[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Re: Observing B4 Midnight + more
Early observing should occupy some of our time just to get a complete
picture of the full night's activity. But it definitely isn't as
interesting due to the low rates. The AMS in the past recommended that
beginners avoid the earliest hours just to keep enthusiasm from being lost.
In 1971 - 75 when I had just a short distance out to dark sites (6 or 7
miles), I did a lot of early observing. The post-full moon period was ideal
for this use. The weather was unusually good during the second half of that
period, plus it was before home computers. There was literally more time
available for astronomy. I miss the slower-paced life of not that many
years ago. Picking up new interests every so often, but not losing older
ones, is diluting my efforts to keep up with everything.
For early meteor rates, I found 3-4/hr fairly typical even in dark skies
during winter-spring. Feb to Apr have an enhanced rate of fireballs,
however. I was seeing 2 or more per month before 11 PM, all in the -4m to
-6m range. The worst evenings were late December, when I did achieve one
hourly rate of 0 and couldn't pass 2/hr. Bill Gates did a little observing
that same period, in 1972 , and got the lowest hourly rate I ever saw from
him : a 7 ! If he couldn't see any more than that, it's is positively dead.
Since I moved to Fort Myers in 1979, I have seldom done meteor observing
before midnight. The only exceptions would be for Taurids and Geminids.
Longer distances (22 miles) to the remote site, even though less than many
observers contend with, make sporadic observing much less attractive for me,
combined with so much more to do nowadays. Florida evenings tend to be
cloudier than mornings anyhow.
I got interested in astronomy in 4th grade, age 9. It was a heavy pursuit
until I was 12, and it didn't take long to know more than the teachers at
school. Going dormant in 7th grade and half of 8th, a friend had a
telescope party 1960 Feb 19 in Miami, a cold night. That revived my
interest. One week later the parents wouldn't let either of us go out on
school nights. I did sneak out 3 or 4 mornings with the telescope anyway.
We saw the 1960 Perseids and got interested in meteors at that point. Not
to be outdone, my parents put the telescope away for the entire 9th-grade
year. But I still went out for meteors, sneaking out on school nights for
an hour on Orionids and two on Geminids of 1960. Since I wasn't making all
A's for grades, astronomy became the scapegoat. I couldn't please them. In
10th grade I did achieve all A's one single marking period, my sole success
at that. Sometimes I would just quietly prepare for observing, sleeping a
little early and not saying anything. The Orionids of 1962 came over a
weekend, and I was just about over a cold -- these two mornings I quietly
observed and had rates around 20/hr.
There was one morning in 1961 my father was adamant about no observing. I
positioned myself to see his bedroom window for the light to come on, always
the signal that he would go to the kitchen for a drink of water. When it
came on, I charged back to my room, opposite end of the house. Good thing
the house was fairly long. One night in 1962 on a weekend he revealed his
presence going to the kitchen in a different manner : a loud wind-breaking
report. No need to run inside for that one.
The Miami sky was not all that bad at first. 1960 was LM6.0-6.2, 1961 down
to 5.8-6.0, 1963 getting much worse usually 5.5. Off to Florida State in
1964, free at last. But not much observing in those years. It really had
to wait until I was completely free of school in 1971.
For seeing unexpected outbursts, I have been rather unlucky to have only 2
occurrences in my life. First was a faint shower from the Circlet of
Pisces around 1977 Aug 21, an amazing 5/hr at best. Second was the Lyrid
mini-storm of 1982, in which I topped out at 5 Lyrids/minute for 5 minutes.
That is much stronger than the ZHR 90 I am seeing in the literature for this
event ! Seems like a ZHR 300 minimum is more warranted. That full hour had
"just" 78 Lyrids, so the storm was very brief.
The U.S. won't be in on either of the upcoming transits of Venus. In this
age Venus passes well to one side of the sun's center, then 8 years later (5
inferior conjunctions, 584 days apart) it passes well to the other side,
completing the famous pair of transits. But nothing stays the same in
astronomy. The transits slowly shift, and eventually Venus will make just
single transits near the center.
Norman