(meteorobs) Perseids peak from central Alberta
Bruce McCurdy
bmccurdy at shaw.ca
Thu Aug 13 23:58:27 EDT 2015
Had a successful night observing the 2015 Perseids with a group of family,
friends, and fellow astronomers (most of whom fill more than one category).
Six of us - Ross Sinclair, Alister Ling, Sharon Morsink, Sherrilyn Jahrig,
Kevin McCurdy and myself -- rented a van and headed for clear skies
southeast of Edmonton. We eventually wound up in a quiet agricultural area
in east-central Alberta, where we saw all of one car in five hours, but were
visited by a galaxy of mosquitoes who made life uncomfortable at times.
Later found out the area is absolutely covered with sloughs and small lakes,
plenty of standing water for the vicious little critters to breed
exponentially or so it seemed.
I spent about 45 minutes setting up for a (marginally successful) photo
shoot before sitting in to do a serious count just before midnight local
time = 06h UT on the 13th. Skies were pristine other than a few clouds that
stayed near the northern horizon throughout, and a minor aurora that kicked
up, also in the north. However, as the night wore on the horizons became
hazier and some haloes were occasionally in evidence.
In four hours Teff (effective observing time) I observed a total of 157
meteors, of which 137 were Perseids. On average the shower seemed bright
with an average magnitude a shade brighter than +1.0. However, I often found
my own estimates to be a notch brighter than others in my group when we
observed the same meteor, suggesting my calibration might be off a tad,
especially on the brighter meteors. I also did fairly poorly seeing some of
the fainter meteors, another sign of deteriorating eyesight at an advancing
age.
In all I recorded 34 meteors in the negative magnitudes, though only three
in the fireball class of -4 or brighter. Best of these was a -6 magnitude
beauty that seared eastern Perseus in pure white, leaving a train that
persisted for about 6 seconds. There was also a gorgeous -5 mag streaker
that left distinct tinges of both blue and gold that was corroborated by at
least one other observer along with a broken train that took a few seconds
to fade along its various segments.
In general meteors weren't very colourful, but with a couple of nice
exceptions. A very good percentage left persistent trains. Several seemed to
be "double" meteors or "skippers" that brightened, faded, then brightened a
second time. These were noted at various times by pretty much all members of
the group.
Among us we observed a large number of satellites including a number of
tumblers, one of which was among the most active such I have ever seen with
several dozen bright flashes during its pass including several of negative
magnitude.
Clouds started to intervene and the sky murked out around 04:00 local time,
and we soon packed and left, eventually arriving home after 06:00, a
ten-hour journey that was worth every minute of it.
This was my 28th consecutive year of observing the Perseids from a dark site
for an extended session within 24 hours, plus or minus, of the peak. One of
the better displays of any shower that I personally have observed in several
years.
Bruce
*****
PS: My official count submitted to International Meteor Organization is
below:
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce McCurdy [mailto:bmccurdy at shaw.ca]
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 9:28 PM
To: IMO report forms
Cc: bmccurdy at shaw.ca
Subject: Electronic visual form for 2015-8-13
// Header section
night 2015-08-12/13
begin 2015-08-13 0547
end 2015-08-13 1008
observer "Bruce" "McCurdy" "MCCBR"
location 112 12 17 W, 52 54 14 N
site "Near Daysland, AB" "Canada"
reporter "bmccurdy at shaw.ca"
// Shower section
shower PER 046 +58
shower BPE 047 +37
shower KCG 286 +59
shower SDA 339 -16
shower AUD 261 +63
shower ANT 329 -10
shower SPO
// Number section
// Interval RA Dec Teff F Lm PER
BPE KCG SDA AUD ANT SPO
period 0547-0617 345 +50 0.500 1.00 6.20 C 17 C
0 C 0 C 1 C 0 C 0 C 1
period 0617-0647 352 +50 0.500 1.00 6.20 C 14 C
0 C 0 C 0 C 1 C 1 C 3
period 0647-0717 000 +50 0.500 1.00 6.10 C 14 C
1 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 3
period 0718-0748 008 +50 0.500 1.00 6.10 C 16 C
1 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 2
period 0754-0824 015 +50 0.500 1.00 6.00 C 17 C
1 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 1
period 0825-0900 025 +50 0.500 1.00 6.00 C 23 C
0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 3
period 0902-0932 033 +50 0.500 1.00 5.90 C 23 C
0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 1
period 0932-1008 040 +50 0.500 1.25 5.50 C 13 C
0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0 C 0
// Magnitude section
// Show Interval -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 +0
+1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 Tot
distribution PER 0547-0617 - - 1.0 - 1.0 2.0 1.0
2.0 - 4.0 6.0 - - - 17.0
distribution PER 0617-0647 - - - 1.0 1.0 1.0 4.0
3.0 2.0 2.0 - - - - 14.0
distribution PER 0647-0717 1.0 - - - 2.0 - 3.0
2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 - - 14.0
distribution PER 0718-0748 - - - - 2.0 3.0 2.0
4.0 1.0 4.0 - - - - 16.0
distribution PER 0754-0824 - - - - 2.0 3.0 5.0
2.0 4.0 1.0 - - - - 17.0
distribution PER 0825-0900 - - - 1.0 - 2.0 2.0
6.0 5.0 6.0 1.0 - - - 23.0
distribution PER 0902-0932 - 1.0 - 1.0 1.0 2.0 2.0
5.0 4.0 4.0 3.0 - - - 23.0
distribution PER 0932-1008 - - - - - 3.0 4.0
1.0 3.0 1.0 1.0 - - - 13.0
distribution BPE 0547-1008 - - - - - - -
1.0 2.0 - - - - - 3.0
distribution SDA 0547-1008 - - - - - 1.0 -
- - - - - - - 1.0
distribution AUD 0547-1008 - - - - - - -
- 1.0 - - - - - 1.0
distribution ANT 0547-1008 - - - - - - -
- 1.0 - - - - - 1.0
distribution SPO 0547-1008 - - - - - 2.0 1.0
2.0 2.0 6.0 1.0 - - - 14.0
// Personal comments
Showers include AMS-recognized Beta Perseids (BPE), August Draconids (AUD)
and Anthelions (ANT).
Kappa Cygnid radiant was monitored but no members observed (others in my
group did spot a few)
Southern radiants not well monitored, but one member each of ANT and SDA
identified.
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