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(meteorobs) Sept. 13 Observations

      A EMAIL REPORT OF MY VERY FIRST MINOR SHOWER OBSERVATION WITH FORMAL
      DATA COLLECTION AS TAUGHT TO ME BY MR ROBERT LUNSFORD (thanks bob!)

     Indeed it was very chilly out this past fri 9/13/96 up in Descanso.  I
  was most honored to make my first trip with Bob to the Zay site and begin
  what I hope will be a long and fruitful meteor observing friendship.  I have
  been an avid viewer of the GEM and PER maj showers (15yr!) but never
  collected formal data for submission. (Shameful! and to think Ive been
  published  in 'Proceedings of the Natl Acadamy of Science' for my work in
  SLEEP SCIENCE, but nothing in area of meteor science.

     After a great deal of prep and study, I was ready for my first night of
  formal data collection.  From reading about the currently active radiants,
  I really wasn't expecting to see a many meteors.  29 total in 145 min Teff!
  A nice first-time minor-shower observation I thought.

  Well, here are my data.

  INTERVAL (UT)   Teff    LM

  08:00-09:30 UT  0.967   6.0    2 SPI   1 A/T   1 DAU   11 SPO

  09:30-10:30 UT  0.969   6.0    3 SPI   2 A/T   2 DAU    7 SPO

                       TOTALS    5 SPI   3 A/T   3 DAU   18 SPO


  (A note for my colleague Dr Youngstedt:  SPI=meteors eminating from
  Pisces radiant, A/T=Aries-Triangulid radiant, DAU=Aurigid radiant
  and, finally, SPO=sporadic, backround, random meteors, Teff=Effective
  viewing % of the defined observation interval, LM=Limiting Magnitude is
  the visual threshold of perception, that is, it's the "brightness" of the
  faintest star one can see)


  Here's wishing all meteor entusiasts CLEAR SKIES!!

  Joseph D. Assmus


-- [ From: Robert Lunsford * EMC.Ver #2.5.1 ] --

It was another strange observing session with long gaps of inactivity.
Activity from the Aries-Triangulum was nearly non-existent. Only 2
meteors that could have come from either radiant plus 1 Triangulid were
seen. Only 2 meteors from the radiant in Taurus were seen. Also, a total
of  4 DAU's and 3 SPI's were recorded. It was cold tonight!  33F degrees
cold at 5am. Time to fire up that electric blanket.

08:00-09:00 UT   0.92   6.51   1 SPI   1 A/T   11 SPO
09:00-10:00 UT   0.93   6.48   3 DAU   2 SPI   1 TRI   1 TAU   2 SPO
10:00-11:00 UT   0.94   6.44   1 A/T   1 DAU   1 TAU   7 SPO
11:00-12:00 UT   0.94   6.30   10 SPO

F was 1.00 all 4 hours. TeFF was reduced to to plotting

Starting Temperature & Relative Humidity:   38F (4C)   &   63%
Ending Temperature & Relative Humidity:    33F (1C)   &   64%

Bob Lunsford