(meteorobs) June 30/July 1 2016 meteor observation from North Florida

[Paul Jones]

Greetings again all,
     I was finally able to get back out under the stars this morning for my
first substantive meteor watch since the tail end of the eta Aquariids back
in mid-May.  I ventured down to the Matanzas Inlet site once again and had
pitch black skies and a sky full of stars and summer Milky Way.  What an
awesome morning!!  There was a lot going on up there, too!

     I logged two hours (2-4 a.m. EDT) and had a total of 32 meteors during
the session.  Some clouds came in around the edges of the sky and tried to
crash my party, but dissipated before becoming a major issue. I was
watching for several radiants listed on Bob Lunsford's excellent weekly
reports and saw one or two from almost all of them.

Observed for radiants:
June Bootids (JBO)
f Ophiuchids (FOP)
Anthelions (ANT)
sigma Capricornids (SCA)
pi Piscids (PPS)
c Andromedids (CAN)

Here is the data:

June 30/July 1, 2016 Observer: Paul Jones, Location: North Bank of Matanzas
Inlet, Florida, Lat: 29.75N, Log: 81.24W (approximately 18 miles south of
St. Augustine, Florida).



0200 – 0300 EDT (0600 – 0700 UT) Teff: 1.0 hour, No breaks, LM: 6.9, 10%
cloud interference, Facing: West

3 ANT:  +2, +3 (2)

1 FOP: +3

11 SPO: +1, +2 (2), +3(2), +4(4), +5, +6

15 total meteors



0300 – 0400 EDT (0700 – 0800 UT) Teff: 1.0 hour, No breaks, LM: 6.9 , 15%
cloud interference, Facing: East

2 PPS: +2, +3

2 CAN: +1, +2

1 ANT: +4

12 SPO: 0, +1, +2(2), +3(4), +4, +5(2), +6

17 total meteors


9 of the 32 meteors left trains, yellow and gold colors were noted in a
couple of them


I decided to face west the first hour mainly to watch for any FOPs and
JBOs, as those radiants had moved well west of the meridian.  Also, I had a
line of thunderstorms out over the ocean popping bright lightning every few
minutes!  The ANTs were quite noticeable and I was pleasantly surprised to
catch the FOP - a long, slow mover going east in Capricorn that had a good
radiant line up and the right speed.   No JBOs showed up though, of course.


The "sea storms" subsided somewhat by the second hour so I turned to face
east and it didn't take long for me to start seeing CAN and PPS
candidates!  I had about a half dozen meteors during the watch come the
general area of each one of these two radiants - all being of swift
velocity!  Being conservative and very picky about characteristics and
exact path of the meteors however, I factored out all but two from each
radiant as SPOs.  Still, a surprisingly good showing from them!


The brightest meteor of the watch was a lovely yellow zero magnitude, low
in the SE.  It lined up well with the PPS radiant, but was obviously of a
medium speed and way too slow to actually be a PPS.   One of the CAN
meteors was a lovely golden bronze color and each of the four CAN/PPS
candidates left glowing trains.


While I was there, a guy pulled up in the parking lot next to me.  He was
going to fish in the inlet, I wished him good luck.  He came back later
having caught two gigantic flounders!  Seeing them made my mouth water, I
think I'll have me some fried flounder for dinner tonight for sure...;o).
It seems that Matanzas Inlet is great for catching way more than just
meteors...;o).


Clear skies all, Paul J in North Florida
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