(meteorobs) Just one

[Bruce McCurdy]

[Richard Kramer]
> Last night at approx 0300 UTC 17 Aug 2007, my daughter casually
observed an almost certain KCG (trajectory and speed about right)
through an overcast sky which, based on her account, I'd estimate at
mag -4 to -6.

[Paul Martsching]
> Apparently the Kappa Cygnids are putting out fireballs this year.  The 
> number of
meteors seems to be normal  - no more than 3 per hour, but there are an 
unusual
number of reports of mag. -6, -8 and even -10 KGC's.  It looks like the 
weather
will no cooperate at all here for at least the next week.  Even with a 
limiting
magnitude of 5.0 it may be worth while to go out and observe a while, but 
will
be very lucky to get even that!

    All week I've been cursing the weather gods, albeit nowhere near as 
effectively as they've been cursing me! Thankfully I got that one decent 
session on Saturday morning August 11, two days before Perseid maximum, but 
of course that really whetted my appetite for more. And then, nothing. One 
faint sporadic at the Folk Fest that evening, but incoming clouds nixed a 
trip to the dark site, which by all accounts was clouded out by the time I 
could've made it. The night of the peak was an unmitigated white-out, the 
first time I've been skunked on peak night in 20 years. (I should be 
thankful, I guess, but all I felt like was @#$%^ cursing.)

    Throughout the week I intended to head out after my (urban) Observatory 
shift the first clear night, spurred on by reports on Meteorobs of 
"flashbulb" kappa Cygnids. I know the type, like the striking of a celestial 
match, and I was anxious to see just one. But each night the clouds rolled 
in, a couple of times just as I was shutting down the observing deck. Three 
different times on three different evenings the person I was facing 
exclaimed at the sight of a meteor, but I never saw even one. By my next 
night off on Friday it had cleared, but was so hazy I could only see 2nd mag 
stars from my back deck at home; I saw no point of heading for "dark" skies 
but did spend a fruitless hour or so on my deck, waiting for a celestial 
flame to shoot from a Dragon's mouth radiant. Still nothing. In baseball 
terms, I was 0-for-the-week.

    Today was another cloudy write-off, but late this evening I was out with 
my son and noticed a few stars overhead. He wanted to go for a ride and 
listen to some tunes, so with some alacrity I agreed and said "let's go see 
a kappa Cygnid". I told Kevin of the reports on meteorobs of -4, -6, -8, -10 
mag flashes, and we both agreed we should bag a -12 to complete the set. But 
as we drove, the ground fog from yesterday's heavy rain came up and got 
worse and worse, to the point that driving was no fun at all. We eventually 
emerged in relatively higher ground somewhere outside the city, but when we 
got out for a look the sky was already reduced to a couple of sucker holes 
in the next wave of endless cloud.. Kevin remarked on the cool view of the 
valley, in which the ground fog was somewhat successful in extinguishing the 
artificial lights of the acreages, but the sky above was a mess. "Just one!" 
I pleaded, and we rested on the side of the car, chatting and listening to 
tunes. The fog continued to rise, completely filling the valley and rising 
above us to white out even those sucker holes. At the moment I was ready to 
abandon hope, I saw a streak of light dropping towards the southwestern 
horizon. It was a very deep orange, as if it had been red-shifted by the 
fog; to my eye it was only about zeroeth magnitude, but there's no telling 
what it really was. Could have been that -12 for all I know ... there wasn't 
a star to be seen at that point even overhead, and this was near the 
horizon. I had a sense of a persistent train for a second or so, but whether 
that was on the sky or against the fog, I really can't say. It was like a 
mirage. Except ... it traced right back to the KCG radiant, which I had 
earlier pegged very near the zenith, and was about the right speed and 
trajectory. And I was looking right at it (though Kevin unfortunately was 
not).

    So after a week of frustration, in just a few minutes under seemingly 
hopeless conditions, I did indeed bag "just one", a ghostly apparition in 
burnt orange. Would have loved an unobstructed view, but the one I did get 
was pretty surreal. Well worth the trip ... hope you enjoyed the (rather 
wordy) ride!

    Bruce
    *****