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(meteorobs) Fireballs and Faint Fuzzies in the New Hampshire Mountains (long!)




Table of Contents:
     1. INTRODUCTION
     2. METEOR REPORT
     3. FOR THE DEEP-SKIER

INTRODUCTION...

This weekend's NSAAC club trip to Evans Notch was a resounding success! Thanks 
to a 3.5 hour drive North from our dear home of Boston, we found ourselves amid 
dark skies, crystalline-cold air, and the profiles of the green New Hampshire 
mountains all around us. The battery of scopes set up by club members included 
two 20" dobnewts, two 10" newtonians, and several SCTs ranging in size from 8" 
to 12". In addition, I was able to squeeze in a total Teff~=3.7 hours of meteor 
watching during the weekend, in between deep-sky observing and friendly talk. 
And despite MANY MANY repeated observations throughout the weekend in everything 
from a 10" SCT to the 20" dobs, the ethereal beauty of the "elusive" Horsehead 
Nebula never faded for these photon-starved eyes... ;>


A METEOR REPORT...

In spite of all the opportunities to make and talk with friends during the 
weekend, and the fusillade of deep sky observations being called out all around 
the observing site, several skywatchers still managed to note a small outburst 
of North and South Taurid meteor activity on Friday evening, as well as a 
significant pickup in Leonid activity between 2330EST and 0300EST on Sunday AM.

No less than *fifteen* fireballs from both showers and the sporadic background 
were seen by me during the weekend, including my brightest in over 15 years: a 
-7 Leonid at 095900UT on Nov 15/16! This was a startlingly beautiful sight, low 
on the horizon (elev 12o), and leaving a lovely orange-white train lasting some 
90 seconds, offset by the pearly glow of zodiacal light and pale light-scatter 
from nearby Venus, and the twinkle of stars in Corona Borealis just 5o to it's 
NNE... The meteor began at mag -3, burst to -7 after 5o of travel, then faded 
again almost immediately to -4 for the remaining 3o.

This specacle was rivalled the following night by a -6 Leonid at 100815UT (Nov 
16/17), which displayed a HIGHLY unusual persistent train or "smoke trail": the 
train "hung out" in the high-altitude winds for no less than 150 seconds, and 
did NOT appear to fade, but rather to slowly disperse! The incidence must have 
occured in an area of significant wind-sheer (possibly vertical sheer), because 
the train broke into at least three pieces as it dispersed: the first 5-7o of 
the train broke away rapidly and dispersed quickly, while the remaining >20o of 
the train gradually widened and bent in the middle to form a lovely, glowing 
"V". The two legs of the V separated after about 80 seconds, and the brighter 
(and thicker?) of them was still visible with averted vision as a 12o x 5o 
"nebula" against the bright stars of Auriga and Perseus some 60 secs later. 
Truly BREATHTAKING... I can't imagine what the ancients must have thought of 
such events, sitting beneath a primitive sky in the aweful dark night.

This bizarre meteor also coincided with an electrostatic sound! There's no 
question in this observer's mind that he heard SOMETHING the instant the 
fireball first flared, sounding like an electrical "snap" nearby - like a 
lightbulb burning out - immediately followed by a faint, brief flutter. This 
could of course have been a psychoperceptive effect, but I have my doubts!

Here's why: this meteor was observed at an all-time record distance of 120 
degrees from the center of my Field Of View! I was looking down at a star chart 
at the time the first flare began, and snapped my head up in time to see the 
tail-end and the incredible train of this meteor. It was largely BECAUSE of this 
perceived sound that I actually noticed the sudden increase in luminosity of the 
sky over my head, in time to see the last few degrees of this meteor's path... I 
leave the reader to make what he or she will of this observation.

Here are meteor numbers for the proscribed watches I did this weekend. Detailed 
report will follow to the NAMN Coordinator, Mark Davis, this week:

(N/S? are meteors which were ambiguous North/South Taurids.)

Date      UT          LM   Teff  F    LEO NTA STA N/S? SPOR Total 
Nov 15/16 0740-0915   7.20 1.43  1.0  15  1   2   1    25   44
Nov 16/17 0645-0905   7.43 2.33  1.0  57  5   3   2    18   85

In terms of fineer-scale granularity, a notably heightened number of fireballs 
(at least 5) were observed from the Taurids on the night of Nov 15/16 between 
the hours of 0430 and 0600 UT, before my watch began. Also, here are some short 
"outbursts" observed in the Leonids on both nights:

Date      UT      Mag         [All meteors shown are LEOs]
Nov 15/16 0806    3
          0827    5
          0848    4.5         (START of outburst?)
          0850    5.5
          085345 -4
          0857    3.5
          0859    2
          0902    3.5
          0906    3.5
          0906    2.5
          0909    4.5
          091040 -4           (END of outburst?)
          0914    6

Nov 16/17 0753    3.5
          0758   -2
          0802    2
          080510 -4.5         (START of outburst/peak?)
          0806   -1
          0808   -2
          0808    0
          0811    5
          0811    2.5
          0811    4.5
          0812   -1
          [0814-0824  A forced break, doggone it! :<]
          0827    3.5          (8 min lull in outburst/peak?)
          083350 -3
          0834    0
          0836    3.5
          083710 -2
          083730 -3
          0841    6.5
          0841    1
          0842    0
          0842    0
          0843   -1
          0844    ? [only shower noted - no mag!]
          0845    1
          0845    2
          0846   -1.5
          0851    2.5          (END of outburst/peak?)
          085530 -5
          0855    0
          0858    3


FOR THE DEEP SKIER...

Transparency on both nights was WONDERFUL, with just intermittent interference 
from high cirrus and probable cirrostratus. My visual limiting magnitudes for 
the weekend varied from 6.9 to 7.5 - the latter briefly, near the zenith, in the 
hours before dawn on Saturday. Seeing however, was uniformly BAD throughout the 
weekend from our site, ranging from 3.5/5 to 5/5... Thanks to this, many objects 
could not be observed at sufficient magnification for seeing their details... :(

Still, with the excellent transparency of this site, detection was not a problem 
on any extended target I tried, even at low power! The only "failure" was my 
attempt to root out Hind's Variable Nebula (n1554/5) from the busy star fields 
near the Hyades in Taurus. This may be a reflection of changes in the nebula!

With a 20" f/5 on Nov 15/16, my best view of the weekend was of the Rosette 
Nebula and "Christmas Tree" cluster (n2237 and n2264, resp). Without a filter, 
the Rosette was visible at 75x as a faint haze WSW of the Xmas Tree. With a 
DeepSky filter, a "double ring" structure became apparent, with much connecting 
material, surrounded by a halo reaching out some 40' and intertwining with the 
bright stars of the Xmas Tree. A dark inner area was obvious. Also, 4 to 5 sharp 
dark "indentations" could be seen emanating out from the inner edge of the inner 
ring WNW, WSW, and especially two in the SW. Similarly, a strong dark "lane" was 
observed about 15' N of the northernmost bright star of the pretty Christmas 
Tree. With an OIII filter in tandem with the DeepSky, the halo suddenly grew 
beyond the 0.9 degree field of my shiny new 35mm Panoptic, out to at least 70'. 
The dark areas noted above also began to show obvious connections with each 
other, seemingly revealing by their ABSENCE areas of the nebulosity which must 
be primarily reflection (dust) rather than emission? Last, the OIII at 211x 
revealed some obvious narrow "striations" along the inner ring of nebulosity.

Another highlight was a lovely view of the Hubble Variable Nebula (n2261) 
through one kind club member's 10" Meade. The famous comet shape was starkly 
apparent, with an elongated arc of nebulosity making the NW(?) side of the 
"tail" somewhat longer, and a relatively strong double indentation in between 
the two sides of the tail. The central star/nebulosity at the head of the 
"comet" was also nicely resolved in this pick-of-the-litter StarFinder.

On a break from meteor ogling, I finally saw Stephan's Quintet - my first and 
only Hickson galaxy cluster! I had seen this grouping many years ago in a 16", 
but knew nothing about them at the time. This time, I plied the tiny interacting 
galaxies with all the eyepieces I could get my hands on, in search of detail. 
They were easily found from n7331 at 75x, and in fact were nearly in the same 
field, although little of that large spiral could be seen. One or two companions 
of n7331 formed a nice in-field comparison with the members of the Quintet. At 
this low power, only three "globs" of nebulosity could be detected, with only a 
single central condensation apparent - in the "clump" formed the two galaxies 
which are most closely interacting. With a loaned 22m Panoptic (thanks Barrie!) 
at 115x, all five cores stood out nicely, with an obvious and somewhat mottle 
connection between the two interacters. The elongation of the interacting pair 
was about 6' (uneven). The two other "inner" members showed halos elongated 
about 4' x 2' each, while the fifth member showed only an amorphous haze 
surrounding the weakly concentrated core.

Other highlights of the weekend: Apparent color (blue-green, and a tinge of 
red?!) and several tendrils in M1. Five spiral arms in M33, and the tilt of this 
galaxy from face-on was obvious to me for the first time. Nice observation of 
the faint nebulosity around star cloud n206 in M31. A stunning view of at least 
8o of arc length of the Veil with an OIII, and some unexpected areas of 
apparently associated nebulosity 2o or more from either of the well-known arcs.

During my supernova hunting, I happened to note some lovely "explosions" and 
mottlings in both the core and halo of M108, and also saw a nice "confirmation" 
of the pretty "theta" shape of M109. Afterward, despite my lacking comparison 
images for many of them, I found myself lost in all the "bowl galaxies" in UMa. 
[Negative SN observations will be forwarded to ISN within the week. From Roger 
Clark's _Visual Astronomy of the Deep Sky_, star comparisons in several open 
clusters revealed a telescopic limiting mag below 14.5, but no lower limit could 
be determined due to insufficient depth in Dr. Clark's mag sequences...]

Straining my eyes to wait for those brief instants of useable seeing, I also 
noted the North Polar Cap of Mars with a red filter at 340x, and some possible 
dark featuring along the southern limb.

Last but not least, in the increasing light of dawn on Sunday morning, I noted a 
startling dark "lane" in the core of the CVn globular M3, curving from the N to 
the SW, with a larger (thicker) near-central "dark spot" in it where another 
small dark indentation from the NW almost meets the dark arc. I have no idea as 
to the nature of these dark features, but others have seen them in a variety of 
globulars, so here's my little contribution! :)

Very last of all in the harsh light before sunrise, at 0520EST on Sunday, I 
tried to resolve Castor A and B (sep 2.2") to test the seeing. With a 20" at 
340x, Alpha Gem showed obvious elongation, and there were clear but small 
indentations in the out-of-focus star image, but no split. On the other hand, 
Delta Gem - with sep 6.8" - was widely resolved. Star tests for collimating the 
Newtonians present were nearly impossible throughout this weekend, because all 
the unfocused star images boiled so badly!

That's it: I hope my account wasn't too long-winded! Clear skies, and thanks to 
all the members of NSAAC for making this a weekend to remember.

Lew