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(meteorobs) obs. LANMA 19-20 Oct 1999 (Ori)




Hi again!

The Orionids made a great performance last night, especially the last 
observational hour was pretty cool! Below is a table with my data. I 
observed a mere 2 hours (1.69 effective) from moonset till dawn, and 
noted 66 meteors of which 31 were Orionids. During the last hour rates 
were a little bit on the high side (my data for this hour give a ZHR of 
38+-9, but I think it is a statistical 'hickup' only due to the 
appearance of a bunch of Ori's near 3:55 UT; 5 in just 5 minutes! My 
overall ZHR for this night comes at 28.5+-5, again slightly on the high 
side but that is due to that last hour. The first hour has a calculated 
ZHR that is normal, 18+-5). All meteors were plotted on gnomonic maps.

Sky conditions were good although not as excellent as previous nights; 
there was a slight touch of haze, and some moving streaks of cirrus 
during the first 40 minutes. During the last 40 minutes, some early KLM 
birds made themselves a nuisance.

Most marvelous meteor of this night was a yellow -1 Orionid (4:09) with 1 
sec persistent train that appeared as a semi-point meteor very close to the 
radiant! A fast yellowish -1 sporadic appeared near to Capella at 3:25 
and had a short 'wake'. I had a bunch of nice +1 and +2 Orionids as well, 
some with trains. Sorry Marc, but I continue to see epsilon Geminids; 5 
this night. Taurid activity is very dull, although I had a nice yellow +2 
at 3:03.

Well, this was a very good night indeed! I am not sure if I am able to 
observe coming night, since I have to give a talk to some amateur 
archaeologists about flintworking tonight, and weather prospects predict 
clouds coming in later this day. I skipped last monday night too, since I 
had a social event which included emptying a bottle of fine Californian 
wine, which ruins your observations (no, you don't start to see double 
meteors; in 1993 at the Cagny excavation in France I determined 
empirically, my dear friends, that 3 glasses of wine make your brightness
estimates tip off scale; my sporadics that night had a mean magnitude of 
+1.8, oops!).
Table with my data from last night is below.

Cheers!

- Marco Langbroek
  (Dutch Meteor Society)

Date: 19-20 October 1999
Obs.: Marco Langbroek    LANMA
Loc.: Voorschoten, the Netherlands, 52d 07'N, 4d 28'E

UT
2:35-3:40   0.92   6.2    12    1    1    1    15    30    18+-5
3:40-4:40   0.77   6.1    19    2    4    2     9    36    38+-9

TOTAL       1.69   6.2    31    3    5    3    24    66    28+-5


strm/mag.       -1   0   +1   +2   +3   +4   +5    <m>
Sporadics        1   0    0    4   10    4    5    3.25
Orionids         1   0    3    5    9    9    4    3.10
Taurids          0   0    0    1    0    2    0    3.33
e Geminids       0   0    0    1    3    1    0    3.00
Leo minorids     0   0    0    0    1    2    0    3.67

>>>>>>



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