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(meteorobs) Aug 10/11 Meteor Observations From California



I watched for 5 hours again this morning from the foothills of the
Laguna Mountains to escape the low clouds that obscured the sky from the
coast. Skies were once again very dark and transparent. Activity was
much better this morning as I counted a total of 178 meteors. All active
radiants produced at least one meteor this morning.

The Alpha Caps, which were absent Tuesday, produced 3 slow meteors.

The Kappa Cygnids were back down to their normal rates as only 2 were
seen.

The North Delta Aquarids were once again the best minor shower producing
8 meteors. They were much brighter this morning compared to Tuesday.

The North Iota Aquarids, Pisces Austrinids, and South Delta Aquarids
were present with their typical low numbers for this date.

The South Iota Aquarids, which were absent Tuesday, produced 2 faint
meteors.

The Perseids were much stronger tonight (as expected) producing 107
meteors. The best hour was between 4 & 5 am when 35 were seen. For some
odd reason the session started out strongly for the Perseids then rates
dropped by more than 50% the second hour. Rates recovered the 3rd hour
and rose nicely the last two hours. Perseid meteors were slightly
brighter tonight but I have still not seen one that qualifies as a
fireball (magnitude -3). Color seemed less pronounced this morning
compared to Tuesday.

The sporadics were nearly identical in count and brightness compared to
Tuesday.

The highlight of the night was not a meteor, but a group of 3 satellites
that formed a 5 degree right triangle with similar velocities. I have
never seen such a formation of 3 satellites so close together and moving
together. The satellites peaked at 3rd magnitude and traveled south to
north going through the constellations of Andromeda, Perseus, and
disappearing in Camelopardalis. I'm going to investigate this but if
anyone has a program to identify these 3 satellites I would be most
interested in their names. My geographical coordinates were 116 30', 32
50' and they appeared at 3:17 AM PDT or 10:17 Universal Time

August 10/11 1999

0700-0800 UT 1.00 6.68  21 PER 13 SPO  34 TOTAL
0800-0900 UT 0.99 6.69  1 CAP  3 NDA  1 NIA  1 PAU  9 PER  10 SPO
                                                                25 TOTAL
0900-1000 UT 0.98 6.68  1 CAP  1 KCG  3 NDA  1 NIA 19 PER 1 SDA  2 SIA
                                                         8 SPO  36 TOTAL
1000-1100 UT 0.98 6.59  1 CAP  1 KCG  2 NDA  1 PAU  23 PER  8 SPO  
                                                                36 TOTAL
1100-1200 UT 0.95 6.41  35 PER  12 SPO  47 TOTAL

TOTALS:      4.90 6.61  3 CAP  2 KCG  8 NDA  2 NIA  2 PAU  107 PER  
                                         1 SDA  2 SIA  45 SPO  178 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 and preferably 3 different sky areas close to
my center of view. The last several columns list the activity seen
during each period.

I ws facing due east at an altitude of 70 degrees during the entire
session. No breaks were taken during this session. CAP = Alpha
Capricornids, KCG = Kappa Cygnids, NDA = North Delta Aquarids, NIA =
North Iota Aquarids, PAU = Pisces Austrinids, PER = Perseids, SDA =
South Delta Aquarids, SIA = South Iota Aquarids, and SPO = Sporadic
(random activity).

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity:   35 F (2 C)  72%
Ending         "         "         "       33 F (2 C)  76%

MAGNITUDES:

CAP:   0 (1) +3 (1) +5 (1)                                AVERAGE: +2.67
KCG:  +2 (1) +3 (1)                                       AVERAGE: +2.50
NDA:  -1 (1) +1 (1) +2 (3) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (1)           AVERAGE: +3.56
NIA:  +3 (1) +5 (1)                                       AVERAGE: +4.00 
PAU:  +2 (1) +4 (1)                                       AVERAGE: +3.00
PER:  -2 (4) -1 (3) 0 (8) +1 (10) +2 (26) +3 (36) +4 (13) +5 (5) +6
(2)                                                           AVERAGE:
+2.32
SDA:  +2 (1)                                              AVERAGE: +2.00
SIA:  +4 (1) +5 (1)                                       AVERAGE: +4.50
SPO:  -1 (1) 0 (1) +1 (3) +2 (12) +3 (18) +4 (12) +5 (3) +6 (1)
                                                          AVERAGE: +2.92

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA
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