(meteorobs) September 9, 2004 Meteor Observations from California

[Robert Lunsford]

Well, I spent another frustrating night on Mt. Laguna. The session started
out clear and dark with 12 meteors seen. Now this is more like it!. Well, in
comes the altocumulus again and nearly wiped out my second hour, limiting me
to only five meteors. The third hour was a wipeout and I gave up and headed
to work early. The highlight of the session was the possible detection of
three members of the Alpha Triangulids. I was able to plot two of them. No
possible members of the September Taurids were seen. Both the Alpha Aurigids
and the September Perseids were weaker tonight, but that is not a fair
statement considering the conditions,

This was all for me for this week. I plan to be back out as much as possible
starting again on September 12.


September 9, 2004

0900-1000 UT  0.96  6.71  1 ANT   2 ATR   1 AUR  2 DAU   0 NPX
                                            0 SPX   6 SPO   12  TOTAL

1000-1100 UT  0.96  6.54  1 ANT   1 ATR   0 AUR  0 DAU   0 NPX
                                            0 SPX   3 SPO    5  TOTAL

TOTALS:          1.92  6.62  2 ANT   3 ATR   1 AUR  2 DAU   0 NPX
                                            0 SPX   9 SPO   17  TOTAL

The first column gives the period watched stated in Universal Time (UT)
which is PDT + 7 hours. The second column gives the percent of that
particular hour actually spent observing the sky where 1.00 equals sixty
minutes. The third column gives the average limiting magnitude estimated
during each period. The last several columns list the activity seen during
 each period. I was facing north at an altitude of 50 degrees during the
entire session. No breaks were taken.  ANT = Antihelion radiant, ATR
= Alpha Triangulids, AUR= Alpha Aurigids, DAU = September Perseids,
 NPX = Northern Apex, SPX = Southern Apex and SPO = Sporadics
(random activity).

Location: Pine Valley Viewpoint 116 29' 43" W 32 49' 49" N  ELE = 1300 m

Bortle Scale Estimate: Inapplicable due to moonlight.

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 65 F (18 C) 74%
Ending              "               "             "        65 F (18 C) 72%

MAGNITUDES:

ANT:  -1 (0) 0 (0)  +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (0)   AVE: +3.50
ATR : -1 (0) 0 (0)  +1 (1) +2 (0) +3 (2) +4 (0) +5 (0)   AVE: +2.33
AUR : -1 (0) 0 (0)  +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0) +4 (1) +5 (0)   AVE: +4.00
DAU :  0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6 (0)  AVE: +2.50
SPO:   0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (3) +3 (4) +4 (1) +5 (1) +6 (0)   AVE: +3.00

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA