(meteorobs) Lousy Lyrid Luck

[Bruce McCurdy]

> When I got ready to observe at 06:15 it was so cloudy I thought I might 
> not observe at all.  By 06:30 conditions had improved.

    Thanks for your always-welcome report, Paul. Glad to har somebody on 
MeteorObs actually got to see some Lyrids, it's been mighty quiet around 
here. (Although I have reason to suspect we will yet hear from Bob 
Lunsford.)

    Here in Alberta winter retains her icy grip. Despite dire forecasts, we 
got a bit of a sucker hole on peak night, the calm at the centre of the 
system perhaps, and if I had gone before midnight I might have got a couple 
of hours. Instead I waited until 1 a.m. to head out, and made it to the edge 
of the city before (wisely, it turned out) heading back home. Sudden winds 
gusting to 70 kph created a sand and gravel storm to lead the front, and the 
clouds just zoomed in after that. I returned home in time to watch them 
advance from the north at an angular speed faster than the ISS, going 
wall-to-wall in about 5 minutes. The sky remained hopelessly socked in right 
through the would-have-been-spectacular occultation of Venus the following 
morning, so my long-anticipated doubleheader turned out to be a bust.

    As I write this non-report two nights later it is snowing again and I 
despair whether spring will arrive before perpetual twilight does in 
mid-May. At least the latter can be predicted with some assurance.

    Bruce
    *****