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(meteorobs) Nov. 13 Meteor Observations (The Leonids are Here!)
I observed with George Zay from the Descanso Observatory for 4 hours
this morning. The Northern Taurids were in full force producing some
impressive meteors. The brightest one of the night was seen while
driving out to Descanso. George estimated it at -6 while I gave it a
more modest -3. All of the brighter Taurids were colorful and some
produced fragments. My first Leonid was seen at 3:10 PST (11:10 UT).
It was an impressive zero magnitude with a trace of a train that shot
from Monoceros into Orion. It was quite the typical Leonid, flaring in
the center of its trail. I also happened to notice 4 plots with
similar velocities which intersect just southeast of Procyon. There
were also at least 2 other meteors that were not plotted that also
could have come from this area. I wonder if these are somehow related
to Jose Trigo's outburst seen last November?
Rates faded badly as the moon crept higher into the sky especially
during the last 2 hours of the morning.
November 13, 1998
0930-1030 UT 0.90 6.25 0 LEO 3 NTA 1 STA 12 SPO 16 TOTAL
1030-1130 UT 0.93 6.10 1 LEO 3 NTA 0 STA 8 SPO 12 TOTAL
1130-1230 UT 0.95 5.85 0 LEO 2 NTA 0 STA 5 SPO 7 TOTAL
1230-1330 UT 0.94 5.33 1 LEO 2 NTA 0 STA 6 SPO 9 TOTAL
TOTALS: 3.72 5.88 2 LEO 10 NTA 1 STA 31 SPO 44 TOTAL
The first column is the period watched in Universal Time (PDT + 8
hours). The second column is the percent of an hour actually spent
watching the sky during this period. Time is lost for breaks,
plotting, and data entry. The third column is the average limiting
magnitude during each period with a minimum of 4 estimates. The last
several columns list the activity seen during each period.
I was facing southeast at an altitude of 70 degrees. No breaks were
taken during this session. LEO = Leonid, NTA = Northern Taurid, STA =
Southern Taurid, and SPO = SPORADIC (random activity).
Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 28 F (-2 C) 60%
Ending Temperature/Relative Humidity: 31 F (-0 C) 79%
Yes the temperature increased toward dawn!
MAGNITUDES:
LEO 0 (2) AVERAGE 0.00
NTA -3 (1) -1 (1) 0 (2) +1 (2) +2 (2) +3 (1) +4 (1)
AVERAGE +0.90
STA -1 (1) AVERAGE -1.00
SPO 0 (2) +1 (6) +2 (10) +3 (10) +4 (3) AVERAGE +2.19
Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA
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