(meteorobs) Keyhole counts
Bruce McCurdy
bmccurdy at telusplanet.net
Tue Aug 5 12:55:59 EDT 2008
I was almost getting ready for bed like a normal person, when I decided
to take one more look at the broken cloud before calling it a night. Well
wouldn't you know but a large swath of clearing sky was heading my way, and
within 15 seconds I saw a nice meteor of the type I call a Come Hitherid.
How could I resist?
Since bagging a dozen Perseids during the South Delta Aquariid peak one
week ago I have been chomping at the bit for more. The waxing summertime
Moon is low and sets early throughout the build-up, so I've been monitoring
the sky for all opportunities, with the intent of heading back out to Beaver
Hills Dark Sky Preserve on the next unambiguously clear night. A two-hour
return trip had better be worth the time, trouble and transportation toll.
So far, no clear nights, although tomorrow sounds promising. I have
taken advantage of a couple of sucker holes to observe for an hour from my
front yard right here in Light Pollution City. Not sure how valuable such
counts are for scientific purposes -- the typical limiting magnitude of
around mag 4.4 or .5 is only slightly deeper than IMO's threshold of 4.0.
But since I'm observing anyway ... play-by-play description follows.
Saturday night was pretty decent, but tonight was slow. I spent a little
time looking at the embedded triangles pointed out by Mark Davis in his
(excellent!) NAMN report, which was a new one to me. Very useful of the
Triangulum stars to roughly define mags 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0. I have always
used the Bowl of the Little Dipper to define mags 2, 3, 4*, and 5, but one
isn't always looking in that direction so new measuring sticks are always
welcome. Helps to while away the time on a night like tonight; and
eventually helped me calibrate the brightness of my final two meteors. As my
hour wound down the clouds were already rolling in; chasing a truly dark sky
tonight would have been folly.
Bruce
*****
Observer: Bruce McCurdy, MCCBR
Dates: 2008 August 3, 05:45 - 06:45 UT; Teff = 1.0 hour
and: 2008 August 5, 07:01-08:01 UT; Teff = 1.0 hour
Location: Front yard, central Edmonton, AB: 53°33'12" N,113°32'35" W
Limiting magnitude: = ~4.4; SQM = 18.6
Direction faced: East
Method: Visual; microcassette recorder and talking watch
Active radiants:
Kappa Cygnids (KCG) 18:52 (283) +58 Velocity - 25km/sec.
Alpha Capricornids (CAP) 20:44 (311) -08 Velocity - 23km/sec.
Antihelion (ANT) - 21:32 (323) -13 Velocity - 30km/sec.
Delta Aquariids (SDA) 22:52 (343) -15 Velocity - 41km/sec.
Pisces Austrinids (PAU) 23:04 (346) -28 Velocity - 35km/sec.
Perseid (PER) 02:16 (034) +55 Velocity - 59km/sec.
( ^^^^^ Thanks, Bob! ^^^^^ )
***
2008 August 3
05:45 start: LM = ~4.4; obscuration = 20%
05:51 PER 0 ~ 0.5 s
05:52 Spor +3
05:56 Spor +3 v. short path, nearly point meteor
06:01 PER +4
06:02 PER -1
06:28 CAP +3 v. slow, near Sadr
06:44 SDA +3
06:45 end
***
1 CAP: +3
1 SDA: +3
3 PER: -1, 0, +4
2 Spor: +3 (2)
Total meteors: seven
*****
2008 August 5
07:01 start: SQM = 18.6, LM = ~4.4; obscuration =
20%
07:03 PER 0 "fat meteor" w. broad wake, no train; near Polaris
07:46 Spor +3
07:46 ANT +4
08:01 end
***
1 ANT: +4
1 PER: 0
1 Spor: +3
Total meteors: three
*****
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