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(meteorobs) Re: Observation of 1998 Oct. 29/30
Jin Zhu wrote:
> It's still very clear, slightly breeze, and not very cold (should be much
> colder for this season). I have now more confidence for recognizing the
> constellations and fields for LM determination after previous two
> observations, but still take a lot of time (should be done during day time)
> trying to find out showers and radiant positions on map. I must miss-read
> 'Oct.' as 'Nov.' when I picked out those informations from Table 8.7 of
> George's Guidebook, for I missed EGE but a XOR! And I gave wrong positions
> for NTA, STA, XOR. Only ORI is correct for there is no line for Nov. 30.
> I only realized this after I listened the tape and finished input all the
> following raw data on computer. I must be too tired before I started
> this morning's observation... And I'm really disappointed at this moment
> for such a stupid mistake.
>
Jin, all of us make such mistakes at one time or another. Two of my
biggest were shooting pictures of Hally's comet with an empty camera and
leaving my cassette recorder at home during a Ursid outburst. There was
also one time after 3 nights of observing (and lack of sleep) I plotted
the radiant for a particular shower using the wrong position. I also had
to call all of those so called shower members sporadics.
>
> There were also something during my observation which I would like to
> mention:
>
> 1. It seemed that there were some bright SPOs with long arc or train coming
> from some area around (09:20, +25). I saw 4 between 04:10 to 04:20 (local
> time in early morning), and there might be another fainter one later.
> Could this be Leo Minorids mentioned on the list several days ago? Or just
> random SPO background? Perhaps I need to learn ploting soon.
>
These were most likely sporadics with chance alignments. The Leo
Minorids
are active for only a few days near October 24. The position you listed
is also west and south of the listed radiant of the Leo Minorids.
> 2. It also seemed that some short arc SPOs were from AUR, near (05:30, +45),
> I saw 4 during 04:00 to 05:01.
>
More chance alignments...who knows?
> 3. A very beautiful 0 SPO with long train of 1s at 04:33, could be traced
> back to LEO. Other two not faint SPOs at 04:59 might also be traced back
> to LEO...
>
Well Leo may seem to be creating action already but the true Leonids
will
not show up until the time of the last quarter moon which is November
11.
> 4. Exciting objects this night: a -3 fireball droped downward at 02:30 just
> above the east horizon, short and slow, before I began formal observation;
> at 04:02, a +1 SPO, very beautiful, from west to east, quite long and slow,
> and I could clearly see the tremble of its path before it vanished; at 04:51,
> a very slow +1 SPO near (05:40,+07), with less than 1-degree path! Looks like
> Ir-satellite flash, but no fading part after maximum, and I think it was
> a meteor.
>
This was a great report Jin! Thanks for your efforts in writing it and
sharing it with the rest of us.
Bob Lunsford
American Meteor Society
International Meteor Society
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