I agree, a very welcome & refreshing new direction, I can only see this attracting more contributors with real contributions to make at all levels.

Clear skies to all,
Shevill-Tasmania 42 South

It's a real pleasure to work with an observatory which let's you tap directly into their information and share findings with the general public. MRO is far more than "just a forum", it's a staff of extremely professional dedicated astronomers…

And dang nice people, too.

Great to see Bert at MRO continuing to make a real contribution on the International astronomy scene, with his team of experts really hitting top scores. Keep it up you guys & clear skies.

Shevill Mathers
Southern Cross Observatory 42 South

Sad to see people like this posting. Newcomers to our hobby could find this sort of attitude confusing and may be turned away forever from experiencing one of the greatest sights in the night sky.

Well done Bert and the Macedon Ranges Observatory crew – you guys are kicking goals on the world scene. Keep up the good work on the forum too.

Dave Reneke

"No matter where you live or what time zone you observe from, the best time to look for the offspring of Halley's Comet is over the next few nights during the hours just before dawn."

Don't let Daniel Fischer discourage you from following meteor showers. There are many ways to follow a meteor shower – including watching ionospheric disturbances and listening to radio meteor scatter. Becoming a good visual observer takes practice and every meteor shower produces different results. For example, the spectral signature of a Leonid won't be the same as a Geminid… and the same holds true of its visual appearance and fall rate. It's very unfair of Mr. Fischer to discourage you from watching any meteor shower except the major ones… Look at all the opportunities you'd miss!

Thanks for the post, Ian! Both myself and Ian O'Neill from UT were viewing remotely and we definately watched the ionosphere turn to swiss cheese during that time frame. I followed it for several hours until it went across central Africa and produced the same results. I've also got quite a few hours of meteor scatter to listen to from various points around the earth – with equally good results. Although Central Victoria was clouded out at the time, I accessed radio information from Macedon Ranges Observatory where we recorded meteor scatter live. The staff at MRO are real pros!

Although I'm 42 N, I still saw a couple dozen, including some extremely nice earth grazers, between 3:30 and 5:30. As an astronomy outreach educator and highly accredited observer, I would suggest readers ignore Daniel's poor suggestions and take an example from our friends at Ice In Space and Macedon Ranges Observatory…

Go look… And listen!