(meteorobs) Perseids 2006

[Koen Miskotte]

Hello,
In the period of 22 july untill 5 august I had a vacation with my family in southern France. There we rented a small house with a distance of 3 kilometers near the village of Entrecastaux (Var region in the Provence). The Provence is famous for his crystal clear night sky's. There I was able to observe the southern meteor streams and the Perseids.
Some results of this campaign (lm= maximum Lm, no average):

Date     Teff  Lm   N stream   N Spo   N tot   Remarks
22/23-7  2,00  6,6      10        21      31    
23/24-7  2,98  6,6      19        35      54   -5 ANT
25/26-7  2,97  6,6      34        48      82   -3 PER
26/27-7  4,57  6,7      54        66     120   -3 PER
27/28-7  0,93  6,7       3        13      16   
28/29-7  5,59  6,8      64       101     165   -6 SDA
29/30-7  4,20  6,7      62        59     118   -3, -3 CAP, -3 PER
30/31-7  4,76  6,8      75        83     158   -5 CAP, -7 PER
01/02-8  1,93  6,5      21        26      47   Strong mistral, increasing cirrus
02/03-8  1,72  6,6      17        22      39   Strong mistral, increasing cirrus
03/04-8  5,69  6,8      91       115     206   Strong mistral (8bft)
04/05-8  3,28  6,7      63        53     116   

In short: 
- teff 40,68 hour
- Total observed meteors: 1152
- Fireballs: 9
- All data is sent to NAMN, IMO and DMS
- Very strong mistral on 3/4-8, resulting in a very dark and clear sky. Sometimes in northeastern direction thin patches of cirrus were passing. Mistral is a strong northern wind, on most occasions it appears when a depression is near the Alpes or the Gulf of Genua. 
-30/31-7 was a special night. That night I observed my 50000st meteor (first observations done in april 1980!).
-With my Canon EOS 10 D and a Canon EF 2.8/15 mm (attached to a Vixen Great Polaris Mount) I photographed 18 meteors. The best one's are placed on my website: http://home.planet.nl/~misko002/ amongst them a nice -5 Capricornid fireball.

Some day's before I left to France I recieved WGN. So I used the new working list of meteor streams to classify meteors (SDA, PER, CAP, ANT, PSA and SPO).
The southern delta Aquarids are a great meteor stream on southern locations! I observed this stream from  Crete  2003 (35 north latitude), Chios island 2001 (38,5 north latitude) and southern France 1984, 1985, 1986, 1993 & 2006 (43,5 north latitude). It is interesting to see my highest SDA counts on Crete were 15-20 an hour, my highest counts in France were 9-12 an hour. The SDA radiant rises 9 degrees higher on Crete!
Also the Perseids became more and more active during this period. Hourly counts rises from 4 (23 july) tot 15 an hour (5 august). 
All in all I had a great time observing the summer streams. Weather in the Provence is much more stable than in my home country the Netherlands.
Best wishes,
Koen


Koen Miskotte
e-mail: k.miskotte at wxs.nl
web: http://home.planet.nl/~misko002/
webmaster: www.jaapschildert.com