(meteorobs) aurigids report from s. arizona

[Jim Rosenstock]

 I saw a couple dozen .  

I was observing from a campground in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern 
Arizona. VERY dark site.

I began observing 1030 UT (3:30 am PST or Arizona (standard) time). It started off with a 
bright, short meteor through Taurus, definitely radiating from Auriga....left a distinct trail.

>From 1030 to to 1100 I counted 9, all bright but two. From 1100 to 1130, 11, all but two 
bright. From 1130 to 1200, I observed 5, all bright. 

After that, only one, at 1219, that was as bright as Sirius, and flared noticeably at the end. 
Then dawn's early light took over...

The first hour of observing was pretty much cloud-free, transparency 8 going down to 7 
out of 10. From 1130 t0 1200, transparency worsened a notch, and broken clouds started 
moving in. After 1200 it was down to medium-sized "sucker holes"....

I sat beneath a 35-foot tall Saguaro cactus, which made an excellent occulting bar   , 
blocking Luna without removing much additional sky from view. A GREAT observing site!

During the 1030-1130 period, I observed 20, with the peak (apparently) centered about 
1115, about 15 mins in advance of predictions.

While I saw no true fireballs or bolides, all but 4 were bright, by my standards. Only the 4 
were at the edge of detectabilitiy for the conditions, so I'm thinking that Luna did not wash 
out too many dimmer Aurigids....i.e. most were bright enough to shine through the 
Moonglow, as predicted. 

My off-the-cuff estimate of ZHR for the short 15-minute period centered about 1115 goes 
thus: double the 20 rate for the full hour from 1030-1130 ; add (conservatively) 50% for 
Moonage and transparency imperfections, and double that rate to account for the radiant 
being well off the zenith, and I get an ideal-conditions ZHR of ~120 for the brief peak.

Though the mix of meteors was impressively skewed to the bright side, I did not find the 
colors to be strikingly unusual....somewhat yellow to yellow-green, but not unusually so 
for meteors in the negative magnitude range in my experience. Also, only about a quarter 
left really evident trails.

Ahhh well, perhaps in another 2K years, we'll have a REALLY good outburst!  

Clear skies,

Jim 

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