Alex Tudorica

Report

 After ascending to 3100m to Tenerife's Pico Viejo on last Saturday (10th of November) and descending at night, the whole party of five was quite tired (after all, the sign at the beginning of the path was marked with the "Extreme difficulty" distinction). Although the initial plan was to spend the night under the stars together, the others gave in to thirst, hunger and tiredness but I could only ask them to leave me closer to the Teide Observatory: it was a night close the Taurid meteor shower maximum and some bright meteors were promised. At least for my effort I should of been a bit rewarded.
 
     So, they brought me to within 1 km of the observatory and packed me with blankets, warm clothes and the rest of the food and water, leaving me alone in starlight. Fortunately, Etienne was a great guy and promised to pick me up in the morning, otherwise I was supposed to walk about 10 km or so to the main road and take the bus at 16:00 back to Puerto de la Cruz. And he did, so I got a lot more sleep on Sunday :)
 
I was initially planning to take a long time-lapse, until dawn, but when I went to check the camera after some time I realized that some clouds/fog (basically the same thing there) passed by and ruined the whole idea. Scanning quickly through the images revealed though that the fireball (bolide) I barely saw some time earlier was indeed in one of the images. Oh, joy!! It is probably the brightest meteor I have ever photographed and I used for that a 8mm fisheye lens at 5.6, ISO 1600 on a Canon 600d and 45s exposure time. 
 
   A description of how I calculated the -8.5m brightness for this meteor can be found here: http://timelessphotons.blogspot.de/2012/11/the-bolides-of-teide.html

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    About Me

    I am an astronomer working at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. Always interested in science, I started studying astronomy by myself since I was 12, joining an astronomical society a few years later also. I would like to share the beautiful things I witness, both professionally and in my activities as an amateur astronomer.

    Contact

    Location:Ghirdoveni, Dambovita
    Romania
    Website:www.timelessphotons.blogspot.com