(meteorobs) Perseids observations 2004

[stormchaser at home.nl]

After the numbers, here's the story!

Shortly after the Perseids in 2003 preparations for this year started. Everyone was looking to get a frontrow seat to catch a glimpse of a possible peak predicted by Esko Lyytinen.

Arnold Tukkers suggested to go to Rumania and initially a large group of observers indicated that they intented to go along. But with every month more people made their own plans and when became clear that we would stay in Rumania for a longer period I was among them.

At first I still was thinking about meeting up with the observers in Rumania for a couple of days but together with Sietse Dijkstra I decided to not make any definite plans and to let the weather decide our destination.

Yet again the plans had to be changed. It became clear that I had to be at work no matter what on August 11. Sietse then decided to go to the Centro de Observação Astronómica no Algarve in Portugal.

I first observed on the night of July 26/27 (4 perseids in 1.5 hours), then July 27/28 (1 perseid in 0.75 hours). After that the full moon and clouds kept me from observing untill August 5/6 (2 perseids in 1.25 hours) and August 7/8 (13 perseids in 2.17 hours)

By now everyone was looking eagerly at the predicted weather for Wednesday the 11th. The remains of hurricane Alex had crossed the Atlantic and they ended a heatwave. They also brought an end to a period of fairly clear skies. Yet as the day came closer it also became clearer that there could be a small cloudless area between two frontal systems of the depression.

Then the sad news about Sid Ferreira reached me. Eventhough I did not know him apart from a couple of posts on the meteorobs list it was a bit of a shock and it did put the dissapointment of not being able to get August 11 off from work in a new perspective.

August 10/11 was clouded out. But during the day the clouds broke, making place for a milky sky. The eastern part of the Netherlands had a good chance for several hours of clear skies during the night, though there was a chance fog would form.

I made my final plan: I would head out to the observatory in Lattrop to observe. This even left me time to attend baseball practice.

More observers had chosen Lattrop, so in no time there were about 8 people setting up their stuff in the parking lot (which offers the best field of view). At about 20:15 UT the first Perseid was seen and around 20:27 UT a very bright vivid green meteor fell towards the southern horizon.

At 20:30 I started couting. Activity was good and a lot of bright Perseids appeared. One of the highlights of the night was a -4 Perseid that left a trail that remained visible for at least 12 seconds at about 20:55 UT.

At one time the fog got so bad that we had to move to the observatories rooftop terrace. From there the skies where great again. During the last couple of hours of the night activity was magnificent. We saw simultaneous meteors at least three times.

The next day brought a bit of discussion about the predicted peak. Some said yes others said no. And then there was a shock. It seemed the end of visual observing had come as one man and his videocamera discarded the results of dozens of visual observers: there was NO PEAK.

Yet as more and more observations where added, the increase in activity remained visible. The peak also appeared in radio observations and in Sirko Molau's video observations.

Still some care should be taken, a lot of the observations come from locations where the radiant was still quite low and are made by very eager observers.

Apart from the increased activity early on, there also were a lot of bright meteors as pointed out first by Marco Langbroek. Usually the brightest Perseids appear some days befor the maximum, but now observations show plenty for the maximum night. I counted 35 perseids of magnitude 0 or brighter!

August 12/13 was clouded out again.

Daniel van Os