

What types of meteor observation are you interested in?

I run a computer catching radio meteors using Spectrum Lab and Colorgramme software. I use a ham radio transceiver for reception but now there are several people using SDR dongles which are inexpensive. Check out this site: http://www.rmob.org/livedata/main.php

Also i run a video camera and Metrec software every night to catch meteor trails and report them. In the morning you run a post processing program to sort the real meteors from the airplanes, satellites, bats, birds,clouds, and fireflies. That is a fun part that i have shared with family many times.

Both of these methods take minimal time and can even run when you are away.

I would be great to have more observers in the southern hemisphere.

BR
Mike

Michael, my interest is really just in visual. Thanks for the invite though.

Dear Ben, Michael and Southern observers,

Do not forget alpha-Centaurids activity period starts in 2 days from now!
Good luck to you, and enjoy!

Clear skies!
Karl

Hi Ben. I just joined the IMO last night. I live near Gisborne, North Island, New Zealand (177 52' 59.92" E, -38 37' 47.64". I do visual observing from a dark sky (ave SQM = 21.5). I observed the Alpha Centaurids last night.

This is a great website/forum! The live update of my observations makes me want to get out there!

Best regards
John Drummond. President of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand

John,
good to see. Yeah, it makes it pretty easy. The web form entry is fantastic. For those of us who can't spend money on telescopes, and live in the city, it's ideal. If you only get a couple of chances a year to observe from dark skies, you want to make it worthwhile.

Dear Ben and Southern meteor observers,

Did you eventually manage to observe the alpha-Centaurids?
What were the results/observing sessions you manage to perform?

Hope you enjoyed them!
Karl

Unfortunately no. We moved house and didn't get out to the countryside.

Hi Ben Dawson, i invite you to take a look at Exoss Citizen Science project in Brazil.
exoss.org

Interesting. I saw the mention of defining new southern radiants. It seems very likely that there are more minor showers in the southern hemisphere that have not been defined. The majority of listed showers seem to be in the northern hemisphere.

Hi Ben, Adam Marsh here, long time meteor observer from 1987. Getting back into it this year and looking forward to a great 2018 under the skies. I'm based about 60 kms west of the Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia. Where are you based?

Hi Adam. I am right near the middle of the Melbourne light bubble (best I've ever managed is a Mag 4.2 star under perfect conditions), but a few times each year we go to the family farm in Merrijig, 200km from Melbourne.