(meteorobs) Obs: 01/02 Aug 2008

pmartsching at mchsi.com pmartsching at mchsi.com
Sat Aug 2 13:47:54 EDT 2008


02 August 2008 04:00-09:00 UT (CDST 01/02 August 11:00pm - 04:00am)

Paul Martsching
McFarland Park 4 miles NE of Ames, Story County, Iowa
Long: 93 deg 34 min W  Lat: 42 deg 05 min W  Elevation: ~1,040 feet
Method: Visual; paper, pencil & talking clock

04:00-05:00; 69 degrees F; wind NE 5 mph; clear; average limiting magnitude 5.5
(sky glow over Ames in SW); facing SE 45 degrees; total teff 1.0 hour
Time   mag.  type   comment
04:03  +3    KCG
04:05  +1    CAP    yellow
04:11  +1    CAP    orange
04:20  +3    Spor
04:21  +5    Spor
04:33  +1    PER    yellow; brief train
04:34  +1    Spor
04:57  +2    CAP
Antihelion: none
Capricornids: three: +1(2); +2
Kappa Cygnid: one: +3
Perseid: one: +1
Pisces Austrinid: none
South Delta Aquarid: none
Sporadics: three: +1, +3, +5
Total meteors: eight

05:00-06:00; 65 deg F; calm; clear; aver.lim.mag. 5.6; facing SE 50 deg; total
teff 1.0 hour
Time   mag.   type   comment
05:18  +1     ANT
05:19  +1     CAP    yellow
05:24  +3     PER
05:32  +3     Spor
05:42  +4     Spor
05:53  +3     Spor
Antihelion: one: +1
Capricornid: one +1
Kappa Cygnid: none
Pisces Austrinid: none
Perseid: one: +3
South Delta Aquarid: none
Sporadics: three: +3(2); +4
Total meteors: six

06:00-07:00; 65 deg F; calm; clear; aver.lim.mag. 5.6; facing SE 45 deg; total
teff 1.0 hour
Time   mag.   type   comment
06:02  +1     CAP
06:03  +5     Spor
05:07  -1     CAP    brief train
05:25  -2     ANT    orange
05:27  +1     SDA    yellow
05:42  +3     Spor
05:42  +3     ANT
05:42  +3     PER
05:44  +4     PER
05:47  +3     PAU
05:54  +2     PER    brief train
Antihelions: two: -2; +3
Capricornids: two: -1; +1
Kappa Cygnid: none
Pisces Austrinid: one: +3
Perseids: three: +2; +3; +4
South Delta Aquarid: one: +1
Sporadics: two: +3; +5
Total meteors: eleven

07:00-08:00; 63 deg F; calm; clear; aver.lim.mag. 5.6; facing SE 45 deg; total
teff 1.0 hour
Time   mag.   time   comment
07:13  +5     PER
07:13  +3     SDA
07:17  +1     CAP    yellow
07:28  +2     Spor
07:34  +4     Spor
07:39  +2     Spor
07:43  +4     Spor
07:45  +3     PER
07:55  +3     Spor
Antihelion: none
Capricornid: one: +1
Kappa Cygnid: none
Pisces Austrinid: none
Perseids: two: +3; +5
South Delta Aquarid: one: +3
Sporadics: five: +2(2), +3; +4(2)
Total meteors: nine

08:00-09:00; 61 deg F; calm; clear; aver.lim.mag. 5.8; facing SE 45 deg (slight
direction change); total teff 1.0 hour
Time   mag.   type   comment
08:00  +3     Spor
08:04  -2     PER    yellow; 2 second train
08:05  -2     CAP    yellow
08:08  +1     Spor   brief train
08:09   0     ANT
08:10  +2     SDA
08:12  +1     CAP    yellow
08:31  -1     Spor   yellow
08:34  +3     PER    brief train
08:38  +3     SDA
08:38  +2     Spor
08:30  +2     PER    brief traiin
08:30  +4     SDA
08:50  +3     Spor
08:54  +2     ANT
Antihelion: two: 0; +2
Capricornids: two: -2; +1
Kappa Cygnids: none
Pisces Austrinid: none
Perseids: three: -2; +2; +3
South Delta Aquarids: three: +2; +3; +4
Sporadics: five: -1; +1, +2, +3(2)
Total meteors: fifteen

Magnitude distribution: five hours; average limiting magnitude 5.62
Antihelion: five: -2; 0; +1; +3, +3
Capricornids: nine: -2; -1; +1(6); +2
Kappa Cygnid: one: +3
Perseids:  ten: -2; +1, +2(2); +3(4); +4, +5 
Pisces Austrinid: one: +3
South Delta Aquarids: five: +1, +2, +3(2); +4
Sporadics: eighteen: -1; +1(2); +2(3); +3(7); +4(3); +5(2)

Jets by hour: 7; 6; 3; 4; 7.

Only one firefly during last hour; many fireflies during first couple of hours.

About 1:17 am CDST (06:17 UT) there was a bright flash - I thought that perhaps
a bright meteor had occurred behind me (I was facing SE to avoid at least some
of the sky glow over Ames in the SW) but thought maybe it was just one of those
super-bright fireflies turning on just back of my head.  At that time Dave
Oesper in Wisconsin saw a bright Capricornid fireball which exploded below his
horizon in my general direction.  If it weren't for the sky glow over Ames, I
would have been facing South and probably would have seen it.  (There is a
species of firefly which has an extremely bright, deep yellow light.  I saw
several of these during my observing session.  These are very bad on dark
adaptation, especially if they light up within a few feet of my face.)

I was out for an hour and a half the previous night, but it was so hazy that the
average limiting magnitude was only ~4.5 when I first arrived and it never got
better than 5.0, so I went home.  

2008 has been a terrible year for astronomy in Iowa.  Earlier in the year it was
very cloudy and snowy.  This spring and summer it has been cloudy and very wet
and often very hazy or foggy at night.  All the corn just makes the humidity
that much worse!  It is almost never clear in late afternoon and early evening -
it is useless to even look at any article mentioning planets and the Moon near
each other in the West in the evening - usually the heating of the day brings
clouds, if not thunderstorms, during that time of day. In Iowa we are well past
our annual average rainfall, even if it doesn't rain a drop from now till the
end of the year. 




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