(meteorobs) Perseid Max in se Texas

Barbara Wilson bwilson2 at ix.netcom.com
Thu Aug 12 05:58:08 EDT 2004


We really thought we would be skunked here based on weather forecast.
Clear Sky clock was right on predicting clearing around 1 am, unlike 
local weather forecasters. 

 Short report from George Observatory lat 29 deg 22 min +95 35 west.
It cleared finally after the Canadian front arrived. The sky slowly 
cleared through the early evening.  before midnight I saw 12 nice 
slow Perseids.  We were totally clear from 1 am to 4:18 CDT when 
clouds came in from the north and the sky went to  completely 
overcast at 4:20 am.

Count went up dramatically at 3:30 am and continued to rise until the 
clouds got us.  We had several hundred people come here to observe 
the shower.  Brazos Bend State park remained open all night for the 
Perseids.
1:30 to 2:30 CDT 24 perseids 1 spo
2:30 to 3:30 CDT 26 perseids 1 spo
3:30 to 4:00 CDT 21 perseids 2 spo (note half hour count)
4:00 to 4:18 CDT 15 perseids 1 spo  (note 18 minute count)

Nicest one was a -5.  Lots of fast faint 4 to 5th magnitude. Majority 
were about 2nd mag.  A fair amount of 0 to +1  magnitude meteors.
Details later.
Hope others are doing well.


Barbara Wilson
George Observatory
Ft Bend County Texas




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