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(meteorobs) Met. Obser. Aug 10/11 ZAYGE
My Meteor observations for the night of Aug 10/11, 1997...George Zay
This was at least the third or 4th meteor observing night in a row that gave
me difficulties due to clouds. I got to my observatory a little before
midnight. There was some alto stratus clouds right above me...completely
socked in. I called bob and told him of the situation...looks like a road
trip to one of our alternate observing sites...a Pine Valley road cut. Bob
arrived at about midnight: 45 am. We drove about 15 miles and set up...the
clouds looked too high to get above...saw some clear skies to the south and
thought it was gonna be clear in about an hour...actually we waited about 2
hours. The North west side ended up becoming clear...very clear at that and
very dark skies. My LM was near 6.2 for the 1.66 observing hours that I
finally got before dawn. I recorded a total of 88 meteors...of which 52 were
perseids and 36 were sporadics. I only counted Perseids and everything else
as sporadics despite the other minor shower activity. The brightest meteor
was a -3 Perseid. I believe I photographed at least a -2 perseid with my
unguided camera. My observations were from 10h20-12h00 UT....that was 3h20
am-5h00 am PDT. Hopefully tonight I will be able to stay at the observatory
and get a good observing nite...I sure hate those middle of the night road
trips. Oh! I would like to note that Bob recorded a humidity of only 5 %. My
throat and nose felt very dry. It was so dry that I was afraid to pick my
nose lest I create some static electricity sparks that might ruin my night
vision. My nose was just too close to my eyes to take a chance. Another
thing...we noted the laser lights in the sky by the military at Mt. laguna
flashing in the sky..dot it was a bizarre look...to the "Open Minded People" no
doubt this could be interpreted as something perhaps "extra-terrestrial".
George Zay