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(meteorobs) July 20/21 Observations From California
For the third morning in a row I observed from the western foothills of
the Laguna Mountains for 3 hours. The weather was again cool, but with
a bit more humidity. Despite this the sky was ablaze with countless
sparkling diamonds that impressed even this old timer. Activity started
out very slow as it took 10 minutes to see the first meteor. Activity
was not much better the remainder of the hour and only 8 were seen. It
was surprising to have a low sporadic total of only 3 during July. As
Norman says, "this must have been a freak hour". Too bad it did not
"freak" the other way and produce more activity than usual. All of the
sporadics that did not show the first hour arrived during the second
hour and supplied some enjoyable activity. Third hour was an average
hour for me with 8 sporadics, a Alpha Cap, and a couple of Perseids
seen.
The Perseids are now producing a little over 2 per hour for me plus I
thought I saw a surge of Alpha Cap activity but once I was home and
studied the plots and data, several of them were reclassified as
sporadics.
No negative magnitude meteors were seen tonight so the highlight of the
night was a 3rd magnitude, 30 degree long sporadic that shot the length
of Pisces heading east to west in 2 full seconds.
July 20/21 1999
UNIVERSAL
TIME
0845-0945 0.95 6.72 1 ANT 1 CAP 2 PER 1 SDA 3 SPO 8 TOTAL
0945-1045 0.87 6.65 1 CAP 1 NDA 3 PER 1 SDA 12 SPO 18 TOTAL
1045-1145 0.92 6.58 1 ACG 1 CAP 2 PER 7 SPO 11 TOTAL
TOTALS: 2.74 6.65 1 ACG 1 ANT 3 CAP 1 NDA 7 PER 2 SDA 22 SPO
37 TOTAL
The first column gives the period watched stated in Universal Time (UT)
which is PDT + 7 hours. The second column gives the percent of that
particular hour actually spent observing the sky. Time was lost for
plotting and data entry tonight. The third column gives the average
limiting magnitude estimated during each period with a minimum of 4
estimates using at least 2 different sky areas close to my center of
view. The last several columns list the activity seen during each
period.
I was facing east at an altitude of 70 degrees all night. No breaks were
taken during this session. ACG = Alpha Cygnids, ANT = Anthelion Radiant
or Sigma Capricornids, CAP = Alpha Capricornids, NDA = North Delta
Aquarids, PER = Perseids, SDA = South Delta Aquarids, and SPO = Sporadic
(random activity).
Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 43 F (6 C) 58%
Ending " " " 41 F (5 C) 77%
MAGNITUDES:
ACG: +3 (1) AVERAGE: +3.00
ANT: +4 (1) AVERAGE: +4.00
CAP: +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (1) AVERAGE: +3.00
NDA: +1 (1) AVERAGE: +1.00
PER: 0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (3) +3 (2) AVERAGE: +1.86
SDA: +2 (1) +3 (1) AVERAGE: +2.50
SPO: 0 (1) +2 (4) +3 (12) +4 (2) +5 (2) +6 (1) AVERAGE: +3.09
Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA
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