(meteorobs) ETAs and ELYs from north Florida - May 9/10, 2013

Paul Jones jonesp0854 at gmail.com
Fri May 10 09:26:39 EDT 2013


Greetings again all,
     I was out there again this morning on my rooftop observing station for
my favorite last full hour before twilight meteor watch.  It was indeed a
really enjoyable hour!  Once again, the ETAs surprised me by showing up
almost as strong as they were three mornings ago!  I also came away with
four good candidates for members of the eta Lyrids (ELY).  The meteors kept
me busy and alert the whole time I was observing.  With temps in the low
sixties and no mosquitoes at all, conditions we just about pie-eyed
perfect...;o).
     There were few lulls during the hour and a wide variety of meteors
hitting all over the sky.  I had fast ones and slow ones, I had long ones
and short ones.  I had bright ones and faint ones.
     I even got a negative magnitude (-1) sporadic meteor as the very last
meteor of the watch and it was beauty: a very long-pathed and slow
earthgrazer shooting across the western sky coming out of the deep south.
It had a long spreading train and turned several shades of yellow
throughout its 3 to 4 second path.  What a way to end an already amazing
watch!.

May 9/10, 2013 0830 - 0930 UT (0430 - 0530 EDT) Observer: Paul Jones,
Location: 5 miles SW of St. Augustine, Florida, Teff 1.0, LM 6.2 Sky
conditions: Clear, Facing south.
13 eta Aquarids (ETA) Mags: 0 (2), +1 (2), +2 (1), +3 (4), +4 (3), +5 (1)

4 eta Lyrids (ELY)  Mags: +2 (2), +3 (1), +4 (1)

2 Anthelions  (ANT)  Mags: +2 (1), +3 (1)

14 sporadics (SPO)  Mags: -1 (1), +1 (1),+2 (1), +3 (4), +4 (4), +5 (3)
33 total meteors for the hour!

    The ETAs were still very active.  I had expected to see maybe a couple,
not 13 of them!  2013 is a banner year for them to be sure!  Almost all of
them left trains and their long paths split the sky several times during
the hour.  I let out gasps eveytime I saw one.  My kitty cat Leo, who
joined me on the roof during the session, must have wondered what the heck
I was smoking...;o).
    The four ELY candidates I saw fit the scheme for this radiant very
well: obvious Geminid-like apparent speed, good radiant line-up and
favorable path length versus dstance from the radiant.  I actually had
about 7 meteors line with the ELY radiant in total during the hour, but the
other three had speeds either too fast or their path length was out of
whack for where I saw them.
    With results like this morning, I'll be out again tomorrow before our
next round of predicted bad weather comes in later on in the day.  I
encourage others to take advantage of all this activity while it lasts.  I
know it means lost sleep, but it is worth the effort!  Good luck.

Clear skies to all, Paul in St. Augustine
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