(meteorobs) Taurids, WVa, 10/30/05

George Gliba gliba at milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov
Mon Oct 31 10:47:56 EST 2005


                 Screech Owl Hill Observatory, Mountain Meadows
                        West Virginia 385710N 0785544W
                             October 29/30, 2005

  We had almost perfect transparency for Sunday morning from our cabin
at Mountain Meadows, West Virginia. The temperature was 23 deg. F. with
a wind chill near 0 deg. F. Like other meteor observers, I noticed more 
Southern than Northern Taurids. The best meteor seen was a beautiful -3 
magnitude STA fireball, seen casually while binocular observing, at 8:16 
UT. It had a green nucleus, a yellow corona with red sparks, and was 
bifurcated. Several late Orionids were also spotted, and many sporadics 
were seen. During three hours of formal meteor observing, from 4 to 7 UT, 
69 meteors were observed and recorded. Below is a short breakdown of what 
was seen:

  Time (UT)  LM  %Obst. NTA  STA  ORI  NPX  SPX  SPO  Total   FOV  Comments
04:00-05:00  6.5   0%    4    4    1    2    0    15    26  2.5+10  clear
05:00-06:00  6.5   0%    1    3    3    1    2    11    21  3.5+10  clear
06:00-07:00  6.5   0%    2    3    3    2    1    11    22  4.5+10  clear

Magnitude Distribution (04:00-07:00 UT)

     0  1  2  3  4  5  Total  Ave.
NTA  0  3  2  1  1  0    7    2.0
STA  1  3  4  2  0  0   10    1.7
ORI  0  1  3  1  2  0    7    2.6
NPX  0  1  2  0  1  1    5    2.6
SPX  1  0  0  0  2  0    3    2.7
SPO  0  5  9 11  7  5   37    2.9

Happy Halloween,
GWG




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