(meteorobs) Perseids-2004 in Zvenigorod, RU (informal)

[Denis V. Denissenko]

Hello all!  Just returned home after two nights at the youth camp in
Moscow region.  We have counted over 500 meteors in total (232 on Aug.
11/12 and 331 on Aug. 12/13) despite the clouds.  About 90 per cent of
activity was from Perseids.  Complex of radiants in Aquarius produced
most of the rest 10%.  There were also a few early kappa-Cygnids seen.

I must say right off that I don't have the formal report with me.  The
matter is that I was rather helping out the tutors to teach the kids
than observing myself. :-)  There are 12 pupils there aged from 8 to 15
with two teachers from astronomy section of Moscow Palace for children's
creativity (astro.mgdtd.ru).  At every time, two or three or four people
were watching the meteors and someone was recording their time,
magnitude and shower identity as a secretary.  Meanwhile some children
were learning the constellations, stellar magnitudes, how to determine
limiting magnitude and brightness of meteors.  That took perhaps 25-30%
of observing time.

As usual with unexperienced observers, the brightness estimates of the
same meteor were varying among different people.  Many kids
overestimated moderately bright ones, for example, giving -1 magnitude
to +1 meteors.  Educational measures were applied to correct that. ;-)
All in all, it was a good fun.  We tried to make people watch the
specified area of sky, but every now and then somebody outcried "Oh!"
and "Ah!" making everybody to turn their heads and watch the meteor's
train disappear.  Several flashing satellites were distracting, too.

Talking about the weather, we were discouraged by the Wednesday evening:
there was steady 90 to 95 per cent cloud cover from 19:00 UT to 21:00 UT
on Aug. 11th.  That's why we didn't have a chance to look for predicted
one-rev peak.  Even despite overcast, 5-6 meteors per hour were seen
through the holes in clouds.

Then it suddenly cleared after 1:00 local time (UT+0400), and the next
three hours gave 60-80 meteors each.  But before dawn clouds approached
again from the west.  We still had a chance to look east and saw three
Iridium flares near Venus.

Incredible sight was when the sky was completely overcast.  Not even
Venus or the Moon were seen, let alone Vega or Altair.  Suddenly several
people at once saw their shadows on the ground, and someone spotted
bolide flash by the side vision.  When I looked where he was pointing, I
saw a reddish train which cut through the clouds and was visible for at
least 10 seconds, slowly fading and changing its shape.  Once again,
that was with the limiting visual magnitude about -6..-8!  So the bolide
was perhaps at least -10m bright.

Finally, right before the sunrise (at about 6:00) it started to rain.

The second night (August 12/13) was better from the weather's point of
view.  The cloud cover was about 50 per cent for only 20 minutes.  The
rest of night was clear with limiting magnitude up to 6.2-6.3.  By the
way, I noticed strange thing: when I counted 13 stars in standard area
14 in Cygnus in the beginning of the night, one young boy said "I only
see four there"!

Overall rates averaged for one-hour periods were quite steady (55-75
meteors from 23:00 Aug 12th to 4:00 Aug 13th MSK).  Some 10-minute
intervals stood out with 18 and even 21 meteors seen.  There was one
case when 5 meteors appeared during 1 minute.  Several "twin" Perseids
were seen.  And one of the most exciting moments was when three meteors
of -2, 0 and +1 mag appeared close to radiant in 2 seconds after each
other.  One of them was caught on digital camera.  Images are downloaded
to the notebook, but there is no internet access at the camp.

The other highlight of the second night was -5m Iridium flare near Venus
(also captured on photo).  Some kids went for a walk to watch the
sunrise, and on return to the camp they reported seeing a Perseid meteor
(or rather bolide) on the already bright sky!  Having seen Venus with
the naked eye in the daylight before, I suppose from their words this
bolide was at least -5..-6 mag.  I wonder - has anyone seen daylight
Perseids before?!?

Anyways, it was an exciting Friday, 13th.  Yet the roof on the 10" Meade
pavillion went off in the morning hitting the foot of the camp
instructor.  Luckily, there was no injure.  Later we found that some
people got poisoned by the canned meat, but it's OK now after medical
measures were applied. :-]

Sorry for such a long post!  I'm on vacation now and rarely connect to
internet from home only.  Looking forward to seeing pictures of
Perseids-2004 when I get back to work with unlimitied broadband access!

Denis in Moscow