(meteorobs) Bumper crop of Eta Aquariids from central Alberta

Bruce McCurdy bmccurdy at shaw.ca
Fri May 10 12:11:22 EDT 2013


I love the eta Aquariid meteor shower like few others, even as it has never
much rewarded me with actual meteors. Way up here at 53½° north we are on
the fringes of the visibility zone, with a slow rising radiant, a fast (and
early) rising Sun, and a narrow window between the two. 

In five previous documented attempts to observe ETAs dating back to 2002, I
had never seen more than a single member of the shower in the 90 minutes or
so that they are theoretically visible. Still, with clear skies in the
forecast I was determined to make the trek out to my preferred dark site in
Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve, and penciled in the morning of May 6 as the
date that best fit my life schedule, one day later than my usual cinco de
mayo  attempt. It turned out to be a good choice, as persistence finally
paid off. 

Thanks in part to the heads-up from meteorobs list member Michel Vandeputte,
I made sure to arrive by radiant rise. There was a single “normal” observer
(using the term somewhat loosely) on site who was just packing up, so I
stopped by to introduce myself. Within a few seconds I spotted an
Earth-grazer beginning a long westward trek across the northern part of the
sky, so I pointed & hollered “looklooklooklooklooklooklooklooklooklook!” at
least 10 “looks” at a beat rate of ~3 looks per second! (David did indeed
turn and look, and thanked me profusely for pointing it out.) One of the
longest meteor paths I’ve ever seen, well over 90°, just first-magnitude or
so but breathtaking. About one minute later there occurred a second
Earth-grazer through the zenith that was nearly as impressive that we both
saw. So before I even took to my chair I had already established a personal
record for most ETAs in one session!

In the 90 minutes that followed shower members occurred at intervals of
10-15 minutes. That’s slow going for most showers, but a veritable bounty of
ETAs. Overall I saw 9 members, with about 7 of these of class “memorable”.
Many of them were colourful, primarily orange although there was one
bi-colour meteor of red & blue that was startling. 

In the second half of the session against brightening skies I saw four
meteors of magnitude -2 or brighter, with the champ being a searing -6 of a
pinky-orange tint that looked like it had been fired from a flare gun. That
one blew off 3 or 4 decent size chunks that dissipated in its wake, just a
spectacular sight. Without cross-referencing my past observations of
Orionids, I’m fairly sure this is the brightest piece of Halley’s Comet that
I’ve ever seen. 

Over the time of the session I also saw four sporadic meteors, two Iridium
flares, a persistent arch of aurora in the north, and a nice moonrise of the
waning crescent that interfered not at all with sky conditions which were
brightening of their own accord by then. I also saw or heard a plethora of
wildlife, including bats, ducks, a couple of owls, and a snipe, and twice
heard the distinctive “slap-sploosh” sound of a beaver dive. Thousands of
frogs kept up a constant chorus from the wetlands to my east and north –
David said they’d been going all night long, although eventually they
started to peter out and eventually stopped altogether for a brief time. In
all directions the birds started to wake up, easily a couple of dozen
distinct species though I recognized many more by song than I could actually
name. It is this experience of hearing the world waking up in mid-spring
that has made this observing session a can’t-miss event (except when it’s
snowed out, which happens more frequently than you might expect given the
date). The meteors themselves are something of a bonus! But what a nice
bonus they were in 2013, putting on a truly memorable show. 

I waited through the brightening dawn in hopes of seeing one last fireball,
gradually watching first Deneb, then Altair, and finally Vega fade away in
the rising dawn. Eventually I gave it up and went on an invigorating 5 km
hike along some of the trails in the reserve, seemingly the only human
presence for miles around. When I eventually returned to the parking lot
around 9 a.m. mine was still the only car on site. At times, especially when
the frogs were close, I couldn’t even hear the hum of traffic on the
Yellowhead Highway some 5 km to my north. Felt like just me and nature, an
awesome experience that left me feeling very much alive. 

A summary of my meteor obs is here:
http://vmo.imo.net/imozhr/obsview/view.php?id=11918 although it hardly seems
to do justice to a memorable night. Definitely one for the Life List.  

Bruce
*****

 

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