(meteorobs) May 4/5 2016 ETA observation from North Florida

Paul Jones jonesp0854 at gmail.com
Thu May 5 12:09:12 EDT 2016


Greetings again all,

  My Cinco de Mayo celebration started early in the pre-dawn this morning
as I managed to get out on the “meteor roof” again for 1.5 hours and the
ETAs responded very well indeed.  There was a noticeable uptick in their
rates this morning and they might have approached 20 an hour from my
location had twilight not interfered.  All told, I had 23 ETAs and 17
others for 40 total meteors during the session. Here’s my data:

May 4/5, 2016 Observer: Paul Jones, Location: 5 miles southwest of St.
Augustine, Florida, Lat: 29.89 N, Long: 81.30 W, Elevation: 35 feet

0400 – 0500 EDT (0800 – 0900 UT) Teff: 1.0 hour, No Breaks, LM: 6.3, Clear,
Facing: South

14 ETA: 0, +1(2), +2(4), +3(4), +4(2), +5

1 GAQ: +3 (gamma Aquilid)

9 SPO: +1, +2, +3(3), +4(2), +5(2)

24 total meteors



0500 – 0530 EDT (0900 – 0930 UT) Teff: .5 hour, No Breaks, LM: 6.3, Clear,
Facing: South

9 ETA: +1(2), +2(3),+3, +4(2), +5

2 ELY: +3(2)

5 SPO: +2, +3, +4(2), +5

16 total meteors



17 of the 23 ETAs left visible trains, predominate colors were yellow and
orange tints.



Once again, the watch got off to a fast start as less than five minutes  into
it,  I saw two perfectly simultaneous meteors – one little sporadic and one
majestic +2 ETA  hit at exactly the same instant not too far apart from
each other on the sky.  Love it when that happens…;o).



Besides that cool coincidence, ETA activity was pretty much evenly spread
out through the watch, with just one spurt of 5 ETAs all hitting within
about ten minutes of each other midway through the first hour.  A majority
of the ETAs left long trains along their paths, even some of the fainter
ones, with an average meteor path length of easily 20 to 30 degrees in many
cases.



The increase in ETA rates seemed very gradual and was no doubt caused soley
by the radiant getting higher in the sky and not by any ramp up within the
stream.   After not seeing any ELYs in the first hour, two within a few
minutes of each other happened in the second period.



I was aided this morning by the cool, clear, crisp air that flowed in
quickly after the front passage.  The timing was perfect as it had been
pouring rain last night at 10:00 p.m. Local Time!  The temperature for the
watch was about 55 degrees Fahrenheit or 12.77 degrees Celsius.  That’s
mighty chilly for Florida on a May morning, but I was not complaining!  The
good weather should continue for us for at least a couple more morning, so
I’ll be back out tomorrow.



More later, Paul J in North Florida
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