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Re: (meteorobs) Met. Obser Aug 9/10 ZAYGE

Hello George,

Well, two sides of the world, rather similar stories... We had problems
with fog too last night in Biddinghuizen. See my night report send earlier.
Unlike you, we can't escape it by going higher up. Just hope it will not
affect us coming night.

We are having a quite good campaign in the Netherlands so far. Already six
days on a row that we were able to observe, though sometimes under moderate
conditions (but also some fantasticly clear skies on occasion). That
doesn't happen so often here. For the maximum, it will be a close call:
they still think that there will be a small thunderstorm depression passing
by somewhere from monday to wednesday, with renewed clear skies following.

We are experimenting with our new photographic equipment at the moment, so
the clear nights are extra welcome. We have made camera-arrays that are
both more compact and lower in weight, and more accurate due to an even
better rotating shutter and higher focal length optics. This new setup has
been especially build for our 1998 Leonid expedition to central China.

We are experiencing a true heatwave in the Netherlands at this moment. Last
two days were 31 C temperature, after several days > 25 C, and the >30 C
temperatures will continue coming days.  In our country, such temperatures
are often accompanied by high air moisture, as is the case now, making it
rather unpleasant. Due to this and the combination with fatigue, I woke up
this afternoon with a strong headache, so I hope that if the thunderstorms
come, they will cool down the things a little bit. But in the forecast a
few minutes ago, they moved the thunderstorms backward to tuesday: o,
(w)(h)ell. It means that the night of 11/12 will most probably be clear,
but probably also somewhat hazy. But as long as the fog is absent....

Regards,

-Marco










At 13:01 10-08-97 -0400, you wrote:
>
>My meteor observations for Aug 9/10, 1997...George Zay
>
>Well...I headed on up to my observatory in Descanso, Calif. and started
>observing and operating my camera at 7h06 UT (00h06 PDT) under clear and very
>dark skies with my LM near 6.0. The fog was thick coming up and it blocked
>most of the lights from San Diego area. Things were going good until I
>noticed the fog was slopping over the coastal mountains to where I was at. I
>got in a good 1.3 hours before I was enveloped completely and suddenly by the
>fog. The perseids were active...Out of the 32 meteors observed during that
>period...18 were Perseids. I took a nap while waiting for the fog to drain
>back to the coast...which it did nearly 2 hours later. I began again at
>10h24m UT(3h24 PDT) with clear and very dark skies....I had hoped to get the
>last 1.3 hours unimpeded....things were going great ....until 45 minutes
>later the fog made a return...shortly afterwards I stopped for the night.
>During my last 45 minutes I recorded a total of 15 perseids out of 25
>meteors....bummer! Hopefully tonight the fog won't be as much as a pest?
>Perhaps I will go higher up to Pine Valley and see if I can get above the fog
>layers if it comes over me this time? The brightest meteor was a -2
>Perseid...of which I think I captured on film. My shower break down and
>observing periods are as shown below:
>
Leonids-'98? A once (twice?) in your lifetime appearance! You can't afford
to miss it!

Casper ter Kuile, Akker 145, NL-3732 XD, De Bilt, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-30-2203170;  Fax: +31-30-2202695;  GSM: +31-6-54723974
E-mail1: pegasoft@cc.ruudot nl;  E-mail2: casper.ter.kuile@rivmdot nl
WWW: http://www.pidot net/~terkuile/meteors/dms.htm
References: