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(meteorobs) Draconid observed in China
I made some observations for the Draconids with several friends tonight.
It's my first meteor observation 'at home' and I made some preparations
before today, though it still seemed that I should had more preparation
for that...
Shortly speaking, it was obvious that the Draconids is in a large shower
state this year and you need to go out to watch it now - it is cloudy
here at this moment and I have many other works to deal with, so I must
wriet this message briefly.
We went to a place where I choosed for the Nov. Leonids, which is near
a 2-m telescope. In our way from our own Schmidt-telescope dome, which is
not far, I try to find Draco and show it to others from my group - they
know even less about constellations than I do! I have to refer to a
star map to find it. We found some DRAs in our 10-minutes walking.
During the 44 minutes observations under not good weather (LM for me was
just about 4,2), I myself saw 31 meteors (26 DRA and 5 SPO) and they saw
additional 12 meteors (11 SPA and 1 SPO) ! The best one is a +3 SPO who
travelled in front of us from right to left (we facing the zenith with
our bodies towards north, so it's from east to west), with very long
path at least 40 degrees long (perhaps it's not far from us?).
It turned to cloudy after the Moon came, and we had to stop observing
with only 0.73 Teff - both the Teff and LM are sad, but the number of
meteors we saw were quite good.
I brought a tape recorder and a talking clock (which spoke HH:MM when
I push its head) and used it to record down all the informations
including some ghost stories they told during the happy time. I brought
some pencils and blank papers but found that it was difficult to use
those while I had to looking upward all times... Other friends (Yaohua
Li, Xiaosong Liu, Xiangyang Li, Xiaoming Teng, and Xianzhong Zheng)
just went there with me for joy. I made a seperate report for what I
observed and attach it at the end of this message. Will try further
observations if it clear again before dawn or tomorrow night.
I also attach here my 'raw data' from the tape recorder.
Wish you all good lucks with the Draconids (Giacobinid) tonight!!
Jin
============================================================================
Jin Zhu | Tel.: +86-10-62759888 (O)
Beijing Astronomical Observatory | +86-10-68392030 (H)
Chinese Academy of Sciences | +86-314-5053035-806 (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
============================================================================
Attachment 1: summary
NAMN Visual Observing Form:
Summary Report
DATE: 1998 Oct. 08/09 BEGIN: 11:43 UT END: 12:27 UT
OBSERVER: Jin Zhu
LOCATION: Long: 117:34:42 East; Lat: 40:23:47 North
City & State: Xinglong, Hebei, China Elevation: 860 m
RECORDING METHOD: Designate Tape Recorder or Manual: Tape Recorder
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS: (Use 3 letter Codes)
DRA
SPO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS:
(On average, 10 sec/meteor should be subtracted for recording purposes.)
0 = None seen; / = shower not watched.
PERIOD(UT) FIELD LM DRA SPO
11:43-12:27 Zenith 4.2 26 5
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 TOTAL
DRA 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 5 3 10 2 0 26
SPO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 1 0 0 5
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SKY OBSCURED:
___0_% FROM: 11:43 UT ___5_% FROM: 12:10 UT
TO: 12:10 UT TO: 12:20 UT
__10_% FROM: 12:20 UT _____% FROM: UT
TO: 12:27 UT TO: UT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEAD TIME: 0
BREAKS: 0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIMITING MAGNITUDE:
STAR STAR
TIME AREA COUNT LM
11:35 Nr.1 5 4.2
11:35 Nr.6 3
12:04 Nr.1 4
12:04 Nr.6 3
MEAN LIMITING MAGNITUDE: 4.0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
REMARKS:
Teff = 0.73 hour
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment 2: 'raw data'
981008
Time: Beijing Time (20:00 here = UT 12:00)
19:35 begin to determine LM
(before, in 15 min. about 4-5, one -2 DRA?)
LM: 1/5, 6/3
direction: zenith
19:43 start
19:44 DRA +4
19:44 DRA -1
19:45 DRA -2
19:47 DRA +2
19:47 DRA double (seen by other)
19:47 DRA +1
19:47 DRA (by lyh)
19:48 double DRA +2, +3
19:49 DRA (by lyh)
19:49 DRA +2
19:49 DRA +5
19:51 DRA +4
19:51 DRA ? (by lxy)
19:54 DRA +3 (by other two)
19:56 DRA +0
19:56 DRA ? (by lan)
19:57 SPO +1, long, more than 40 degs, right to left, slightly curve?
19:57 DRA +4
20:01 DRA +4
20:02 DRA +4
20:02 SPO +3
20:04 DRA +2
20:04 LM: 1/4, 6/3
20:04 DRA by others
20:08 DRA double +1, +4
20:10 5% cloudy
20:11 DRA +4
20:12 DRA +3
20:13 SPO +4
20:15 DRA ?
20:16 DRA stationary (+3?)
20:17 DRA +2
20:17 DRA +4
20:17 DRA +1 curve?
20:17 DRA +4 (by other)
20:20 10% f.o.v. covered by cloud
20:21 DRA +5
20:22 SPO +3
20:23 DRA +4
20:23 DRA +5 (by lyh, lxs)
20:26 SPO ? (by other)
20:26 double SPO +3, DRA ? (second only by other)
20:27 cloudy - end
end of message
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