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(meteorobs) July 25/26 obs. LANMA+MISKO -new location!

Hello everybody,

Last night our team 'Delphinus' (Casper, Robert, Koen and me) has visited
our new observing location. The farming family where we used to observe has
moved recently because Mr. Appel retired his business as a farmer. They
moved to a very fine new home (Finish wooden home, realy fine house!)
approx. 4 km from the old location, in the middle of the dark Flevo polders
just as the old locality. This is still in the Biddinghuizen municipality,
so the name of our observing station stays the same. It is located slightly
nearer to the city Lelystad, but on the other hand less close to Dronten.
Anyway, last evening we paid a 'social' visit to the family (with some
presents etc.) and then continued with a nightly session to check the
conditions at the new location. The result:

GREAT!!!!!

Observing conditions were not optimal. Heavy cirrus when we arrived. In
late twilight this started to dissolve partly and we were actually able to
do some serious observations for some 25 minutes. Then the cirrus
re-appeared and we had to stop. We stayed the whole night though, and saw
several nice meteors through the cirrus. In early twilight, we had a -5 and
-2 Perseid going down. Koen saw a -3 Capricornid, I a -1. And several other
nice meteors. Mir spacestation passed over twice, we saw two bright Iridium
flares.
In the 'good' part of the night (still not optimal sky conditions) both
Koen and I estimated Lm at +6.7 (count in several Lm areas). The light dome
of Lelystad low at the western horizon has not increased much compared to
the old location. But the small light dome of Dronten that was present in
the northeast there has completely gone at the new location and the sky
from North to southeast is extremely dark (looking forward to zodiacal
light in autumn!). So we were really very satisfied with the new locality!
The surroundings are also more 'cozy' than previous, with a hedge at the
edge of the 7 acre field, some sheeps that Mr. Appel still keeps. Most
notably, the nuisance of car-lights on the road as experienced at the old
location is completely absent at the new more 'sheltered' place. What also
struck us was the deep silence at this place, really no sounds but the
sounds of the wildlife. So, in essence: the new location is perhaps even
BETTER than the previous one...!

Below the data of Koen and me from the short 'good' period of the night.

Locality: Biddinghuizen, The Netherlands, 52d 30' N, 5d 40' E
Date: July 25/26 1998

Observer: Koen Miskotte       MISKO

UT            Teff   Lm   Per  Daqr    Cap  Ocyg  Spo  TOT
22:05-22:31   0.43   6.7   1    0       0     0    4    5

              +2   +3   +4   +5   +6
Perseids       0    0    1    0    0
Sporadics      0    1    2    1    0


Observer: Marco Langbroek     LANMA

UT           Teff  Lm    Spo  Per   oCyg   Cap   DAqr  iAqr  TOTAL
22:05-22:31  0.40  6.7   4    1      2      0     0     0     7

             +2   +3   +4   +5   +6
Sporadics     0    1    2    1    0
O Cygnids     0    1    1    0    0
Perseids      0    1    0    0    0