[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

(meteorobs) Early Evening Observing

In a message dated 97-08-26 09:57:02 EDT, you write:

<< 
 Finally, there are these 'obscure' and most interesting meteor outburst
 caused by long-periodic or unknown comets. Essentially they can happen at
 every time of day. You will only recognize them if you monitor the sky as
 complete as possible. Also here, the evening hours are as important as the
 morning hours.
 
 So - I see no reason to put in a weight here.
 Sirko
  >>
--------------
So...the majority opinion seems to think that it's just as important to
observe in the early evening hours as after midnight? Good...then there
should be no reason other than weather and moon for most of you to get out
and observe on a frequent basis? All you would be missing is a few hours of
tv and still get plenty of rest for school or work the following day. I see a
lot of talk...now it would be interesting to see who has the quevos to follow
thru? Like I said earlier, I use to observe frequently from sunset till
dawn....about 4 years of it.  The evening hours was the most boring observing
I've ever done. I don't think I've ever seen anything in the evening that
even remotely resembled an outburst...so I think you are gonna find a lot of
idle moments. I think I did have one hour that reached 7(I'm not talking
about on nites of Major showers such as the Perseids and Geminids)....but
it's more often than not that the hourly rates will be 0, 1 or 2 and
sometimes a 3 or 4 sneaks in. It's a real entertaining nite to go 2 hours
straight without a single meteor being seen under dark skies. I've been there
"enjoying"  those long cool nites in March where a 10 or 11 hour dusk to dawn
observing session nets me about 27 meteors....all diligently plotted simply
to have something to keep the mind active. You must operate a camera during
these sessions just to have an excuse to get up and get the blood flowing and
clean out the cobwebs every half hour that may set in.  I also observed for
Jack Drummond during those years in search of a possible "Fireball radiant"
that he had suspicions about. It was hypothesized to show up for about an
hour and a half after sunset with a large radiant following the sun.  After
about 200 dusk to dawn observing sessions, Jack told me that it is apparent
that there isn't any routine activity right after sunset and that I could end
my search if I want. Boy did I take advantage of that....I now sleep from
dusk to about 10 or 11 pm in preparation for interesting after midnight
activity.  If anyone tries early evening observing...I highly advise
plotting...even for beginners. You got plenty of time to practice with each
meteor and if you take too long plotting...chances are you didn't miss
anything. So...I guess I can expect to see a flood of meteor reports posted
here? I look forward to seeing them.
Geore Zay
Follow-Ups: