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(meteorobs) Re: Eta Aquarid max from Florida
Observing from my front yard 1999 May 5/6 for 73 minutes in sky LM5.0 I
racked up the hefty total of one Eta Aquarid seen. Whatever went on from
Australia half a day earlier was completely gone by the time my turn
arrived. I had considered going out to the regular site this morning but am
mighty glad I didn't waste the time.
Some streetlights have been off since February during a very leisurely (fine
with me) installation of new decorative lights on short poles. The view out
front has been somewhat easier during this period, but with four times more
lights coming shortly, I am about to be washed out from home. They don't
look very well shielded and aren't like the excellent shielded new ones on
the main roads. Will have to judge them when they are turned on.
So my viewing area this morning facing north was a roughly circular patch
100 degrees across. I see very little that isn't close to my central vision
so crimping the perimeter should hardly matter. I began at 428 EDT and saw
the first Eta Aquarid 12 minutes later -- seemed normal so far. It was an
intense orange 0m going 30 degrees in one second with train 3 seconds. At
430 there was a moderate yellow 0m sporadic that covered 40 degrees in 3
seconds with a nebulous envelope around the body. By 541 EDT, 73 minutes
after beginning, the second Eta Aquarid had not yet arrived so I quit in
disgust. There was about 20 more minutes of semi-darkness available. I had
only one other meteor, a short fast intense yellow sporadic. UT times
covered 828 to 941.
The Eta Aquarid radiant reaches an elevation of 30 degrees at this latitude
(26.5N) so the shower is reasonably well placed for observing. But the
shower strength is wildly variable, all too often not reaching 10/hour even
in dark skies. I have been as high as 31/hr once, and over 20/hr several
other times. More typically the top rate is in the low teens. A normal
ZHR of 30 to 40 is as high as I can justify based on what I see from here.
With a declination on the celestial equator the Eta Aquarids are not
restricted to the southern hemisphere. The low northern latitudes are also
favorably placed.
I will try again tomorrow morning. If things don't improve I'll skip a few
nights until the moon is largely out of the way.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Asst Visual Program Coordinator
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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