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(meteorobs) Jan 11/12 Meteor Observations From California
I finally got this old carcass out of bed to watch some activity under
dark skies. The drive to the mountains was somewhat hazardous as the
first half of the trip was foggy through the coastal foothills. Once I
gained enough elevation the sky was perfectly clear, nice and dark. This
was somewhat spring-like conditions with the coastal fog blocking a good
deal of the light pollution from San Diego.
Meteor activity was steady throughout the 3 hour session. Shower
activity was noticed during the first hour of the session but it was all
sporadics during the last two hours. The apex radiant, located just
above Spica, produced an average of 1 swift meteor per hour. Plots also
revealed an intersection of swift meteors on the Virgo-Corvus border.
This intersection involved only 4 meteors so it proved interesting but
nothing to get excited about at the moment.
The highlight of the session was two bright sporadics seen just a minute
apart. A nice zero magnitude sporadic occured at 4:02 and while I was
plotting it a slow meteor appeared in the east heading straight down. It
flared to -4 and disappeared just above the hills in the east. No color
was noticed in either bright meteor.
It was very wet this morning with the high humidity. There was also a
thin layer of frost across my sleeping bag despite the fact the
"official" temperature did not fall below freezing.
Janaury 11/12 2000
1047-1147 UT 0.92 6.68 2 COM 1 DCA 8 SPO 11 TOTAL
1147-1247 UT 0.91 6.63 0 COM 0 DCA 12 SPO 12 TOTAL
1247-1347 UT 0.93 6.39 0 COM 0 DCA 11 SPO 11 TOTAL
TOTALS: 2.76 6.57 2 COM 1 DCA 31 SPO 34 TOTAL
The first column gives the period watched stated in Universal Time (UT)
which is PST + 8 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 East at an altitude of 60 degrees during the entire
session. No breaks were taken. COM = Coma Berenicids, DCA = Delta
Cancrids, and SPO = Sporadic (random activity).
Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 37 F (8 C) 86%
Ending " " " 36 F (7 C) 89%
MAGNITUDES:
COM: +1 (1) +3 (1) AVERAGE: +2.00
DCA: +2 (2) AVERAGE: +2.00
SPO: -4 (1) 0 (1) +1 (2) +2 (5) +3 (6) +4 (11) +5 (5) AVERAGE: +3.00
Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA
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