(meteorobs) Perseids and entometeors (GRALE, 12/13 Aug 2004)

[Lew Gramer]

[Quick addendum to my previous report for 11/12 August - Teff for that previous
night was 3.19 hours.]


Well, as hinted at in my last report, the order did indeed come for all
visitors to evacuate the Lower and Middle Keys on Wednesday afternoon, 12
August.

After a painful goodbye to the sandy little tent site on the beach, and an
exhausting day of breaking camp and driving back north in the South Florida
summer heat and evacuation traffic, I reconnoitered with fellow meteor observer
Jeff Wilson from Coconut Creek FL.

As I checked the usual weather sites that evening, back up in the
airconditioning of my sister's house in Coral Springs, I had a surprise and my
heart finally began to lift again: we had a chance of clear skies out in the
Everglades, for the first Perseid peak night!

The neareast likely spot for meteor watching to both Jeff and me is the
mischievously named "Area 51" - observing site of the South Florida Amateur
Astronomy Association. We both have been interested in checking out this site
for some time, and this surely seemed like the right moment! Once we arrived
there, I realized that I'd be observing in a cloud of mosquitos tonight - no
cleansing ocean breezes out in the Glades! But skies at Area 51 are
unobstructed, and facing away from the monstrous, ugly light domes of nearby
Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, it is decently dark.

Rates were pretty much as expected for this site and my LM: sporadics were much
less in evidence, of course, away from the inky ocean horizon of the Keys. But
the Perseids were clearly dominated by brighter meteors, and that combined with
a (perhaps?) doubled ZHR meant that PER rates were quite noticeably higher from
the previous night, when my average LM had been about 0.8 magnitudes deeper.

Unfortunately, light domes, cirrus and thunderheads to the south, meant that we
were forced to watch northward tonight - so most meteors from the southern
"Aquarid-Capricornid" complex could not be easily distinguished from one
another, and are entered below (mostly) as "AQR" meteors.

Highlight of the night (and of this year's Perseid's so far) was a mag 0
yellow-white Perseid with a -6 (!) terminal burst, seen casually at 7:53:01 UT
low in the east across Pegasus and Pisces! "Lowlight" of the night were the
liters of blood I lost to the mighty and terrible Glades mosquitoes. :)

SUMMARY REPORT: 
Observer: Lew Gramer (GRALE) 
Location: Area 51, FL, USA (26.1418 lat, -80.8773 lon)
Date: 12/13 Aug 2004, Time: 0513-0833 UT
Teff = 2.45h (Breaks = 41m, Dead time 5s/meteor = 12m)
Avg LM: 6.5, Avg Cloud Obstruction: 0%
Total meteors: 134
PER=96, Spor=31, CAP=1, "AQR"=6


=====
Lew Gramer, owner-meteorobs at atmob.org,
owner-netastrocatalog at atmob.org, owner-nsaac at nsaac.org
Webmaster: http://meteorobs.org, http://visualdeepsky.org
Assistant: http://namnmeteors.org, http://atmob.org

Work email: lew at upstream.net


		
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