2004 Perseids@Bintan

Perseids 2004 -  Cloudy Sky Attempt  - A Bintan Beach experience.

 "..... towards predicted peak timing..  a handful of  fast yellowish Perseids surfaced- but only a heavily truncated distribution of bright meteors are available to us. "
yk Chia Bintan, Indonesia Aug 11-Aug13 2004

   After the legendary successful prediction model(s) on the Leonids, the meteor researchers had applied their similar methodologies on other meteor streams 2004-  June Bootids ( foiled by bad weather in S'pore )  and  Perseid.  It was the 'first revolution' dust trail predicted to cut across earth on  Aug 11 20 50 hr that caught my attention.  A mini 'storm level' is even hinted.  East Asia  were favored and 'Luna'  is not much of a problem.  But one problem left - the infamous weather.

      Now where should I go for the show? It must be nearby and accessible and cheap. So I thought why not Bintan? But what are  my chances? A check with Weather satellite map indicated a fairy high chance of clouded over at this time of the year. Even the peninsula Malaya was not spared. 
      From Tanah Merah Terminal,  Bintan Island is just a 45-50 minutes ferry ride away.  The crossing was  uneventful and we did not manage to shed off the white-out sky seen in S'pore. We hopped on the resort transport and found ourselves at the Mana Mana's airy but spartan reception desk.  We were assigned Rm 15 but quickly found out the switch board tripped repeatedly - a obvious short somewhere. We ended up on unit #19. The room was a short distance from the shore line.  Before nightfall we quickly checked out the beach. The sea looked calm.  For the first night we decided to 'eat-in'.  Dinner was served  under the sea-almond trees the fallen seeds occasionally bombarding  the wooden platform with  a loud ' thud' sound .
     We tried the recommended  Jono's Fried Rice, washed down with  ice-chilled local beer - Bintang (Star) Beer with  gentle lapping of the ocean wave in the background.  Not many diners were around.  While waiting for the food I had a quick peep of the night sky above.  Using my palm to shield off the blinding lights from the spot-light  angled in the trunks of coconut trees I could just make out  the rival of Mars - Antares and the rest of the Scorpion's body.   Sky was indeed no better than back home. We needed miracle.

    Carina and friend joined us later in the evening. They too were disappointed by the weather.  Around 1:00 am (s'pore time) we headed for a dark spot on the beach - now deserted.  While the two girls preferred the more comfortable beach deckchair we had chosen  to simply lying on the groundsheet.  The sky was far from perfect for meteors: only a handful of stars shone through the high-altitude clouds.   
 (top) Bintan's  'meteorite' - Ripe Sea-almond Seed  For nearly two and half hours of gazing at the lousy sky we killed time by 'story-telling' and even had time for red wine.  Handfuls of visible stars were - the corner stars of the Square of Pegasus, the simple two-starred Aries.  Lower in the elevation   Perseus / Cassiopeia were not even detectable.  Hours passed, then out of no-where a  yellowish meteor appeared on the west of the square as if announcing the slight improvement of sky condition.  Then slowing and widely time-spaced the fast velocity Perseid surfaced.  They were fast  and white-yellowish in color.   Highlight of the picks was one negative magnitude Green Perseid that left a wake of 2 seconds.  Then there was this pair of Perseids  zipping  down the eastern horizon near the edge of my visual FOV - with the peared shaped meteor heads and tiny short tails.   I expected a longer path length being so far away from radiant.  They seemes to appear  very spread-out in the sky:  below Aries, eastern corner of Pegasus,  and down the low eastern horizons. After logging a count of 12-14,  then the clouds rolled by  and the sky never recovered.  In the east were old crescent moon with Venus close- by all looked pretty 'muted' by the sheet-like clouds.  One  video camera was utilized. And despite close to the water line , dews was settling on every surfaces .  We packed and left the beach.
     In total  I only managed 12 Perseids and 1 SPO in that window of ~ 1 hour, a very small 'haul' [ comparing to 400-500 Perseids seen by others in other parts of the world] but still much better than going home 'empty-handed'.  Many explanations were offered why the slight 'reprieve ' towards the end of the observation. Is it Divine intervention?  or simple breaks from the drifting clouds or simply  plain luck.  Or may be its the Star Beer. [ on retrospect - with higher ZHR, brighter meteor CAN be seen even through clouds... I remember one bright Leonid... shinning through clouds - it must be d*** bright]

    Back home I ran the tape through the pc & visual inspection of the 1 hour tape : three perseids , some birds, an unknown bird/bat? doing a figure-of-eight flight( chasing after insects?) ,and one quick-flashing  satellite.  This latter man-make 'firefly' creeping pass alpha Pegasus. The flash pattern had a familar look - it was EGP (trajectory  confirmed using  Mccant's latest TLE).   The other two video cameras were not engaged because of the suspected AGC response-related problems.  Two Canon-T70 cameras loaded with fast films lied idle.

     Second night Aug (12/13) was a complete wash-out.  I woke up Aug 13 around 2:30am and stepped outside  only to find clouds and only one star faintly visible.  Another attempt at two hours later yielded the same poor sky. The scheduled 2nd night watch was aborted.  The rest of Friday hours were spent exploring the beach and the surrounding areas.  We took the 4:30pm ferry home and looking for the weekend rest.
A swift dim Perseid was caught passing zipping past Aries.  Aug 13 am 14:20 (SGP time) Mintron+25mm lens. Note the few 'pathetic stars'  visible.  ( see left image)