(meteorobs) Obs: 13/14 August 2011

[pmartsching at mchsi.com]

Yesterday (Saturday morning 13 August) I got clouded out soon after 04:15 am (09:15 UT) and lost 45 minutes of observing as the Perseids were coming at higher rates.  So I went out for three hours this morning to try again.  Sometimes there were fairly long intervals with no Perseids appearing.  I saw three Perseid fireballs during the last hour.

One problem with observing in bright Moon light is that faint meteors must travel farther before they become bright enough to be noticed.  This results in apparent short paths for faint meteors for the distance from the radiant and also apparent very short duration, making it more difficult to be certain a meteor has been seen.

Showers looked for:

Kappa Cygnids
Eridanids: none seen
Perseids

No obvious meteors from southern showers.

Usual observing site: Adams observatory, McFarland Park 4 miles NE of Ames, Iowa, USA.

Full Moon; black umbrella to block bright Moonlight.  Moon in South at 07:00 UT moving to SW at 10:00 UT.

When I packed up to leave after 10:00 UT, I saw that if the observatory "hump" had been five feet lower, I would have been in fog.  This also explains why the western sky was so bright during the last hour.

07:00-08:00 UT 61 deg F; dew pt 59 deg F; wind North 6 mph; clear; full Moon in South; LM ~5.0; facing NE 50 deg; total teff 1.0 hour.
PER: fourteen: -2; -1; 0; +1(2); +2(4); +3(5)
Sporadics: three: +2; +3(2)
Total meteors: seventeen

08:00-9:00 UT 62 deg F; dew pt 60 deg F; wind NW 5 mph; clear; full Moon; LM ~5.1; facing NE 50 deg; total teff 1.0 hour.
KCG: one: +3
PER: fifteen: -2; -1; 0(2); +1(4); +2(3); +3(4)
Sporadics: three: +3(3)
Total meteors: nineteen

09:00-10:00 UT 61 deg F; dew pt 59 deg F; clear; wind North 6 mph; full Moon in SW; LM ~5.3; facing NE 50 deg; total teff 1.0 hour.
PER: eighteen: -5; -4(2); -2; -1; 0(2); +1; +2(6); +3(4)
Sporadics: six: +1; +2(2); +3(3)
Total meteors: twenty-four

Perseid fireballs:
09:03    -4    white; 1 second train; going westward
09:42    -5    yellow; 2 second train; ended 7 degrees to right/South and below Rigel
09:47    -4    deep orange; no train and no wake whatsoever; orange ball of light traveling Perseid velocity ending 10 degrees above NNE horizon.  On rare occasions I have seen "trainless and wakeless" meteors during Leonid, Orionid and Perseid meteor showers.  They are usually negative magnitude meteors.  It is interesting to see the "tailless" balls of light moving swiftly across the sky.

I'm glad I went out again in spite of the bright Moonlight.