(meteorobs) A possible Hartley-id and the Void of Space from southern Maryland

[Richard Taibi]

At 1:15 UT, on 2 November, I made a quick sky check in the Cygnus region.  I saw a -1 magnitude star-like source that lasted more than a second, several degrees to the south of Deneb, near RA 300 degrees (20 h) and +40 Dec.  It resembled either a point-source meteor or an Iridium satellite flare.  A check of the Heavens Above website failed to find a satellite flare for that time or position in the sky.  I began to wonder if the light had been an early 'Hartley-id.' Rainer Arlt informed meteorobs that if a shower occurred, its maximum would occur about 12 h UT on 2 November, and in a sky position somewhere near where I had seen the head-on meteor.  So I travelled to Bel Alton, Maryland to see if there would be more Hartley-ids and observed from 3:12 to 4:30 UT, facing the northwest.  I decided on this because it was my longitude's only chance to watch before the predicted maximum of 12 h UT.  However, I saw no 'Hartley-ids' and only one +2 magnitude sporadic in the cloudless 1.30 hour watch. (Lm was 5.4).
 
I decided to continue the session, but instead face south (field center was northern Cetus, RA 40d, Dec +11 d).  I watched from 4:44 to 5:56 UT (Teff=1.20) and saw NO meteors under the cloudless and Lm= 5.5 sky.  The sky was a 'meteor-void' during this second watch!  I hope others had better luck.
 
Best wishes,
Rich