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(meteorobs) Fw: IMO Shower Circ. PER 1999



Forwarded from the International Meteor Organization.....Mark



            -------------------------------------

            I M O   S h o w e r   C i r c u l a r

            -------------------------------------


                        PERSEIDS 1999

The perfect coincidence with the total solar eclipse on August 11
let many amateurs be on holidays and at a place good for meteor
observing too. The new Moon served with dark nights, and particularly
south-eastern Europe was lucky with widely clear skies, and, as
usual, Near Eastern observers enjoyed good weather as well. This
allowed for a good coverage of the 'new' Perseid peak, expected for
near 23h UT, which has been noticed since 1988 and seems to be
declining in activity. The traditional Perseid maximum should fall
near 4h UT on August 13, but poor weather has limited the efforts
of many east-coast observers in the US. Other American observers
were fortunately more lucky.

We are very grateful to the following observers who sent in their
results quickly and allowed the computation of the below ZHR graph:

Nada Abanda (ABANA, Jordan),         Rainer Arlt (ARLRA, Germany),
Emad Ashi (ASHEM, Jordan),           Jure Atanackov (ATAJU, Slovenia),
Juan A. Aveledo (AVEJU, Cuba),       Lars Bakmann (BAKLA, Denmark),
Martin Bily (BILMA, Czech R.),       Louis S. Binder (BINLO, USA),
Polona Bizjak (BIZPO, Slovenia),     Tina Bizjak (BIZTI, Slovenia),
Lukas Bolz (BOLLU, Germany),         Michael Boschat (BOSMI, USA),
Asdai Diaz Rodriguez (DIAAS, Cuba),  Khalid Eid (EIDKH, Jordan),
George W. Gliba (GLIGE, USA),        Michal Haltuf (HALMI, Czech R.),
Takema Hashimoto (HASTA, Japan),     He Jingyang (JINHE, China),
Javor Kac (KACJA, Slovenia),         Vaclav Kalas (KALVA, Czech R.),
Kevin Kilkenny (KILKE, USA),         Andre Knofel (KNOAN, Germany),
Jakub Koukal (KOUJA, Czech R.),      Ales Kratochvil (KRAAL, Czech R.),
Ralf Kuschnik (KUSRA, Germany),      Marco Langbroek (LANMA, Netherlands),
Adrian Lelyen (LELAD, Cuba),         Robert Lunsford (LUNRO, USA),
Hartwig Luthen (LUTHA, Germany),     Pierre Martin (MARPI, Canada),
Antonio Martinez (MARTI, Venezuela), Tony Markham (MARTO, UK),
Alastair McBeath (MCBAL, UK),        Mark Mikutis (MIKMR, USA),
Koen Miskotte (MISKO, Netherlands),  Sirko Molau (MOLSI, Germany),
Francisco Munoz (MUNFR, Cuba),       Jens O. Olesen (OLEJE, Denmark),
Kazuhiro Osada (OSAKA, Japan),       Radame Perez (PERRA, Cuba),
Suyin Perret (PERSU, Venezuela),     Maciej Reszelski (RESMA, Poland),
Mileny Roche L. (ROCMI, Cuba),       Marion Rudolph (RUDMA, Germany),
Qi Rui (RUIQI, China),               Ja'far Sabah (SABJA, Jordan),
Maria Shihadeh (SHIMR, Jordan),      Milos Weber (WEBMI, Czech R.),
Oliver Wusk (WUSOL, Germany),        Kim S. Youmans (YOUKI, USA),
Ilkka Yrjola (YRJIL, Finland),       Jure Zakrajsek (ZAKJU, Slovenia),
George Zay (ZAYGE, USA),             Ju Zhao (ZHAJU, USA),
Xiaojin Zhu (ZHUXI, China),          Vladimir Znojil (ZNOVL, Czech R.).

For this first overview, only observations near the maximum were
considered. Many more covering the activity period of the Perseids
have been received already.

A rough profile of the population index was computed showing the
typical climb-down from r-values near 2.5 to 2.0, a few hours
after the maximum reaching 1.8. The values were used to compute
the ZHR profile as given below. The population indices given in
the last column are interpolated values from the rough profile
which has only 0.25 degree resolution at its best.

--------------------------------------------------
Solarlong  Date      Periods  nPER  ZHR    +-   r
(eq.2000)  1999, UT
--------------------------------------------------
138.251   Aug 11 0820  10     159   29.2  2.3 2.43
138.669   Aug 11 1850  15     195   34.0  2.4 2.57
138.786   Aug 11 2140  42     510   29.3  1.3 2.55
138.899   Aug 12 0030  38     510   32.8  1.4 2.47
139.149   Aug 12 0650  19     453   46.7  2.2 2.16
139.224   Aug 12 0840   9     293   45.0  2.6 2.14
139.570   Aug 12 1720   7     417   82.4  4.3 2.08
139.719   Aug 12 2100   9     107   60.7  5.8 2.11
139.752   Aug 12 2150  19     228   69.3  4.6 2.11
--------------------------------------------------
139.778   Aug 12 2231   4      67   74.0  9.0 2.11 * resolution ~12 min.
139.783   Aug 12 2239   7      64   97.3 12.1 2.11
139.787   Aug 12 2245  11     110  100.5  9.5 2.11
139.798   Aug 12 2301   9     127  100.7  8.9 2.13
139.805   Aug 12 2312   9     125   96.9  8.6 2.14
139.814   Aug 12 2325  12     124   92.0  8.2 2.16
139.819   Aug 12 2333  15     150   87.0  7.1 2.17
139.830   Aug 12 2349  13     132   87.6  7.6 2.19
139.834   Aug 12 2355  14     134   87.5  7.5 2.20
139.840   Aug 13 0004   8     103   81.8  8.0 2.21
139.853   Aug 13 0024   5      79   93.5 10.5 2.23
139.861   Aug 13 0036   8      95   88.9  9.1 2.23
139.866   Aug 13 0043   9      98   77.6  7.8 2.23
139.878   Aug 13 0101  11     132   86.0  7.5 2.22
139.882   Aug 13 0107  10     121   86.7  7.9 2.21
139.892   Aug 13 0122   7      79   85.8  9.6 2.20
139.896   Aug 13 0128   4      53   87.0 11.8 2.20 * end high resolution
--------------------------------------------------
139.901   Aug 13 0140  10     198   76.8  5.4 2.19
140.000   Aug 13 0400   1      45   91.7 13.5 2.09 * note: only 1 obs.
140.127   Aug 13 0720  27     556   60.3  2.6 1.85
140.153   Aug 13 0750  34     831   61.4  2.1 1.84
140.287   Aug 13 1120   8     288   64.4  3.8 1.81
140.717   Aug 13 2200  23     488   48.3  2.2 2.12
140.764   Aug 13 2310  31     889   53.0  1.8 2.13
140.858   Aug 14 0130   9     414   60.9  3.0 2.15
141.236   Aug 14 1100   2      90   53.6  5.6 2.15
141.729   Aug 14 2320   4      44   24.1  3.6 2.15
--------------------------------------------------

The general acitivity level of the Perseids was not exciting in
1999. A clear maximum with ZHR~100 appears near 139.79 (eq. J2000.0;
August 12, 2250 UT). Please note that the averages do cover several
observers, though often only a single observer group, and systematic
effects may be present in this first analysis -- peak time and ZHR
can be easily different by 1 hour and 20 meteors/h respectively. We
dare to conclude that the 'new' peak of the Perseids is to be
vanishing next year, in two years at the latest.

The high value of ZHR~90 at 140.0 (August 13, 0405 UT) is supposed
to mark the traditional Perseid maximum, but is based on a single
observation due to bad weather over large areas of the eastern
United States.

The peak of ZHR~80 at 139.57 is based on a number of observing
periods from two high-perception observers; more observations from
Asian longitudes will be necessary to find a comprehensive average.

A detailed analysis will follow in one of the future issues of
WGN, the Journal of the IMO.

-----------------------------------------------------
Rainer Arlt, 1999 Aug 21.
Visual Commission - International Meteor Organization
visual@imodot net - http://www.imodot net
-----------------------------------------------------



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