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The Taurids: Nov. 4-12, 2008
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  Summary: 2008 is a "swarm year" for the Taurids: Between Nov. 5th and 12th, Earth is due to pass through a swarm of gritty debris from parent comet 2P/Encke. When the same thing happened in 2005, sky watchers observed a slow drizzle of midnight fireballs for nearly two weeks. Be alert for Taurids: sky map.
 
  Photographer, Location Images Comments


[movie]

Dr. Bill Cooke, Marshall Space Flight Center, observing from Walker County Science Center, Georgia
Nov. 4-5, 2008
#1, more

A NASA all-sky monitoring station in Walker County, Georgia, recorded more than a dozen bright meteors and fireballs on same night the Moon was getting hit. This 9-hour composite image shows the activity at a glance. The best Taurid of the evening was a centimeter-sized nugget that self-destructed in flight, producing a magnitude -5 flash of light: 5MB movie.


Roman Piffl,
Marianka near Bratislava, Slovakia, Europe
Nov. 5, 2008
#1, #2, #3, #4, more

Very bright fireball from Taurids meteor shower above northern horizon of Slovak sky was about -10 magnitude! We (Ivan Majchrovic, Tomas Maruska and Roman Piffl) observe it in Marianka near slovak capital city Bratislava at 19:42:38 UT on November 5, 2008.

Photo details (color): Canon 5D + 15 mm f/4 Caanon lens, 1600 ASA, 30 s exposure

Photo details (b&w): all sky mirror, CCD camera astropix 4.0 (bin 2x2), 15s exposure


[movie]
Frank R Uroda,
NW of Port Huron, Michigan, USA
Nov. 5, 2008
#1, #2, movie, more

At about 5:15 AM on 11-05-08, my wide angle SkyCam captured this fantastic fireball North of Port Huron, Michigan. In subsequent frames, the SkyCam recorded the vapor trail it left behind to linger for over 20 minutes! Attached is an image of the meteor and a second image of the vapor trail taken 3 minutes after the meteor had passed. Each frame is a 1 minute exposure. A time lapse video clip of the entire event can be found here:


[movie]
Brian Emfinger,
Ozark, Arkansas, USA
Nov. 7, 2008
#1, #2, movie, more

After seeing the article on Spaceweather about the Taurid Meteor Shower I set up my camera last night and in only 5 hours I got 4 meteors and 2 that had trails persist for about 5 minutes each. I have a video showing the pics and the trails here.

Photo details: Canon Digital Rebel XT, ISO 1600, 30s exposure

more images: from Catalin M. Timosca of Turda, Romania; from Bill Westphal of Altadena, California