P51-D

P51-D Mustang low, fast and heading West. Beautiful. What a sound. 11.10 GMT.

Venus

Venus is visible in the East early in the morning.

Spitfire

Spitfire low over house heading North West at 11.35 GMT.

Spitfire

Spitfire over the house heading North West at 14.06 BST.

Hurricane

Hawker Hurricane low over house heading West. The beautiful sound of a Merlin engine. (14.30 BST).

Parrot Balloon

Helium filled parrot shaped balloon drifting towards the West at about 18.15 BST.

Vapour trails

Some lovely sunset colours last night. Mainly due to residual vapour trails leaving a high level layer of cloud. During the volcanic ash flight ban a couple of years ago it was noticeable how much clearer the skies were.

Blue sky

Today we have got a perfect blue sky above us.

Puma

Puma helicopter patrolling M25. One over the house every 20 minutes or so. A show of strength for the Olympics closing ceremony.

Red Kite

12.10 BST. Red kite circling house being mobbed by gulls.

Perseids

Every August the earth passes through the debris trail of comet Swift-Tuttle. Around the 11th to 12th of the month this produces the Perseid meteor shower. Under ideal viewing conditions it is possible to see upto 200 meteors per hour. Last night I observed from 23.00 to 02.00 BST. I saw 2 perseids. However I did see one sporadic meteor that was spectacular. A sporadic is a meteor that originates from a different part of the sky to the shower and does not come from the debris cloud.

darkskydiary.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/perseids-meteor-shower-2012/

ISS

ISS (international space station) passed over Watford at approx. 22.00 BST on Friday 10th Aug. Apart from the moon it is just about the brightest object in the night sky. Track is approx. West to East. Details of passes can be found on Heavens Above

Tornado?

29th July 2012 19.30 BST. Rotating cloud over my house but not enough for tornado to form.