(meteorobs) Obs: 01 Octobder 2010

[pmartsching at mchsi.com]

I went out for an hour to look for South Taurids before Moon rise.  I saw only one dim STA, but I did see a nice sporadic.  At 03:37 UT (10:37 CDST) a meteor began 1 degree South of Hamal.  It was slow and orange and I expected it to perhaps reach zero magnitude.  But it brightened rapidly - reaching mag. -8 before disappearing suddenly in far E Cetus - two degrees SE of Taurus-1 (in far W Taurus).  It was pale blue-green with deep red-orange trail/wake, but no train.  No apparent fragmentation.  

01 October 2010 03:30-04:30 UT (30 Sep/01 Oct 10:30-11:30 pm CDST)
McFarland Park 4 miles NE of Ames, Story County, Iowa, USA
Long: 93 deg 34 min W  Lat: 42 deg 05 min N  Elevation 318 meters

South Taurids
Sporadics

Temperature 48 deg F; dew pt 45 deg F; wind calm; clear; LM 5.7; facing E 50 deg; total teff 1.0 hour
UT     mag    type    comment
03:37  -8     Spor    slow; no train; no apparent fragmentation; began orange; became pale blue-green
03:39  +3     Spor
03:53  +1     Spor    yellow
03:54  +3     STA
07:36  +2     Spor
STA: one: +3
Sporadics: four: -8; +1; +2; +3
Total meteors: five

I looked at Uranus and Jupiter in binoculars.  Mira was strongly red-orange in binoculars.  I usually don't pay much attention to Eastern  Cetus, so I can't really say if it looked different than usual or not with an "extra" star.