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(meteorobs) May 5 Observations
-- [ From: Robert Lunsford * EMC.Ver #2.5.3 ] --
The high clouds cleared shortly after sunset and it remained clear the
entire night. I observed for 4 hours from George's observatory between 1
-5am. I counted a total of 47 meteors, 20 belonged to the Eta Aquarid
shower. 4am-5am produced 10 Eta's with a -4 fireball occurring at 04:01:
55 PDT. It was a brilliant yellow meteor only 4 degrees long shooting
downward out of the radiant. The train lasted 5 seconds. Two minutes
later a -2 orange Eta shot toward the north parallel to the horizon. The
colors this morning were dazzling, more than I have ever seen for the
Eta's. Usually most of my Eta's are blue with an occasional yellow one.
A majority of the bright Eta's this morning were intensely yellow with
several blue and the solitary orange meteor.
The first 3 Eta's of the morning occurred close together at 02:53, 02:54
, and 02:57. All 3 were "Earth Skimmers" being very long and lasting
over one second. Five members of the Alpha Scorpiids (Sagittarids) were
seen as well as one possible member of the Mu Virginids and the Northern
Ophiuchids. Two swift meteors were seen coming from central Capricornus
which could be the same activity Tim Cooper is reporting from South
Africa.
0800-0900 UT 1.00 6.66 1 ASC 5 SPO 6 TOTAL
0900-1000 UT 1.00 6.70 3 ETA 1 MVI 1 NOP 5 SPO 10 TOTAL
1000-1100 UT 1.00 6.67 2 ASC 7 ETA 1 WCA 6 SPO 16 TOTAL
1100-1200 UT 1.00 6.19 2 ASC 10 ETA 1 WCA 2 SPO 15 TOTAL
No clouds were present the entire session. I was facing east at an
altitude of 70 degrees.
MAGNITUDES:
ASC +2 (2) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (1) AVERAGE: +3.20
ETA -4 (1) -2 (1) -1 (1) 0 (2) +1 (4) +2 (2) +
3 (3) +4 (5) +5 (1) AVERAGE: +1.75
MVI +2 (1) AVERAGE: +2.00
NOP +2 (1) AVERAGE: +2.00
WCA +4 (1) +2 (1) AVERAGE: +3.00
SPO 0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (0) +3 (3) +4 (4) +5 (8)
+6 (1) AVERAGE: +4.00
BEGINNING TEMPERATURE/RELATIVE HUMIDITY: 44 F (7 C) 44%
ENDING TEMPERATURE/RELATIVE HUMIDITY: 41 F (5 C) 49 %
NOTE: NOP, MVI, & WCA will be reported to the IMO as SPO. ASC will be
reported as SAG.
Bob Lunsford