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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