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(meteorobs) My first meteor observation, July 24/25


I am visiting the Russian 6-m telescope, and it happens to be a quite clear
night - the seeing is about 0.9" which could be in top-1 for this site,
and transparency is also nice (I guess about top-10 to top-15 for average site).
After the very impressive introduction of the current observation of GRB host
galaxies by Prof. Sokolov and his colleague, where we can see from 10-min R-band
image the galaxy in magnitude of 25.3, I go back the mountain hotel in around
2 am, and decide to start my first meteor observation on this nice place.

Although it is about 2050 m above the sea-level, it is not cold outside in this
season. No mosquatos, but a kind of poison plants with beautiful white flower
is everywhere around. I decide to make the observation from the small balcony (?)
of my room, which gives just the south half of the whole sky. I guess that
the real area I could watch is about 35% to 40% of the whole sky above horizon.

I have no sky map etc. with me, and haven't made myself familar with 
constellations before this time. Internet linkage is good from the site, but
I can not recognize which LM chart should be used for this time. So it's
a great pity that I have no idea about the precise limiting-magnitude it
is, which make me feel that my observation is of less value, and I can not
tell which meteor is belong to which shower... :(

Although the transparency is good, I feel that my own limiting magnitude could
just be around 5. It may be approved if I could find a glass. (I never use glass
but when I applied for driver liscence in US I must had a 100/120 glass.)

I observe for 1:40 without rest, and record down a short message on paper for
each meteor (time, direction, etc.) with a handlight inside a red cloth. I think
that it should be take about 10-15 seconds for each meteor, and take about
30-60 seconds for an extremely bright meteor at UT 22:46 - I draw the trace and
configuration of nearby bright stars then I can find the positions later when
I find a sky map. I didn't bring my voice-controlled tape-recorder with me.

The total meteors are 31 in about 1:30 eff. time. I hope that I can get some
useful data next time after good preparations.

I attach my raw observation log at the end of this message. It might be a little
helpful if there is anyone else observes at the same time with me at a near
place? Please send me your instructions.

Wish you clear skies, Jin
========================================================================
Jin Zhu                           | Tel.: +86-10-62759888 (O)
Beijing Astronomical Observatory  |       +86-10-68392030 (H)
Chinese Academy of Sciences       |       +86-314-5053035 (Schmidt dome)
P. R. China                       | Fax : +86-10-62759888
------------------------------------------------------------------------
email: zj@bac.pkudot edu.cn or jinzhu@sun.ihep.ac.cn
WWW Home Page: http://vega.bac.pkudot edu.cn/~zj
Pager: zhu@mail.263dot net.cn (only Sub. line) OR +86-10-64256688 PIN 82333
========================================================================

DATE: July 24/25 1998                BEGIN: 22:18 UT  END: 00:00 UT
LOCATION: Long: -41.44  West; Lat: 43.65  North   Elevation: 2050m
City & Province: Nichnu Arkhyz, Karachaevo-Cherkesia, Russia

UT      Teff   Number
22:20-22:40 0.30  8
22:40-23:00 0.30  5
23:00-23:20 0.31  6
23:20-23:40 0.31  7
23:40-24:00 0.32  5
-------------------
totals:     1.54 31
All time below from my watch is about 2-minutes earlier ahead of real time.

BEGIN: 2:20 Local
END: 4:01 Local

LM: 5 (?)
T_eff = 1.54
(magnitude estimated very approximately)

time    mag Note
------- --- --------------------
2:20        begin observation.
2:22     4  short.  UL->DR.
2:26     5  short.  R->L.
2:31:28  5  short.  L->R.
2:33:05  4  long.  U->D.
2:36:18  5  short.  U->D.
2:39:30  1  UL->DR. 
2:41:15  4  short
2:42:05  4  short
2:45:30  4  UL->DR.
2:47:50 -3? extremely bright, move slowly, seeming has twice bright maximum,
            a feeling of 'drop down' a little in middle of its path.
            trace ploted (see below).  UR->DL.
2:50:29  1  UL->DR.
2:51:28  ?  very fast.  U->D.
3:00:35  5  fast.  UL->DR.
3:05:20  5  fast.  UL->DR.
3:09:13  5  fast.  UR->DL.
3:12:14  5  fast.  UL->DR.
3:12:34  5  fast.  L->R.
3:15:35  4  slow.  UR->DL.
3:16:55  3  slow, long.  U->D.
3:23:05  4  fast.  L->R.
3:25:30  3? satellite, from north to south
3:27:48  5  fast.  L->R.
3:30:55  5  fast, short.  L->R.
3:34:18  5  fast.  U->D.
3:35:55  ?  short, fast.  U->D.
3:38:17  5  short, fast.  D->U.
3:40:10  4? satellite, from west to east
3:41:05  5  fast.  U->D.
3:43:55  3  fast.  L->R.
3:46:55  4  fast.  UL->DR.
3:50:28  5  fast.  UL->DR.
3:52:25  5  fast.  U->D.
4:00:20  5  short
4:01:25     end observation
(U-up, D-down, L-left, R-right)

The position of the mag=-3 (or even brighter) meteor with configuration 
of bright stars:
Time: UT 22:46 (Jul. 24, 1998).
RA: about 20-21 hours ??
Dec: about -10 - +20 ??
(* are bright stars which I can notice)

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