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Re: (meteorobs) High Rates (was leonids storm)



 ---- you wrote: 
> 
> Thanks for sharing your stories, guys! Makes me feel a little bit better
> for having never seen a rate higher than about 100 per hour in my life. :)

I've seen raw rates of over 100 several times during my short counting lifespan.  On 1994 August 12, I got 191 for an hour (179 Perseids and 22 others).  At least 1 and maybe 2 adjacent hours were over 100 as well.  In 1997, under exceptional skies, I got a peak of 134 (103 Perseids and 31 others), with rates just over 100 in the two hours following.  In 1996, I got one hour just barely over 100.  Other than the Perseids, my highest is 98 (73 Geminids and 25 others) in 1993.  So high rates do happen, the 1994 and 1997 Perseids obviously influenced by the presence of the new peak and all of these rates recorded in skies better than magnitude 6.5.

What are others' experiences with high rates?  I know a lot of people have seen bodacious Geminid displays recently (while I've been stuck in a city, usually under clouds).  A club member recently recalled seeing a Geminid outburst "sometime in the late 80's, when the rate was about 5 per minute for about an hour".  Which year might this have been?  I know the 1985 Geminid shower must have been something, because my dad took me out after midnight and I remember seeing a bunch of bright meteors AS A 12-YEAR-OLD, STANDING UP IN TEMPERATURES NEAR 0 F!

> there are some
> gorgeous dark, CLEAR skies in the deserts east of the Cascades!

Hopefully I'll be there, but sometimes (often) the whole Northwest socks in.  East of the Cascades definitely has better prospects for clearing, though.

--
Wes Stone

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