(meteorobs) Meteor Observations from Southern California July 30, 2014

[Robert Lunsford]

This was my first meteor watch since the Camelopardalids in May. I drove 50 
miles east to Mt. Laguna to view under dark skies. I was surprised to see 
several other cars pull in to the same clearing I was at and watch the show. 
That's odd for a Wednesday morning and a SDA maximum. They did not stay long as 
they probably expected a show similar to the Perseids. 
 
The normal marine layer of stratus clouds over San Diego was absent over San 
Diego this morning. That normally means the western half of the sky is washed 
out. On this night though there was another problem as several brush fires were 
burning in north county. There was a layer of smoke some 15 degrees thick just 
above the western horizon stretching from north to south and no stars were 
visible through that layer. Middle elevations of the sky were also hazy but I 
still managed to obtain good LM estimates by viewing a bit higher in the sky 
than normal. 
 
I watched for 4 hours and counted a total of 61 meteors. 26 of these were 
sporadic meteors. The most active shower by far was the Delta Aquariids with 20 
members. The Perseids were far back with only 6. The most impressive meteor of 
the night was not the brightest, rather it was a zero magnitude laser streak 
that belonged to the Eta Eridanids. It shot though western Cetus and right over 
the SDA radiant before disappearing in Capricornus.It also had a nice 1 second 
persistent train that helped me judge its path. 
 
Rates were good and increasing the first 3 hours. I must have pooped out during 
the last hour as activity nearly fell 50% during that hour. That last hour 
seemed to have more satellites than meteors as they were all over the place with 
often 2 visible simultaneously. 
 
Time (UT)    Teff   LM 
 
0747-0847  1.00  6.59  ANT 0 ATR 0 CAP 1 ERI 0 PAU 0 PER 0 SDA 5 SPO 5 TOTAL 11 
 
0847-0947  1.00  6.69  ANT 0 ATR 0 CAP 1 ERI 1 PAU 0 PER 1 SDA 5 SPO 8 TOTAL 16 
 
0947-1047  1.00  6.56  ANT 1 ATR 0 CAP 1 ERI 0 PAU 0 PER 4 SDA 7 SPO 9 TOTAL 22 
 
1047-1147  1.00  6.29  ANT 1 ATR 0 CAP 1 ERI 1 PAU 1 PER 1 SDA 3 SPO 4 TOTAL 12 
 
Grand Total            ANT 2 ATR 0 CAP 4 ERI 2 PAU 1 PER 6 SDA 20 SPO 26  TOTAL 61 
 
Magnitudes 
 
ANT: +1 (1) +3 (1) Mean: +2.00 
 
CAP: +1 (2) +2 (1) +4 (1) Mean: +2.00 
 
ERI: 0 (1) +4 (1) Mean: +2.00 
 
PAU: +1 (1)  Mean: +1.00 
 
PER  0 (1) +1 (2) +2 (1) +3 (1) Mean: +1.67 
 
SDA: 0 (1) +1 (4) +2 (6) +3 (5) +4 (2) +5 (2)  Mean: +2.45 
 
SPO: -1 (1) 0 (3) +1 (1) +2 (1) +3 (5) +4 (8) +5 (7) Mean: +3.23 
 
Robert Lunsford 
Chula Vista, CA