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(meteorobs) June 11/12 observations




Well, Bob and I observed last night.  I started meteor work at 10 pm.  Bob
joined up with me somewhere near 12:30 midnight. We had very clear and very
dark skies.  I actually reached an LM for my eyes of around 6.2 maybe 6.3!
 I'll have to see what my star count equates to.  I don't think I ever got
that high before.  I think Bob was in the neighborhood of 6.7.  Anyhow, the
meteor activity was definitely greater than what I saw the previous two
nights.  When Bob reported his 40 meteors in nearly 4 hours the previous
night,  I just attributed it to his better eyesight.  But by 1 am I realized
it was genuine. I plotted 48 meteors in about 6 hours ...maybe a hair less.
 I think bob ended up with about the same with less time.  We both plotted
and had various suspicions as to what area is showing the activity.  I
couldn't really tell about any one spot...except their seemed to be a lot of
Sagitarrids floating around.  I haven't looked at any of my data. I just
entered this line after writing the letter.  I was looking at my plots and
right off hand there appears to be several meteors of very fast velocity(5)
radiating from an area between Draco's head and Cygnus...closer to draco's
head though. I'll have to examine it more closely, but I just easily counted
6 that seemed to be proper etc with 1 more possible if you assume that I made
a slight error in velocity for such a short meteor.  There could be more...I
haven't really examined the plots all that closely. The radiant appears tight
too...maybe within 5 degrees. Anyhow, I'll have to give that one a going
over. Maybe compare it with my 2 nights prior to the previous night.  Maybe
Bob has something from the previous night to compare with mine?

  We also had some excitement at 3:30 am.  It caused me to take a 10 minute
break when I didn't want it.  My observatory is in about a 1 1/2 acre field.
 Well, We heard what sounded like two sets of foot steps coming towards the
observatory....Illegal aliens(politicians call them international travelers)
were apparently heading for the observatory not knowing that we were on top.
 They probably were within 50 feet of us.  No doubt if we weren't there they
would have broke in and done their damage. Anyhow, I shined a big beam light
at them and it instantly became a "feet don't fail me now" situation...they
took off...happy to say.  Some places have been getting shot at when you
confront them lately. Looks like I'm gonna have to beef up my security
measures when out observing. After daylight and when Bob left, I found the
foot prints and place where they climbed over the fence.  I did some fence
repair and a lot of  brush removal...for fire safety reasons mainly.   My
in-laws have this very aggressive Ram that I never got along with.  Every
time He see's me or anyone out in the field, he lowers his head, backs up
several feet and make a fast charge.  I don't know how many times that thing
has chased me around a big oak tree.  Once I stopped a charge by hitting him
in the forehead with a short piece of 2X4 board.  It stopped him...for about
3 seconds.  All he did was back up for another charge.  Anyhow, they will
most likely be putting him out there in the field with me in about a
week....so Bob watch out for Rambo (that's his name by the way). Hopefully he
will patrol the field aggressively. 

Well, my next observing night will be this coming Saturday/Sunday.  The
weather is still nice and the forecase seems to indicate that this will
continue.  later all.
George Z.

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