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(meteorobs) Observation Aug 12/13 1999
The next night (Thursday Aug 12/13), we had a weather system
approaching from the west, and forecast called for clouding over in
the evening. However around sunset, the sky was relatively clear, so
I headed out to Casselman in hopes of outrunning the approaching
clouds. I had no idea what to expect, but figured it was worth taking
a chance. This time I had some success. Skies remained clear and very
transparent until 2:00 in the morning. The Milky Way was unusually
good even in the early evening. As I arrived after sunset, I was
greeted by over a dozen other people also there to catch the
Perseids. Not long after, some nicely colored Perseid earthgrazers
high overhead soon had everyone "oooohing!" and "aaaahing" together.
With over 3 hours teff while the sky was clear, I logged 137 meteors.
Of those, 107 were Perseids. The first hour had 33 Perseids,
including a good number of brilliant long meteors. The best was a
yellow magnitude -4 that shot over 35 degrees, leaving behind a 12
second long train. Many other Perseids were seen far from the radiant
often showing path lenghts of 20 degrees. The second hour had 45
Perseids, with many fainter meteors. The exception was a spectacular
magnitude -4 yellow Alpha Capricornid. It was slow moving and with a
terminal flash. The CAP's also had a few more meteors, even this late
in the month. The final hour was a bit disappointing with rates
declining to only 29 Perseids. Clouds began to roll in near the end
of that hour, but rates clearly seemed to slow down sharply.
Minor activity came also from NDA's, SDA, and NIA. I was running my
camera with 50mm f/2, B&W 400 ASA. There is a decent chance I may
have captured the -4 PER fireball and perhaps 3 other bright
Perseids, if I'm lucky?
Another report will come soon for Aug 15/16 (1 hour teff, LM=6.5).
However,clouds have finally returned here for most of the week it
seems.
DATE: August 12/13 1999
BEGIN: 2:28 UT (22:28 EDT) END: 6:00 UT (2:00 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North Elevation:100m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS: 3-letter code; radiant position
PER (Perseids) 03h00 +59
KCG (Kappa Cygnids) 19h00 +57
UPG (Upsilon Pegasids) 23h15 +17
NIA (N. Iota Aquarids (anthelion) 22h40 -09
NDA (N. Delta Aquarids) 22h30 -06
SDA (S. Delta Aquarids) 23h20 -14
CAP (Alpha Capricornids) 21h10 -05
PAU (Pisces Austrinids) 23h40 -27
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff F LM SPO PER CAP NDA NIA SDA
2:28-3:28 E70 1.00 1.00 6.33 7 33 1 1 0 0
3:28-4:41 " 1.00 1.00 6.39 7 45 2 1 0 0
4:41-6:00 " 1.16 1.11 6.41 9 29 0 0 1 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 3.16 23 107 3 2 1 1 = 137
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 AVERAGE
SPO 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 4 9 6 0 +3.65
PER 1 0 0 2 2 7 18 28 36 12 1 +2.94
CAP 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 +0.33
NDA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 +3.50
NIA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 +5.0
SDA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 +3.0
-------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 2 0 0 2 3 7 22 35 46 19 1
-------------------------------------------------
SKY OBSCURED:
15% from 5:15 to 5:24 UT
20% from 5:24 to 5:46 UT
15% from 5:46 to 6:00 UT
------------------------
Total dead time: 22.41 minutes (breaks)
Breaks: 3:29(45 sec.), 3:30-3:32, 3:56-4:03, 4:23-4:26, 4:46-4:47,
4:49-4:52, 5:01-5:04, 5:23(40 sec.), 5:26(1.5 min.), 5:49 (30 sec.)
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