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(meteorobs) Aug 11 Meteor Observations For S. Calif.
-- [ From: Robert Lunsford * EMC.Ver #2.5.3 ] --
Well it was one of those nights. The bad news arrived just before
midnight as George Zay called to say the observatory was fogged over. I
could not believe it as only 3 hours earlier I went to bed under clear
skies. For the marine layer to form at 3000 ft so quickly is an extreme
oddity. I arrived just before 1am and the fog had actually lifted but
there was another problem; altostratus covered a big chunk of the
western sky. There is not a mountain high enough to get above those
clouds. We decided to head for the hills and at least get away from the
fog and wait out the passage of the higher clouds. Upon arrival at the
Pine Valley Viewpoint the entire sky was cloudy except for a 10 degree
strip along the horizon all the way around. It was like someone threw a
tarp over us! We would have to travel at least another 50 miles to get a
decent sky so we decided to let the clouds drift away. Those had to be
the slowest moving clouds I have ever encountered. At 2am it was still
cloudy but the northwest was looking better. There were often thin spots
in the clouds and we saw an amazing amount of activity in those small
holes. At 3am it was still the same but with 20 degrees visible in the
northwest. It was interesting that at this time the military facility on
top of Mt. Laguna was using their pulsating laser to do whatever it does
with satellites. I knew what was going on but to someone new it could
appear as short meteors occurring in the same place at a rate of every
half second. Anybody thinking along those lines must have been impressed
with the shower despite the partly cloudy skies.
While watching the laser show the northern sky began to clear and
finally at 330am the sky was clear enough to allow us to start counting.
Unfortunately the rates we encountered earlier through holes in the
clouds were now down to a meteor ever 2 or 3 minutes but activity picked
up as the clouds kept moving southeastward. At 400am I double checked my
cassette recorder to make sure it was recording properly and heard the
playback of "3rd magnitude Geminid". Geminid!, I know I did not say that
tonight. I made the mistake of using an old tape that had not been
erased. I reached into my utility bag for another tape and guess what? I
left my backup tape at home. For some reason this tape would rewind or
fast forward. I had to rewind it by hand for 10 minutes before I
encountered my current night's data. I was glad it was not lost but I
ended wasting 11 minutes of good activity.
Things went well the remaining 45 minutes until twilight became too
bright at 500am. I ended up with 38 Perseids, 21 sporadics (random
meteors) for a total of 59 meteors during 78.5 minutes of effective
observing. There was a -4 Perseid low in the north but there were ever
better looking Perseids occurring higher up and hopefully through the
field of our cameras.
Despite the cloudiness the humidity was very low and the static
electricity was producing a small lightening storm every time I moved my
blanket. The humidity dropped from 20% to 5% during the session.
Temperatures ranged from 63 to 55.
This was a rather forgettable night but I am grateful it was not a total
loss.
Bob Lunsford