(meteorobs) November 19, 2004 Meteor Observations from California

[josephasmus at cox.net]

Nice report...I am bummed I didn't go!
> 
> From: "Robert Lunsford" <lunro.imo.usa at cox.net>
> Date: 2004/11/19 Fri PM 01:48:41 EST
> To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
> Subject: (meteorobs) November 19, 2004 Meteor Observations from California
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
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