(meteorobs) Perseids from Southern France

[Koen Miskotte]

Hi,
A late report of my Perseid observations. 
During my vacation with my wife and kid  I stayed at the lovely village of Vaison La Romaine. It is famous because of old Roman structures such as foundations of buildings and a small theater (see also my website www.koenmiskotte.nl). I stayed at a small camping , 3 km outside Vaison. I found a good observing site in a vineyard outside the camping. The grapes tasted very sweet ;-). An advantage of this site was a small hill in eastern direction wich cover the sky for about 8 degrees. So during the nights around the Perseid maximum I had one hour extra without direct light of the moon.
There I could observe during the nights 3/4, 5/6, 10/11, 11/12, 12/13, 13/14 and 14/15 august. During the period 11-14 august I used a Canon EOS 40D equipped with a Sigma 4.5 mm fish eye lens. 

3/4 August 2009
In spite of an almost full moon I could observe during the period of 22:45 - 03:10 UT. Only the last hour there was no moon ( Lm 6.7). Limiting magnitudes between 5.9 to 6.7. Sky was very clear, no moisture, haze or so. Perseid counts between 1 to 14 an hour. Results: 4.42 hour effective observing time, 31 PER, 9 SDA, 0 CAP, 1 KCG, 1 ANT, 55 SPO. Total 97 meteors. Two bright meteors: a -5 and a -2 Perseid.

5/6 August 2009
Under a full moon I observed between 23:48 and 03:01 UT. Limiting magnitude between 5.2 and 5.4 . During t.eff 3,2 hours I counted 19 PER, 3 SDA, 0 CAP, 1 KCG, 0 ANT and 14 SPO. 2 Perseids of magnitude 0 were te brightest ones.

After a period with a thin cirrus cover (in combination with the moon it is impossible to observe meteors)  it finally cleared on 10 august.

10/11 august 2009
Clear night with moonlight. Limithing magnitude dropping down from 6.4 to 5.4. Observations ere done between 21:08 and 2:26 UT. Slow Perseid rates, mostly due to the moon. Hourly counts up to 20+. A highlight was a Perseid with a flare of magn. -6. Also some Perseids of -2 and -1 were seen. 
In total I counted 87 PER, 2 SDA, 1 CAP, 5 KCG, 5 ANT and 45 SPO. In total 145 meteors.

During daylight some patches of cirrus were visible, but they disappeared in the evening. 

11/12 august 2009
In the period of 20:24 and 3:15 UT I did see a normal Perseid display, maybe a bit weaker than normal. Limiting magnitude was dropping down from 6.7 to 5.4. In total I counted in teff 6,53 hours  161 PER, 5 KCG, 7 ANT and 71 SPO. In  total 244 meteors. Mostly weak meteors, the brightest Perseids were magnitude -1. A beautiful -3 (possible) Capricornid was captured with my all sky camera. This camera captured 7 meteors this night.

12/13 august 2009
Very clear night and especcially the first 2 or 3 hours were great. I made an early start because of the earthgrazers. I think they are the most beautiful meteors. After a while I realised the numbers of Perseids were quite good in respect to the low elevation of the radiant. After 20:40 some bright Perseids starts to appear. In the period of 20:40 and 21:15 I counted 8 Perseids between magnitude +1 and -4. The -4 Perseid appeared low in the northwestern sky with a terminal flare. 21:19 UT: flash! A very bright earthgrazing -6 Perseid moves through the constellations of Ursa Major, Bootes and Ophiuchus. Wow, what a beatiful meteor, leaving a persistent train of 15 seconds.
Some minutes after that: within ONE second three perseids appear in almost the same location: magnitudes resp.  -3, -1 and a +1. what a spectaculair sight it was. I realized then that surely there was someting going on, a small outburst? 
After that a decline of (bright) Perseids sets in, but activity stayed good during the remainder of this night.  At 2:45 UT another -6 Perseid appeared.
Results: Limiting magnitude between 6.7 and 5.7. Between 20:05 and 3:00 UT I counted 278 PER, 2 KCG and 89 SPO. In total: 376 meteors, not bad for a moonlit night. Brightest meteors: 2x -6 PER, -4 PER, -3 PER and many -2 and -1. 
The all sky kamera captured 21 meteors, 13 during the first 2,5 hour. The Perseid of 2:45 was not captured (!) , problaby it appeared during the short period between two photo's (only 2 seconds....). 

13/14 august 2009
Another clear night. This time I observed a shorter period because of plans for the next day. Between 20:05 and 0:18 UT limithing magnitudes dropped slowly from 6.7 to 6.1. Perseid counts up to 21 an hour. Two bright Perseids: a -3 and -2. In total I counted (teff 4,20 hour) 64 PER, 6 KCG, 4 ANT and 64 SPO.

14/15 august 2009
Last night, the next day we had the journey back to the Netherlands (1200 km) with a high speed train named Thalys (250-300 km an hour!).
Between 20:10 and 23:18 UT ( 3,1 hour) I counted 23 PER, 5 KCG, 4 ANT and 42 SPO. Total: 74 meteors.

All my data (and after this three nights at Ermelo, teh Netherlands ) is seen at: http://umdb.urania.be/v2/obsview/perseids2009.php

Best wishes, 
Koen Miskotte