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(meteorobs) Virginids



I've completed my 1998 Virginid run, most of the observed meteors were
plotted.  Final reports and plots will be sent to Rainer, Bob Lunsford and
Alastair McBeath.  Attention will now switch to the eta Aquarids, weather
permitting.

I've been off line for a couple of days on email since we had no power.
It's a rather interesting story.  A couple of days ago I finished observing
around midnight, and climbed into bed in order to get up and watch the moon
rise with Jupiter and Venus (which would be occulted later in the morning
from here).  At 1 am, we were awakened by an explosion, the sound of falling
bricks and followed by a bright white flash.  We got dressed and went to
investigate, and found that a drunk driver had left the road at high speed,
smashing the power pylon.  He had power lines draped over his car, and was
trying to get out.  We spent the next hours getting the power off, and the
police charged him.  By now the whole street was congregated in the road.
But the transformer had exploded, cutting the power to the entire suburb,
which was only restored yesterday.  Oh, yes, just as we finished and headed
back for bed, the moon and two planets rose, oblivious to the mayhem below.

During the Virginid plotting, I detected no activity from the March
Geminids.  Also I saw one report on Meteorobs of significant activity from
Libra.  My plots do not confirm this, with only 2 possible Librids from 120
plots in the Leo/Virgo/Libra region.

VIR=Virginids (at least 2 radiants from plots), DLE=delta Leonids
ACO=alpha Corvids, GSE=gamma Sextantids

Date 1998 Time UT Field a,d Teffhours F	LM   VIR DLE ACO GSE SPO Total
Mar 2	2100-2215 175, 0   1.17	    1.0	5.50  4	  1   2	  1   2	  10
Mar 3	2030-2132 190, 0   1.00	    1.0	5.40  0	  0   0	  0   2	   2
Mar 18	1815-1947 175, 0   1.47	    1.0	5.70  0	  0   0	  0   5	   5
Mar 19	1856-2023 175, 0   1.37	    1.0	5.50  1	  0   0	  1   5	   7
Mar 20	1850-2000 175, 0   1.08	    1.0	5.55  1	  2   0	  0   7	  10
Mar 20	2000-2126 190, 0   1.37	    1.0	5.70  0	  1   1	  0   5	   7
Mar 23	2001-2120 190, 0   1.08	    1.0	5.50  2	  0   0	  0   3	   5
Mar 24	1930-2030 190, 0   0.93	    1.0	5.40  0	  0   0	  0   8	   8
Mar 24	2030-2125 190, 0   0.88	    1.0	5.55  0	  0   0	  0   4	   4
Mar 31	1844-1944 175, 0   0.98	    1.0	5.25  0	  0   0	  0   3    3
Mar 31	1944-2100 190, 0   1.22	    1.0	5.40  4	  0   0   0   2	   6
Mar 31	2130-2235 205, -10 1.00	    1.0	5.55  2	  0   0	  0   5	   7
Apr 3	2000-2100 190, 0   0.93	    1.0	5.30  5	  0   1	  0   2	   8
Apr 3	2100-2220 190, 0   1.25	    1.0	5.55  6	  0   1	  0   1	   8
Apr 5	2005-2130 190, 0   1.33	    1.0	5.45  2	  0   0	  0   8	  10
Apr 16	1746-1926 175, 0   1.58	    1.0	5.65  2	  0   0	  0   6	   8
Apr 17	1750-1855 175, 0   1.00	    1.0	5.65  0	  0   0	  0   6	   6
Apr 17	1855-2000 195, +5  1.00	    1.0	5.85  0	  0   1	  0   4	   5
Apr 19	1910-2010 195, +5  0.95     1.0 5.70  1   0   0   0   5    6		
Apr 19	2010-2113 205, -10 1.00     1.0 5.95  2   0   0   0   3    5		
Apr 20	2007-2110 195, +5  1.00     1.0 5.90  1   0   0   0   4    5
				
Total                      23.59             33   4   6   2  90  135						
Regards
Tim Cooper