(meteorobs) November 19, 2004 Meteor Observations from California

[Robert Lunsford]

After a clear day cirrus rolled in at dusk and threatened my plans to
observe tonight. I woke at 10:00pm PST and the sky was partly overcast. It
was better than I expected but I still needed more sleep so I went back to
bed and rose again at 1:00am. The sky was better so I hopped in the truck
and drove to darker skies. I saw two bright Leonids while driving so
things looked promising. I began counting at 2:00am and my first two meteors
were Alpha Monocerotids.  Leonid activity started off slowly but the hour
still ended with ten shower members. This rate continued until 3:30am when
Leonid activity really took off. Between 3:30 and 3:35, 14 Leonids were
recorded. These were rates I was expecting for an entire hour so I was
pleasantly surprised. Most of these Leonids were bright during this short
burst with the brightest being -3. For the next half hour rates went back to
normal. Then at 4:09, another "mini-outburst" occurred when 12 Leonids were
seen in six minutes. Once again these Leonids were brighter than those seen
during the time of normal rates. During times of normal activity most of the
Leonids were faint, with +3's, +4's and +5's dominating. In all, I recorded
68 Leonids with a average magnitude of +2.21. This is much fainter than the
average for the first two nights. Other shower activity was low. The
sporadic activity was strange with hourly rates of 11, 5 and 15. That last
hour was really hopping as a total of 44 meteors was recorded. Good thing I
was using a cassette recorder to record data or I would have never kept
up!

November  19, 2004

1000-1100 UT   1.00   6.57    3 AMO  1 ANT   10 LEO
                                              11 SPO   25  TOTAL

1100-1200 UT   1.00   6.58    0 AMO  2 ANT   30 LEO
                                                5 SPO   37  TOTAL

1200-1300 UT   1.00   6.59    1 AMO  0 ANT   28 LEO
                                              15 SPO   44 TOTAL

TOTALS:           3.00   6.58    4 AMO  3 ANT   68 LEO
                                              31 SPO  106  TOTAL

The first column gives the period watched in Universal Time (UT)
which is PST + 8 hours. The second column gives the percent of that
particular hour actually spent observing the sky (1.00 = 100%, 0.99
= 99%). Time is lost for breaks and plotting. No breaks were taken
tonight. A cassette recorder was used for data entry during this session.
The third column gives the average limiting magnitude estimated during
each period. The last several columns list the activity for expected active
radiants during each period. Quite often no activity is observed and rates
equal zero. Tonight I was facing east with my field of view centered at
 50 degrees altitude. AMO = Alpha Monocerotids. ANT = Antihelion
 radiant (Taurids), LEO = Leonids and SPO = Sporadics (random activity).

Location: Alpine Viewpoint 116 40' W  32 50' N,  Elevation = 850m

Bortle Scale Estimate: Class 4: Rural / Suburban Transition

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 50 F (10 C) 64%
Ending              "               "             "        48 F (9 C) 66%

MAGNITUDES OF INDIVIDUAL METEORS PER RADIANT:

AMO:  0 (0)  +1 (1) +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (0)  AVG: +2.50
ANT :  0 (0)  +1 (2) +2 (1) +3 (0) +4 (0) +5 (0)  AVG: +1.33
LEO:  -3 (1)  -2 (1)  -1 (4)  0 (5) +1 (12) +2 (15)
          +3 (10) +4 (13) +5 (7) +6 (0)                    AVG: +2.21
SPO:   0 (2) +1 (4) +2 (4) +3 (7) +4 (8) +5 (6)   AVG: +3.06

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA