V3s Alert! Ursid Meteor Showers --- Dec 17th to 26th -- Peak Dec. 22nd

[todwatts]

@bam @mvb @Omgitstony Attention All lucky V3 owners (lucky as in received your V3 shipment) !!!

We almost missed this one!

Get those Wyze V3s pointed up to the sky! The Ursid Meteor Shower starts tonight!

Ursid meteors peak around the solstice | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky

Hopefully someone will capture a Ursid Meteor streaking by the Saturn/Jupiter conjunction (Dec. 21). Now that would be a neat capture!

Speaking of which … I’m ashamed to admit I don’t know which direction to look for Saturn and Jupiter. Can someone (@bam) point me in the right direction and approximately height above the horizon?

To those who haven’t received your V3s. Understand your pain. But have no fear! A lot of these meteor showers come around every year!

[mvb]

Tod, I think this is the info you are looking for:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn

I assume you did not head down to South America for the last total solar eclipse.

Solar eclipse of December 14, 2020

[Bam]

So the height to the horizon will be a little bit different depending on where you are in relation to me. I have this set from my location in Michigan but it shouldn’t be too vastly different.

So the first picture is a picture of where they will be and the relation to each other at about 6:00 p.m. tonight looking Southwest. I took this one so you can see the location of Saturn in relation to jupiter. Jupiter will be the brighter of the two planets

They will be the brightest and the first things you can see that resemble Stars.

The dates and times of the model of these are in the top right of the screenshots if you’re wondering what dates what will be appearing and what the relation to each other will be.

Tomorrow

Christmas Eve you can see that Saturn has actually passed by Jupiter and is now the closer one to horizon

Hope that helps.

[Ken.S]

so point the cams towards the southwest? I currently have mine pointed straight up.

[Ken.S]

this meteor was caught on MSP dashcam in my county, I checked my cam but didn’t catch it.

MN State Patrol (MnDPS_MSP)

[Bam]

Yes to the Southwest about 10 to 30 degrees up from horizon I believe.

if you want to check it out for yourself and you happen to have a computer, check out this website it’s completely free and you can adjust the times and dates on it so you can see exactly what’s going to happen. It’s not as intuitive as one would hope but it’s better than nothing

they have an app too but I can’t remember if it’s free or a paid app

Stellarium Web Online Star Map

[todwatts]

Thanks @Bam. I’ll look to the southwest tonight, clouds willing.

[Bam]

Be aware that the resolution of the cameras I don’t think will be good enough to pick up both of them and see them as separate entities. It’s just a guess as I haven’t tried it but considering the effect I had when I caught the space station it’s going to be pretty close. They will probably be seen better if the camera is in night vision

[Ken.S]

Thanks. I installed the app, very useful. Unfortunately I have too many trees blocking the southern horizon, it’s hard to find a good place to mount without obstruction.

[Bam]

yup. that was one of the reasons I bought the outdoor cam…I could do more remote timelapse…sadly we don’t have the starlight sensor in the wco…yet?

[todwatts]

Agree. Maybe WCO V2?

[todwatts]

I took a pretty neat pix with my iPhone Xs last night. @bam

Slice of moon (although whole moon showed up in pix) and the two planets.

I believe if I’m seeing it right, Jupiter and Saturn are already touching … although it’s hard to see in this pix. Not sure what that other bright star is all about.

[Ken.S]

Caught one this morning!

[todwatts]

Oh Wow! That’s a really, really nice meteor capture Ken!

Did that trigger a motion “alert” video? What timezone are you in?

Thanks for sharing! I’m headed out to pull the micro-sd card to see if I captured anything … but I fear it was cloudy all night.

By far, yours was the best Ursid caught! Send to your local news station, along with some info about the peak of the Ursid showers. Bet they put it on the air!

[Ken.S]

Yes it triggered a motion event, I’ve been reviewing the events from each night. I’m in MN CST.

[todwatts]

@Ken.S You inspired me to start looking. I was socked in with clouds last night. Cleared about 5 am this morning (Dec. 20).

Found two Ursids in a one minute “record” at 6:14 am CST. @bam @WyzeDongsheng @mvb

6:14:07 a little one at top center of screen

6:14:36 A nicer one, lower left corner

The Ursid peak is on Dec. 22nd … so hopefully everyone will be able to catch some meteors!

Thing I love about the Wyze V3 is I just leave the camera pointed straight up and go to bed, knowing the V3 is “on the prowl” for meteors. It’s really a marvelous camera! @chaozhang

@Bam The top of my screen is oriented due north. In the second video, the bright star on the lower left corner is toward the “Southwest.” Do you think that is Saturn/Jupiter? If so, the meteor soars under it.

[todwatts]

5:38:02 am Dec. 20. A little one through a light cloud cover.

[mvb]

I will have to admit, my cameras have been idle for a few days. I’m still working my way through the clips from the 11th. And I have the 13th, 14th and 15th still waiting to be looked at.

But, I’ll try to put them out again this week.

[todwatts]

I bought a couple of extra 32gb sd cards so I can rotate them in and out of V3. That way it’s only one trip out to the V3. Take extra card outside when I go, pull card out of V3, put in new card, go back inside. I then copy the “record” off pulled card over to my laptop hard drive.

[mvb]

I have a couple of extra SD cards. Good idea. My problem now is finding space on my laptop hard drive. It is almost full. But I do have a 1 TB external drive that have started to use. It have 500 GB free space. So I should be good for a while.

I just hope for clear skies. It’s not looking good until Christmas day.