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(meteorobs) LEONIDS 11/16-17/97 (Nice!) from So Cal
---------------------------------- Forwarded ----------------------------------
From: Joseph Assmus at PACE-POST
Date: 11/17/97 9:51AM
To: meterobs@latrade.com at INTERNET GATEWAY
To: arlt@compuserve.com at INTERNET GATEWAY
To: peter@max.arc.nasadot gov at INTERNET GATEWAY
To: jrendtel@aipdot de at INTERNET GATEWAY
To: LUNRO.IMO.USA@prodigy.com at INTERNET GATEWAY
To: visual@imodot net at INTERNET GATEWAY
Subject: LEONIDS 11/16-17/97 (Nice!) from So Cal
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So Cal Greetings to all,
Despite GeoZay's pessimistic weather-report postings, I just knew that
Southern California observers had to be blessed with decent LEONID
conditions. Not having the energy/time to make the loooong drive up to
Central Cal to join Jennsikens, Lunsford et al, nor did I feel like making a
3 hour sojourn to local desert, I decided to stay home, set the alarm for
215am local... At 240am, I walked the 6 blocks down the street of my
apartments (w/ pot 'o hot java, notepad, and chair in hand) to a huge
grassy plateau (100+ acres of undeveloped land)... nice 360deg views...
didnt even need red penlight due to the moonlite... it is only ~25km S to
downtown San Diego and very close (~3km) to the Pacific Ocean, so it is
rarely clear here at night.. but because of the building high pressure (and
the week's cleansing rains), it was one of the clearest cloudless nights
I've seen, in my neighborhood, in the past 7 years! Even with the washout
of a brilliantly bright moon, my LM=5.4 - 5.6.. couldn't believe it... I
kept recounting the star area 'tween alpha-theta-23 Uma and kept coming up
with 8/9 stars! This was very near my Center of Field (which was area
around Gamma UMa)...I kept pretty well centered there for the entire
session.
Under such bright lunation, I was pleasantly surpised to count a total
of 64 meteors with a Teff of 2.414 between the hours of 300-530 Local Time
(1100-1330 UT). There were 7 meteors of negative magnitude. Not too bad
for urban observing, eh ??
Well, enough gabbing, below are my data which covers pretty well the
predicted peak times...
===========================================================================
LEONID METEOR SHOWER - 1997
VISUAL REPORT
Southern California, USA
----------------------------
DATE: Nov 16/17 1997 BEGIN: 1100 UT END: 1330 UT
OBSERVER: ASSJO (Joseph D. Assmus)
LOCATION: Long:117o 09' 21" W; Lat:32o 42' 53" N; Elev:? (3km E of PAC ocean
CITY & STATE: La Jolla, California, USA (~25km N of San Diego)
METHOD: Counting/Manual
==========================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Period(UT) Field(RA/Dec) Teff F LM LEO SPOR
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1100-1115 09:33/51deg41' .246 1 5.2 2 1
1115-1130 " .246 1 5.4 4 0
1130-1145 " .247 1 5.4 1 1
1145-1200 " .236 1 5.4 9 1
1200-1215 " .237 1 5.4 9 0
1215-1230 " .246 1 5.4 3 0
1230-1245 " .246 1 5.4 3 1
1245-1300 " .235 1 5.4 9 2
1300-1315 " .235 1 5.4 8 3
1315-1330 " .240 1 5.2 5 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals 2.414 53 11
=======================================================================
Magnitude Distribution Table
-----------------------------
Shower -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 |TOTAL| MEAN
------------------------------------------------------------+-----+----
LEO 3 3 12 8 14 8 5 | 53 | 1.34
SPO 1 3 6 1 | 11 | 3.36
------------------------------------------------------------+-----+-----
3 4 12 8 14 11 11 1 | 64
========================================================================
Limiting Magnitude Data
------------------------
Time Area Count LM
------------------------
1100 3 8 5.4
1130 3 9 5.6
1200 3 9 5.6
1230 3 9 5.6
1300 3 9 5.6
1330 3 8 5.4
=========================================================================
METEORS with Wakes or Persistent Trains (PT-duration)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Time(UT) Shower MAG Wake PT(sec) Comment (L=~length)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1115 LEO 0 +
2 1124 LEO -2 4s
3 1127 LEO -1 2s
4 1154 LEO -1 3s
5 1158 LEO 0 +
6 1201 LEO 0 3s
7 1202 LEO 1 +
8 1205 LEO 0 2s
9 1206 LEO 0 +
10 1210 LEO -2 4s Awesome,White,Term Burst,L=20deg
11 1211 LEO 1 +
12 1217 LEO -2 2s Beauty,White,Small Burst
13 1225 LEO -1 +
14 1235 LEO 0 2s
15 1246 LEO 2 +
16 1248 LEO 1 +
17 1249 LEO 0 2s
18 1249 LEO 0 +
19 1256 LEO 0 2s
20 1259 SPO -1 2s
21 1300 LEO 0 2s
===========================================================================
Well, that'll do for this years LEONIDS. Robert, Rainer, Peter or Mark,
if ya'll have any questions re: these data, please let me know... I'll do
what I can to make these data useful for global analyses...
Best regards to all,
Joseph Assmus
Office of Sleep and Circadian Studies
School of Medicine, Univ of Calif
San Diego, CA