(meteorobs) A brief pre-max look at the 2012 Perseids from N. Florida

[Bill Cooke]

Odds are very good that you will... We have observed 70 bright Perseids so far with our cameras, and there have been a couple brighter than -5 peak magnitude (bottom right plot in this summary - http://fireballs.ndc.nasa.gov/special/PER_2012/distrib_20120810.png)

Clear skies, everyone!

Bill Cooke
NASA Meteoroid Environments Office

On Aug 10, 2012, at 10:37 AM, Paul Jones wrote:

> Wow, Bill!  Great catch on that minus five PER fireball!  I tried my best to conjure up one of those myself this morning, but no such luck...;o).  Let's hope we can all see a bunch of those over the course of these next three nights.    Speaking of what to expect from the Perseids tonight. I will always recall the amazing 1977 Perseid shower when a bunch of us here in St. Augustine saw rates approaching 60/hour from them on the pre-max morning of Aug 10/11 that year.  I'm not expecting that kind of a display tonight, but again, hope springs eternal!  Good luck out in OK and for everyone elsewhere!
>  
> Paul in St. Augustine
> 
> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 11:18 AM, Bill Godley <wwgj180 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi Paul,
>  
> I thought things seems a little slow myself.  I was out for an hour, centered on midnight, before moonrise last night.  I only saw 2 Perseids (radiant was still low, of course) but one was a brilliant, colorful, fireball that I would guess was about Mag -5.  Train lasted a few seconds.
>  
> Bill,
> Coweta, OK
> 
> From: Paul Jones <jonesp0854 at gmail.com>
> To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org> 
> Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 9:24 AM
> Subject: (meteorobs) A brief pre-max look at the 2012 Perseids from N. Florida
> 
> Greetings all,
>      I got out this morning (Aug 9/10)  for a brief, mostly casual look at the pre-peak activity from the 2012 Perseids from my driveway here is St. Augustine.  I was out a total of 45 minutes from 0400 to 0445 local time and could manage only 6 Perseids, 3 sporadics and 1 Aquariid during that time.  The brightest Persied was a yellow +2 with a brief train.  Everything else was +3 or below.   Not much appeared to be happening yet.  Hopefully, they will pick up considerably! 
>      I blocked the 43% sunlit moon out behind trees and overall the skies were excellent with a LM of around 5.0.  I don't think I would have missed too many meteors and been able to blame the moon for it.  Now, my not so young anymore eyes are another matter...;o). 
>    I plan to be out each of the next three mornings here for more serious watches.  So far, we have had a very soggy August in north Florida, with thunderstorms virtually every day.  No sign whatsoever of the drought here that has plagued much of the rest of the U. S.  The clouds have been clearing nicely after midinght though, so hopefully, that trend will continue! 
>  
> Good luck to all, Paul in St. Augustine, FL
> 
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