(meteorobs) Observing report from Woodstock, IL 2005-08-01

[GeoZay at aol.com]

>>Observer:Al Degutis  Date: 2005-08-01 Begin: 08:10   End: 09:10   
Location: Stargate Observing Deck -  Woodstock, IL   Latitude: 42° 22' 0"   
Longitude: -88°  29' 0"   Elevation: 282 meters   Limiting Magnitude: 4.5 @  
08:10 
Direction Facing & Altitude: E 60° @ 08:15 E  75° @ 08:45   Percent 
Clouds:   Sky Conditions:   Seeing average 3/5 @ 08:15  
Transparency  poor 2/10 @ 00:00  <<


Al, I noticed your Limiting Magnitude for this observation to be 4.5. I  hate 
to say it, but recording meteor data with an LM under 5.0 is almost  useless 
for study purposes. I doubt IMO will use any meteor data gathered  under skies 
brighter than 5.0.  The reason is that the lower your LM is,  the more 
inaccuracies in the data will be introduced for things such as ZHR  and population 
index. If I thought I was gonna have an LM under 5.0, I'd  either move to 
darker skies if available and/or look towards a darker part of  the sky...away from 
moon interference as well as city lights. Here's something  to think about 
for the Perseids:
 
With LM = 4.0
expect about 10 meteors seen
 
With LM = 5.0
expect about 25 meteors seen
 
With LM=6.0
expect about 75 meteors seen
 
With LM= 6.5
expect about 90 meteors seen
 
George Zay