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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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