(meteorobs) Perseid Plans

[Bruce McCurdy]

> Weather prospects on Vancouver Island look poor for the Perseids.
> Rain on Monday and 60% rain predicted for Tuesday. Broken clouds on
> Wednesday! Oh well, we need a good rain, without the lightning, to
> get our forests wetted down and reduce the extreme fire risks we have
> been experiencing across British Columbia.  The fire fighters need a
> rest!

    Ed, I feel your pain, and share your desire for rain on the erstwhile 
"Wet Coast". That forest fire smoke has been borne on the prevailing winds 
from its source in British Columbia into Alberta skies. Not sure there's not 
some Sarychev Peak ash in the mix as well. Transparency has been pretty poor 
here for the last couple weeks, exacerbated recently by the bright 
moonlight.

    I've had a couple of sessions since the one I reported to the list back 
on July 25. An hour in the front yard on July 27 yielded just four meteors, 
none of them brighter than +3. Three nights later I spent a somewhat more 
productive 2.5-hour session after moonset out at Beaver Hills Dark Sky 
Preserve. Limiting magnitude near the zenith was down about 3/10 from normal 
under otherwise-good conditions, and worse near the horizons. As I commented 
on my voice recorder at the time, "The sky seems 'flat', and I'm not feeling 
too sharp myself!" In all I spotted 30 meteors including 8 Perseids, 8 
Aquariids and just 1 Capricornid. Results from the IMO report form are 
transcribed at bottom for those interested.

    The combination of continuing smoke and bright moonlight on subsequent 
nights deterred me from making a further trip, and a couple of attempted 
observing sessions from within the city have yielded next to nothing.

    As for plans, the timing of the peak is bad in that I am working at the 
Observatory until 22:00 on the 11th, and am leaving at 09:00 on the 12th on 
a 7-hour drive to the Cypress Hills for the Saskatchewan Summer Star Party 
which in IYA also doubles as the General Assembly of the RASC. That said, if 
there are clear skies on the 11/12 I will get out under them somehow 
someway. No way I'm missing that predicted outburst if it's clear locally, 
however, I won't be able to chase clear skies for the max as I did last 
year.

    I do anticipate getting in a few hours of post-peak observing over four 
nights at SSSP, and will be giving a live-under-the-stars meteor workshop on 
the Friday evening which promises to be challenging!

    Bruce
    *****


// Header section
night    2009-07-29/30
begin    2009-07-30 0730
end      2009-07-30 1000
observer "Bruce" "McCurdy" "MCCBR"
location 112 46 48 W, 53 32 12 N
site    "Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve" "Canada" "51128"
reporter "bmccurdy at telusplanet.net"

// Shower section
shower CAP 307 -10
shower ANT
shower SDA 339 -16
shower PER 046 +58
shower SPO

// Number section
// Interval  RA  Dec Teff F    Lm     CAP    ANT    SDA    PER    SPO
period 0730-0830 000 +30 1.000 1.00 6.10 -   / C   1 C   3 C   3 C   5
period 0830-0930 015 +30 1.000 1.00 6.10 C   1 C   1 C   4 C   4 C   4
period 0930-1000 030 +30 0.500 1.00 5.50 -   / -   / C   1 C   1 C   2

// Magnitude section
//          Show Interval     -6    -5    -4    -3    -2    -1    +0    +1 
+2    +3    +4    +5    +6    +7    Tot
distribution ANT 0730-0830   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0 
1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    1.0
distribution ANT 0830-0930   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0 
0.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    1.0
distribution SDA 0730-0830   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0 
1.0   2.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    3.0
distribution SDA 0830-0930   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   1.0 
0.0   1.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    4.0
distribution SDA 0930-1000   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0 
0.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    1.0
distribution PER 0730-0830   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0 
0.0   0.0   2.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    3.0
distribution PER 0830-0930   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0   0.0 
1.0   1.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    4.0
distribution PER 0930-1000   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0 
0.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    1.0
distribution SPO 0730-0830   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0 
0.0   1.0   2.0   1.0   0.0   0.0    5.0
distribution SPO 0830-0930   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0 
0.0   1.0   1.0   1.0   0.0   0.0    4.0
distribution SPO 0930-1000   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0 
0.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    2.0
distribution CAP 0830-0930   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0   0.0 
0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    1.0

// Personal comments
Sky conditions good but not ideal due to forest fire smoke from British 
Columbia
and possibly volcanic ash from Sarychev Peak.