(meteorobs) Alpha lyncid report from Alberta

[Bruce McCurdy]

[Third attempt to post, the first two didn't make it; apologies in advance 
if they all come through at once]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce McCurdy" <bmccurdy at telusplanet.net>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 2:55 AM
Subject: alpha Lyncid report from Alberta


... as in alpha Lyncid, singular.

I left the city about 19:30 MST and drove northwest hoping to hit the
promised clearing a little before the peak. It cleared a little more slowly
than I hoped, and there was blowing snow across the highway with occasional
heavy gusts which kept two hands on the wheel and the foot a little less
heavy on the gas pedal. I was just rolling out from under the clouds by
20:40 which was the predicted maximum, so I pulled over at the first
opportunity. Well the skies were really not good, there was the incestuous
trio of bright moonlight, snow cover and high cloud all feeding off each
other and altogether too much whiteness in all directions. The wind was
really howling too, gusts of 50 to 60 klicks I would guess, which combined
with a -15 C. temperature made things pretty unpleasant. I took as much
cover as I could, looked toward the Big Dipper and away from the Moon, and
for a dozen minutes I saw absolutely nothing. So I can put a constraint that
there was no outburst of bright meteors in the minutes following 03:40 UT.

Fast moving clouds rapidly filled in the hole and I was freezing, so I
hopped back in the car and drove for a few more minutes to clearer skies. I
found a back road away from the highway, oriented the car facing east, and
simply rolled down the window on the driver side. This enabled me to observe
the northern sky from the horizon up to 70 degrees, and blocked the moon
completely in the roof of the car. Most importantly, it kept me warm,
comfortable, and out of the wind. So there I stayed for the next hour, from
about 04:05 - 05:05 UT.

I could just make out the handle stars of the Little Dipper, so the limiting
magnitude was maybe 4.5. I saw an early sporadic which might have been an
Anthelion. Then at 04:16 I saw a dim flash streaking into the bowl of the
Big Dipper, slicing from right to left in between Merak and Phecda and
heading in the general direction of Megrez. It was similar in brightness to
Megrez and fainter than the other Dipper stars, so 3rd mag at best, more
likely 3.5. But its speed and direction *seemed* consistent with the radiant
of the alpha Lyncids. So that's what I'm calling it, although I can't rule
out it being a sporadic. It's not like I had a lot of time to admire it, nor
a bunch of other examples to compare it to.

The rest of my hour yielded no more alpha Lyncid candidates, but I did see
three more meteors including one sporadic and two Ursids. The first of these
was a faint but gorgeous near-point meteor very slowly moving just to the
right and away from Kochab. Then at 04:45 UT I saw the best meteor of the
night, a stately white beauty that brightened erratically, reaching about
zeroeth magnitude as it also cruised into the bowl of the Big Dipper, but
angling slightly downward and from the left.

As I pondered Kochab hanging almost straight underneath Polaris, the nearby
radiant at lower culmination but still almost 40 degrees above the northern
horizon, I had a flashback to the morning sky of 2007 Sep 1, with Kochab
swinging under Polaris and the Big Dipper just beginning to ascend in the
northeast. On that occasion too there was a fat gibbous moon almost 90%
illuminated soaring through Aries, except that time it was a waning Moon,
this time a waxing. But it's four sidereal months later, and both peaks
happened at almost the same sidereal time. There was no hint of a rising Sun
on tonight's horizon, however, in fact not much evidence of the Sun's
existence period. Brrr.

So 150 km drive for not quite nothing, but little enough. Perhaps my one
alpha Lyncid obs is important, assuming one of the possible outcomes of a
prediction based on one prior observation was no shower whatsoever. Too bad
it didn't have a few friends to provide a little confirmation.

Brrrruce
*****


Observer: Bruce McCurdy MCCBR
Location: Township Road 534 west of Range Road 33, near Sangudo, AB @
53.599127,-114.390678
Time: 2007 December 21, 03:42-05:05  UT; Teff = 1.2 hours
Limiting magnitude = 3.5 to 4.5

03:42-03:54    no meteors    horrible conditions

04:05     start
04:11    SPO    +3    possible ANT
04:16    ALY    +3    strong candidate
04:27    URS    +3    v. near radiant
04:39    SPO    +4
04:46    URS    0       / 1.5 s, stately, white, erratic
05:05    end

1 ALY: +3
2 URS: 0, +3
2 SPO: +3, +4
Total meteors: five