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(meteorobs) Obser. Nov 6/7 & Taurid activity?
Observation Summary for Nov 6/7, 1997 ZAYGE
I just finished another night(Nov 6/7)of observing from my Descanso, Caif.
observatory with Bob Lunsford. The skies were completely clear and very dark
all night. Had an LM around 6.0 or 6.1. I believe Bob was getting around 6.8?
I began my watch at 2200 hrs Local and ended near 5 am local. I plotted
nearly all observed meteors which gave me an approximate Teff of 6 hours. I
recorded a total of 78 meteors. 6 were Orionids, 8 North Taurids, 16 South
Taurids, and 48 sporadics. Activity was noticeably higher than the previous
night. The brightest meteors were a pair of -1's belonging to a N. Taurid and
a sporadic. Tonights Taurid activity occurred the way I expected with the
South Taurids being more active than the North Taurids. But yesterdays watch
was very puzzling due to the reverse in activity of the two Taurid streams. I
have no doubt that yesterdays high North Taurid activity compared to the
Southern Taurids was a genuine thing. From both nights, there were a few
Taurids were stream membership was a little confusing due to both radiants
aligning up with them. But there were enough that were obviously aligned to
one of the radiants to give me confidence to say that something odd was
happening. It seemed as if the two streams switched places in regards as to
being dominantly active for at least one night. I think Bob will agree with
me on this as well? This was my last night until the Leonid max night.
Hopefully I will be able to develop my film from the last most recent 3
observing nights this week? I will post the results to my possible capture of
a -8 N. Taurid.
My complete final report will be sent on a later date to Rainer Arlt of IMO.
George Zay