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(meteorobs) Re:Sep 11/12 meteors + launch
Had another clear night in SW Fla after a wet stationary system gave up and
left. Sep 11/12 was much better than my previous night, at least part of
the time. Good sky throughout at LM 7.3. Observed 226-526 EDT (626-926
UT). Total hourly rates 9,14,5; 2 SPI and only one DAU seen. Partial hour
extended to 605 EDT when twilight started, saw 11 more for best period of
the night. I plotted almost everything, allow 12 sec/plot. I don't know
what to call A-T's, there was no obvious radiant while I was out there, and
my plots show nothing either. I have 5 medium-speed plots projecting
through the Aries-Triangulum region and will leave them all undesignated.
But two reasonable, but entangled, radiants appeared in Taurus. 048,+18
with 3-5 meteors, size 2o. 058,+16 with 3-5 meteors, size 0.5o. Two
meteors were common to both.
Enjoyed plotting for the first time since 1981; easy to do again with solid
familiarity of sky. I know every star down to mag 5 thanks to Rey, plus
many more added through osmosis. There is no better way to learn the
naked-eye sky than through meteor observing, as you are watching the sky for
hours and learning constantly. Sad to say, meteor people and other active
amateur astronomers are NEVER consulted about UFO's while Carl Sagan almost
always is!
Meteor rates Jan to late Mar in the late-night hours aren't all that bad.
Some of these nights can be downright good. At various times I've reached
high teens and occasionally over 20. From late March to early June is the
poorest of the year, excluding the Lyrid and Eta Aquarid nights; I am
hard-pressed to beat 7/hr in this period.
I saw a spectacular launch of something about 440 AM. Knowing that the
shuttle will have to launch more NE this time to go to Mir, I was puzzled at
the good view of this one looking so similar but going E. Just got lucky
and turned around to look north, and there was the -6m deep-orange launch 5o
up in my NNE. It got to 12o max. The debris cloud it left made a real
treat as first sun hit it after 600AM. It looked like a bat in flight, 30o
wide and 5-15o high, very rich in delicate fibrous detail, pale blue, and
total light around -10m. I stopped meteors just to watch this for 20
minutes, so bright the rest of the sky was partly washed out. I'm about 140
miles SSW of the Cape.
One last word about the good times virus. Evidently there is disagreement
on its existence. The same newsletter reports that AOL has finally admitted
it does exist, and to act accordingly. There is enough other discussion of
various topics here that clog the e-mail channels here anyway. If it never
shows up here, that's fine.
Norman McLeod
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganetdot com
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