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(meteorobs) Re: 1999 Lyrids weak but bright
The 1999 Lyrids were weak but rather bright. It seemed like the more
numerous faint Lyrids I used to see were almost absent. Those are needed to
get a normal max of 15/hour. The best I could do was 7 Lyrids in one hour
with 10% clouds in LM7.3. This continues the general trend since the 1982
outburst toward poor Lyrid rates. I haven't had much luck with weather in
April in recent years so haven't seen that many maxes ; two years ago was
the best I've seen in many years with a single hour at 20 Lyrids.
In the present year I observed 3:44 hours and saw 34 meteors including 16
Lyrids. There was slight interference from scattered cirrus and some
cumulus. The night before was smoked out by the large Everglades fire but
the smoke left in time for Lyrid max. Times and rates follow.
120 - 236 EDT (520 - 636 UT) 1.27 hours, 3 Lyrids, 2 Mu Virginids, 2 Alpha
Bootids,1 Alpha Scorpiid, 1 sporadic, 9 total. Sky LM began at 6.5, FQ
moonset at 135, sky improved to LM7.0 at 145, then 7.3 after 215.
236 - 332 EDT break for napping due to low rates, although 5 of the above
meteors came after 215.
332 - 426 EDT (732 - 826 UT) 0.90 hours, 5 Lyrids, 1 Mu Virginid, 1 Alpha
Scorpiid, 2 sporadics, 9 total, LM7.3.
426 - 526 EDT (826 - 926 UT) 1.00 hours, 7 Lyrids, 4 sporadics, 11 total,
10% cloudy, LM7.3.
526 - 556 EDT (926 - 956 UT) 0.30 hours, 1 Lyrid, 1 Eta Aquarid, 3
sporadics, 5 total, LM7.0. Four more minutes into twilight, no more seen.
Lyrid magnitudes from sky 7.0 and better: one -5m, one -2m, four 0m,
one +1m, three +2m, one +3m, and three +4m.
The best Lyrid was at 512 EDT (912 UT), a blue -5m with train 10
seconds. The train went serpentine after just 2 seconds. In fairly quick
succession after 426 there were 3 Lyrids: a blue 0m with 0.5s train, a
yellow 0m, and an orange -2m with 1-second train.
There was also an interesting slow sporadic fireball with radiant perhaps in
Ursa Minor at 408 EDT (808 UT). I was looking overhead when the sky lit
up. Turning around and looking under 30 degrees up in my NE there was a
white-blue -8m fireball with a half-degree disk being followed by a
similarly colored -4m detached piece with a quarter-degree disk. They were
separated by one degree and maintained that separation for 2 seconds moving
only 7 degrees. Total duration was 3 seconds. The mother ship being
followed by a satellite ship, as the UFO crowd would put it.
Much of 1999 has been clear but I was too busy at work to take advantage of
it. Now that it's been dry for too long we are getting smoky at times.
Last night was a bit too cloudy to make a trip out worthwhile.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Asst Visual Program Coordinator
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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