(meteorobs) Meteor Observations from Southern California August 12, 2014
Robert Lunsford
lunro.imo.usa at cox.net
Tue Aug 12 10:32:42 EDT 2014
I drove eastward to the local mountains to view the Perseids this morning. Skies were cloudy along the coast but cleared nicely once I reached a point some 25 miles inland. The temperature was more normal compared to my last session so only a thin blanket was necessary to stay comfortable. As expected the nearly full moon was overpowering yet all the stars of the Little Dipper were visible. The Milky Way was not. My initial limiting magnitude estimate was a respectable +5.75 yet meteor activity was lower than expected my first hour (11). If I thought that was bad the meteor faucet was nearly turned off during my second hour as Perseid counts dropped from 9 to 4. I guess all these bright meteors being reported occurred behind me near the moon! Rates recovered somewhat during my last hour as 13 were seen. This is still roughly half of what I expected to see. I did notice the moon glow encroaching into my field of view more so during the last hour indicating increasing haze. This still does not explain the low rates for my middle hour. If I become fatigued it is usually during the last portion of my watch, not the middle. Who knows what happened? Perhaps it was one of those statistical bugaboos where the meteors were occurring where I was not looking.
I only had 2 negative magnitude meteors (both -1) so I cannot verify the bright Perseids being reported by the other two North American observers. Unfortunately I cannot get out of working tonight so we must depend on others to see what happens. I would expect rates to be higher on the 13th with a good show of bright meteors.
Good Luck!
Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 67F (19C) / 63%
Ending Temperature/Relative Humidity: 63F (17C) / 71%
Time (UT) Teff LM
0850-0950 1.00 5.75 PER 9 SPO 2 TOTAL 11
0950-1050 1.00 5.60 PER 4 SPO 3 TOTAL 7
1050-1150 1.00 5.29 PER 11 SPO 2 TOTAL 13
Grand Total PER 24 SPO 7 TOTAL 31
Magnitudes
PER: -1 (2) 0 (4) +1 (9) +2 (3) +3 (4) +4 (2) Mean: +1.38
SPO: +2 (1) +3 (4) +4 (2) Mean: +3.30
Robert Lunsford
Chula Vista, CA
More information about the meteorobs
mailing list