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- To: dedalus@latrade.com
- Subject: Meteor Shower
- From: MMHASKE@aol.com
- Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 17:31:39 EDT
Greetings! :o) This will be my first attempt to inform you of my perspective of this awesome twilight show. I am hoping this will be a good addition to your records. Here goes: I chose to observe just before the Moon Rise at 11pm here in WA. My husband wanted to participate with me so we watched together in our back yard. We set up facing east, toward draco and the square that I choose to call the baseball diamond or diamond for short. We watched from 10:30 until 11:30 and with a total clear sky, no clouds, however, the neighbors had their lights on so had some light pollution to cope with. I do not understand the way you determine the light percentage so am just winging it here. In total we saw thirteen (13) really good shooters, and several very faint ones that I decided not to count but tonight will try to include them in my count. I am guessing at this so bare with me ok? I believe the majority were the P's because they came from Draco and went toward the diamond, in a southerly direction. There were 4 from the Big Dipper area so am certain they were what you call Sparadics? The brightness would match the light of Jupiter on 6 of the 13 seen, and the other 7 would match the light of the stars that form Draco, much fainter. I would also like to report that we may have seen a fireball. It was a very bright ball with hardly no trail at all comming from just above the diamond and heading south to almost the ground. Very Nice. I don't believe I have ever seen one like that before. It was as bright as Jupiter. When Moon made her apperance, she made it very difficult to see any more so we called it a night shortly after her arrival. All in all it was a great night for viewing, and we are expecting clear skies again tonight. Since we are here in WA, I believe it would be better to view before the Moon Rise? From what I have read from everyone eles, I think that would be best for me. Sorry to hear you are having clouds Lew, and I also want to appoligize for this wordy report, being my first and not quite sure how to do it, it is the best I can do. Thanks for listening, clear skies to all :o) Marcia
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