(meteorobs) Perseids Wednesday morning in Iowa

[Paul Martsching]

McFarland Park 4 miles NE of Ames, Story County, Iowa.  Long: 93 deg 34 min W  Lat: 42 deg 05 min N  
Elevation 1,030 feet (parking lot).

3.5 hours; quit at 4 am CDST because a big area of thick cirrus clouds was moving in from the West; also by that time there was some fairly dense ground fog.  I had to contend with scattered patches of smallish clouds during most of the first hour.  

I was surprised by the number of Perseid fireballs.  Most of the mag. - 5 and brighter Perseids ended 5 degrees or lower above the horizon, so the train durations were shortened by atmospheric dimming.  So no trains were seen to last longer than 8 seconds.  The mag. - 7 Perseid at 0837 UT ended only a degree above the northern horizon and by that time there was a layer of ground fog, so its train disappeared very quickly in the fog.

No Kappa Cygnids were seen.

0530 - 0630 UT 12 Aug 2015 62 deg F; dew pt 60 deg F; calm; mostly clear; average cloud cover 5 per cent; average LM 5.5; facing North 50 deg; teff 1.0 hour.
Capricornid: one: - 1
Perseids: twelve: - 6; - 5; 0(2); +1(2); +2(3); +3(2); +4
SDA: one: - 1
Sporadics: three: 0; +3; +4
Total meteors: seventeen

0630 - 0730 UT 12 Aug 2015 61 deg F; dew pt 59 deg F; calm; clear; LM 5.7; facing North 50 deg; teff 1.0 hour.
Beta Perseid: one: +2
Perseids: nineteen: - 5; - 2; - 1; 0; +1(3); +2(7); +3(3); +4(2)
Sporadics: three: 0; +1; +3
Total meteors: twenty-three

0730 - 0830 UT 12 Aug 2015 60 deg F; dew pt 59 deg F; calm; clear; LM 5.6; facing North 50 deg; teff 1.0 hour.
Beta Perseid: one: +1
Perseids: twenty: - 5; - 4; - 3; - 2(2); - 1(3); 0(2); +1; +2(4); +3(4); +4
SDA: one: +3
Sporadics: five: +1(2); +2; +3
Total meteors: twenty-seven

0830 - 0900 UT 12 Aug 2015 60 deg F; dew pt 58 deg F; calm; clear with low-lying ground fog, but fog probably effecting sky conditions above the level where is was obvious; LM 5.5; facing North 50 deg till 0850 UT, then facing NE 50 deg; teff 0.5 hour (30 minutes).  Quit because of approaching fairly dense cirrus-type clouds.
Eridanid: one: +1
Perseids: ten: - 7; - 3; 0; +1(3); +2(2); +3(2)
Sporadics: three: +2; +3(2)
Total meteors: fourteen (30 minutes)

Paul Martsching in Ames, Iowa