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(meteorobs) Low Rates near dawn
In a message dated 96-10-21 16:18:11 EDT, you write:
<< The last period had rather low Orionid rates, disappointing after the
amazing start. <<
Norman has hit on something that's been bugging me quite frequently when I
observe. That is I frequently see relatively good rates between 1 and 2 or 3
am. and then later let's say near the last hour and half before dawn, I will
experience long periods of nothing...Usually this becomes a topic between Bob
and I while this happens. Literature says it should be getting more active by
dawn. But we both seem to experience the same drought periods or close to
them...for example recently Bob mentioned that I had a 30 minute dead period
near the last observing hour prior to dawn while he had a 20 minute drought
during the same period. If I was alone I would suspect fatigue...but this
doesn't seem plausible when two separate observers at the location see
essentially the same thing happening. When I look at my rates for that given
hour, the overall count still seems to agree with literature in that the
rates are usually higher than the previous hours. It seems that a lot of that
activity during those periods comes in spurts and covers up the slow moments
by averaging out the whole activity for that period. I haven't seriously
looked over the times for my data to see just what is going on, but I'm
convinced that some sort of phenomena is showing itself albeit subtly. I
really notice it during the slow months of let's say in Feb, Mar, April, May
and June. I assume because there's not much major shower activity going on
then and maybe this has something to do with the sporadics. But it also seems
to be happening during the more active months as well. It seems between 3 am
and 4 am there is some kind of "bewitching hour". Oh well...just want to
bring this up for others to take note and have something to think about if
this occurs to them. To add another "funny" thing to this..dot it seems like
everything is back to normal during the last 30 minutes of my observing
session...again help averaging out what appears to be happening prior to
then.
George Z.