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(meteorobs) PERSEIDS Aug 11/12 from Central California
Before I present the data... just wanted to note that in the past 17
years of meteor observing, this years Perseid peak was clearly one of the
most memorable nights. Not only were conditions perfect (clear dark skies
out in the middle of central Calif foothills) and there were many bright
meteors, BUT, I had the golden opportunity to observe with a group headed by
none other than Dr Peter Jenniskens. It was the first time I met Peter
and, boy, it was quite an honor to, first, hang out at the local MacDonalds
and chat about comets/meteors and then go watch the Perseids... with
professional meteor scientist! Along with Peter and myself, there was
Peter's "hardware guy" Mike, who was resposible for camera and video setups
In addition, there was a very nice group of 11 volunteers who showed up to
observe and assist in plotting. WOWEE! 11 plotters, 2 counters, 2
mulitple-camera platforms, 1 image-intensified video tape platform AND Dr
Jenniskens all under clear starry skies out in the middle of nowhere Calif.
Meteor observing does not get ANY better than that. Now the data ...
=============================================================================
PERSEID METEOR SHOWER
SUMMARY REPORT
DATE: Aug 11/13, 1997 BEGIN: 5h30 UT (2230 PDT) END: 11h45 UT (0445 PDT)
OBSERVER: Joseph D. Assmus IMO CODE: ASSJO
LOCATION: Mercy Hot Springs, California, USA
approx- Lat: 36 deg 50' North
Long: 120 deg 50' West
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Data are for Perseids and Sporadics (Non-Perseids) only.
My visual field was centered due North-East: 60 deg (5h30-9h30)
80 deg (9h30-11h45)
-------------------------------------------------------
PERIOD (UT) Teff F Lm PER SPO Total
-------------------------------------------------------
5h30- 6h30 .979 1 5.9 11 4 15
6h30- 7h30 .968 1 5.9 17 5 23
7h30- 8h30 .917 1 6.2 47 13 60
8h30- 9h30 .901 1 6.3 53 15 68
9h30-10h30 .925 1 6.3 46 8 54
10h30-11h30 .939 1 6.2 32 12 44
11h30-11h45 .224 1 6.2 15 4 19
------------------------------------------------------
Total 5.86 6.12 221 62 283
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTION TABLE
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 | AVG
---------------------------------------------------------------------+-----
PER 1 2 2 3 11 34 36 64 41 9 6 | 1.52
SPO 1 1 2 13 15 15 11 | 3.17
--------------------------------------------------------------- ----+------
This was probably the most BRIGHT meteors I've seen in one night. A total
of 20 meteors with magnitude >= -1. Looking up Perseid history in
Kronk, my average Perseid magnitude seems significantly different than the
"historical" average Persied magnitude.
===========================================================================
The following table are Perseid raw rates presented in 15 minute intervals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PERIOD (UT) # PERSEIDs
--------------------------
530- 545 1
545- 600 4
600- 615 1
615- 630 5
630- 645 4
645- 700 4
700- 715 2
715- 730 7
730- 745 7
745- 800 13
800- 815 13
815- 830 14
830- 845 15
845- 900 15
900- 915 15
915- 930 10
930- 945 13
945-1000 10
1000-1015 8
1015-1030 15
1030-1045 5
1045-1100 8
1100-1115 6
1115-1130 13
1130-1145 15
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
That is all. I will be sending hardcopy/diskcopy of my raw data to
Dr Jenniskens to use for sync'ing up photographed meteors with my recorded
times for orbital determination.
PERSEID-97! Great year!
Regards,
Joseph D. Assmus
Office of Sleep and Circadian Studies
School of Medicine, Univ of California
San Diego, CA USA
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