(meteorobs) Bootid obs, Sharon Massachusetts, June 26/27

[Richard Kramer]

Thought I would take a look for the possible enhanced Bootid activity 
tonight. Headed to my local spot in late twilight to be greeted by a rather 
enthusiastic party of mosquitos. Sent most of them to commune with their 
ancestors and settled in among the quicker ones which remained. Pretty cool 
out there tonight, but since this is the result of the frontal passage 
which cleared the skies late this afternoon (with a rainbow producing 
downpour) the cool, cloudless air was very welcome.

The fireflies were active in the treetops, some of them doing good 
imitationd  msg -5 skipping fireballs. The fireflies seemed to be flying 
very fast this evening. Perhaps the cooler weather makes them fly 
faster?  I quickly tuned them out along with the heavy air traffic into 
Logan Airport. The satellite traffic seemed almost as congested as the 
atmospheric traffic this twilight. I could not get used to the moon, nor 
could I find a convenient shadow in which to hide. I ended up having to 
shield the moon with my hand (which was rather tiresome).

First meteor of the night was a mag 3 apparent sporadic which traced 
solidly back to the JLY radiant and is being reported as such. This was 
followed 10 minutes later by a long, entrancing mag 3 JBO which I soon 
decided was a satellite in polar or near polar orbit doing an excellent 
imitation of a JBO. The tip off was the -3 magnitude flare which was not 
accompanied by a visible train. Also, I realized it was traversing much too 
much sky for a meteor originating relatively close to the radiant.

The first sporadic of the night was a dramatic earth grazer which I first 
noticed in Cygnus and which passed the meridian before fading. Although 
only mag 3, it left a blue white track which persisted for nearly a second.

The 2 JBO's were each bright orange. The last one of the night was bright 
enough to catch my attention in my perhipheral vision even though it was 
passing within 5 degrees of the moon. Since it was passing so near the 
bright moon, it was hard to estimate its magnitude and it may well have 
been brighter than the mag -1 I assigned.

---------
Richard Kramer Sharon MA USA
71 deg 10.87 min W   42 deg 6.53 min N  Elev 220 ft

EDT 21:22 26 Jun to 22:41 26 June
UTC 01:22 27 Jun to 02:41 27 June

Showers observed June Bootids  JBO
                  June Lyrids   JLY

27 June 2004
UTC              Teff   LM    JBO    JLY    SPO    Total
01:22 - 01:30    0.17   2.5    0      0      0       0
01:30 - 01:55    0.41   3.5    0      1      0       1
01:55 - 02:41    0.72   4.0    2      0      2       4

Magnitude Distributions
           -2  -1  0  1  2  3  4
JBO        1   1  0 0  0  0  0
JLY        0   0  0  0  0  1  0
SPO        0   1  1  0  0  0  0

Notes:
1. Sky clear with significant moonlight
2. 15% obstruction by trees on NW perhiphery plus shield used against moonlight
3. Center of view in Hercules
4. Temp 60F dropping to 57F, wind variable and very light