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(meteorobs) Oct 18/19 Meteor Observations From California
Joseph Assmus and I watched an impressive display of natures fireworks
this morning. After yesterday's debacle, conditions were back to normal
with only slight breezes on occasions. We arrived just before moonset
and I began immediately while Joseph took time to stand and admire the
setting moon and the beautiful sky. Unfortunately for Joseph while
gazing westward there occurred overhead an impressive orange -1 Orionid
that was my highlight of the night. It was a good way to start the
session! I plotted tonight and accumulated 34 minutes of dead time due
to the high activity. The 4:34 session yielded an effective 4 hours and
101 meteors. Rates climbed each hour peaking with 35 being seen the
final 70 minutes. Orionid rates were once again impressive with rates
reaching 19 an hour and a total of 57 for the session. The Northern
Taurids/Oct. Arietids were once again scarce but the Southern
Taurids/Oct. Arietids came to life with 8 meteors. Even the Epsilon
Geminids came to life during the second half of the session producing 8
swift meteors.
There were some odd magnitude profiles this morning. The Orionids had a
distinct lack of 3rd magnitude meteors and the EGE's and STA's/OAR's had
gaps in their profiles. At first glance the Orionids were nearly a full
magnitude brighter this morning compared to yesterday. On the other hand
the sporadics were quite a bit dimmer which makes no sense at all since
the sky was a bit brighter this morning compared to yesterday. Oh well,
I will let someone else figure that out while I just gather the data!
There is some scattered cirrus floating in from the Pacific so watching
tonight is not a sure bet. If I do watch I will leave the clipboard home
and recording the data on tape as I was missing too much activity!
It was nice to have some company this morning after so many solo
sessions. It was especially reliving to reduce the chances of being
eaten alive to 50/50 :) Not so much from the mountain lions...but rather
the voracious mosquitoes which have suddenly appeared and become quite a
nuisance.
October 18/19 1999
0815-0922 UT 1.00 6.66 0 EGE 1 OAR/NTA 6 ORI 5 OAR/STA 4 SPO
0922-1029 UT 1.00 6.65 0 EGE 1 OAR/NTA 14 ORI 1 OAR/STA 5 SPO
1029-1139 UT 1.00 6.67 4 EGE 0 OAR/NTA 18 ORI 1 OAR/STA 6 SPO
1139-1249 UT 1.00 6.59 4 EGE 0 OAR/NTA 19 ORI 1 OAR/STA 11 SPO
TOTALS: 4.00 6.64 8 EGE 2 OAR/NTA 57 ORI 8 OAR/STA 26 SPO
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 was facing South at an altitude of 60 degrees during the entire
session. No breaks were taken. EGE = Epsilon Geminids, OAR/NTA = October
Arietids/Northern Taurids, ORI = Orionids, OAR/STA = October Arietids/
Southern Taurids, and SPO = Sporadic (random activity).
Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 50 F (10 C) 16%
Ending " " " 54 F (12 C) 13%
MAGNITUDES:
EGE: 0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (1) +4 (4) +5 (1) AVERAGE: +3.00
OAR/NTA: +3 (1) +4 (1) AVERAGE: +3.50
ORI: -2 (1) -1 (3) 0 (6) +1 (6) +2 (12) +3 (7)
+4 (13) +5 (5) +6 (4) AVERAGE: +2.58
OAR/STA: 0 (1) +2 (2) +3 (1) +5 (4) AVERAGE: +3.38
SPO: -2 (1) +2 (3) +3 (9) +4 (7) +5 (5) +6 (1) AVERAGE: +3.46
Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA
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