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(meteorobs) Sept. 13 Observations
Dear ALL:
It was a wonderful night here in So. California on the night of the
expected Orionid peak. I met Bob L. (AND Ron Renee) up at the Zay site in
Descanso ~0130am (PDT). With the 3 of us there, I guess that makes it an
official Orionid party. Crystal clear skies (6.1LM) and lots of activity.
In 4 hours of observing, I counted a total of 111 meteors. The most
significant event of the session was a magnificant -4 sporadic (orangish)
fireball. Of course this occured minutes after I pulled up to the site and
was removing my motorcycle helmet. I did catch it, however it fell outside
of my official "data collection interval". Hence, it is not reported in my
summary table below. Bob will formally report it.
The air was dry (~15-20% humidity) and I must say (even as an
EX-Chicagoan) IT WAS CHIIILLLLY. A bone-chillin' 43 deg F.
Ron had some nice 8X20 binocs and as Ursa Major finally made it
completely above the horizon, we all got a nice glimpse of Comet Tabur.
Below is a summary and mag dist table for my 4 1-hr intervals. As I am
a fairly new newbie (not as observer, BUT as FORMAL observer, I chose to
be safe and combine STA and NTA. Hope that's ok with the "Olde
guarde". Also, I know it seems my 2nd interval is sortta "out-of-whack"
(i.e the drop in ORIs and higher than normal SPOs). However, these are the
counts as transcribed from my field notes, AND I did have Bob L.'s guidance
thruout. Lastly, as Bob will confirm, the cosmic computer must have went
down around 12:40UT. After 3 fairly active hours, the 4th interval was a
real drag. (as in the hour draaaaaggged).
Observer: Joseph D. Assmus
Date: October 20, 1996
Location: Descanso, CA (116 deg 6' W, 32 deg 8' N)
INTERVAL (UT) Teff LM
08:40-09:40 UT 0.92 6.1 21 ORI 1 TAU 0 EGE 7 SPO
09:40-10:40 UT 0.91 6.1 12 ORI 1 TAU 3 EGE 16 SPO
10:40-11:40 UT 0.90 6.1 25 ORI 0 TAU 4 EGE 6 SPO
11:40-12:40 UT 0.96 6.1 7 ORI 0 TAU 1 EGE 7 SPO
TOTALS 65 ORI 2 TAU 8 EGE 36 SPO
MAGNITUDE
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Totals
ORI 2 9 12 22 13 6 1 65
EGE - 1 1 4 2 - - 8
TAU - - 1 - 1 - - 2
SPO 1 2 2 11 16 4 - 36
Totals 3 12 16 37 32 10 1 111
Here's wishing those E. Coasters some nice clear 6.5 skies!
Joseph
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