(meteorobs) 2015 Pre-max PER obs this morning from North Florida

[Paul Jones]

Hi all,

 I officially cranked off my 2015 PER obs from my rooftop in St.
Augustine this morning and all I can say is: I sure do hope things get a
lot better!!  I tried on and off for about three hours between about 2 a.m.
and 5 a.m. this morning to battle a steady stream of cumulus clouds coming
in off the Atlantic.

   I only saw about 5 or 6 PERs during that time although huge chunks of
both sky and time periods were wiped out by the constant patches of fuzzy
cumulus rolling through.  The sky conditions above the clouds were just OK,
not superb, about 5.8 LM before the moon rose and about 5.4 LM after with
some ozone/heat haze and typical high humidity thrown in as well.  I
actually took a couple of naps during cloudy stretches hoping I wouldn't
get rained on...;o).  I was beginning to think of myself as being just
cloud fodder or something or maybe just a glutton for punishment...;o).

Even when it was mostly clear however, the PERs seemed real sluggish to
me this morning.  While I agree with Paul M. that pre-max PER rates can be
good at times, this morning did not seem to be one of them at least from
where I was.

 I did have one nice yellowish orange -1 PER shoot due south straight at
beta Ceti that left a short train.  One other PER was zero mag, the other
four or five were faint and short.  Useful data recording however, was
impossible this morning due to the erratic conditions.

There were also a few sundry other meteors - sporadics and ANTs, but that
was really about it for this morning.  I'm unfazed however, the pre-max
PERs certainly do seem to have their ups and downs and we have a long way
yet to go.  This very unfavorable nighttime  weather pattern we have been
in  here in North Florida pretty much all summer long concerns me much
more...

I'll keep up the press...

More later, Paul J. in St. Augustine
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.meteorobs.org/pipermail/meteorobs/attachments/20150809/d08d9343/attachment.html