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(meteorobs) Feb 1/2 Meteor Observations From California
Skies finally cooperated on a night free from work so I made the most of
it and drove to the local mountains. Skies were impressively transparent
and the resulting limiting magnitude were better than normal. This was
impressive as it was clear all the way to the coast allowing all the sky
glow from San Diego to be visible. Despite this the light dome in the
west was lower than normal leaving the eastern half of the sky in
pristine condition. Despite the good conditions the activity was a bit
on the lean side. It probably did not help that I had been up for 21
hours straight. I did not doze off but I certainly was not running at
100 percent efficiency.
I plotted a great majority of the activity seen tonight. The plots
revealed no less than 5 areas in or near Bootes that produced at least 3
meteors each. 4 of the 5 are most likely chance alignments. The other
area may be confirmation of the Xi Bootids. An area centered near 14:05
+16 produced 5 meteors with acceptable velocities. This is a bit south
of Mr. Gliba's position but further plotting may help pinpoint a more
accurate radiant. These meteors were all on the faint side.
A surprise of the session was the sighting of 2 possible Theta
Centaurids shooting up from the southern horizon. The first magnitude
TCE had a distinct blue color with a train.
The highlight of the session was not a meteor, but rather an excellent
conjunction of the moon and Venus. They were separated by one half
degree with Venus just below the moon. There were many mentions of this
sight on the radio as I drove home in the morning twilight.
February 1/2 2000
0840-0940 UT 0.98 6.91 0 TCE 0 VIR 1 XOR 1 SPO 2 TOTAL
0940-1040 UT 0.92 6.86 1 TCE 0 VIR 3 XOR 6 SPO 10 TOTAL
1040-1140 UT 0.95 6.86 0 TCE 0 VIR 1 XOR 5 SPO 6 TOTAL
1140-1240 UT 0.95 6.83 1 TCE 0 VIR 0 XOR 5 SPO 6 TOTAL
1240-1340 UT 0.98 6.50 0 TCE 0 VIR 0 XOR 4 SPO 4 TOTAL
TOTALS: 4.78 6.79 2 TCE 0 VIR 5 XOR 21 SPO 28 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 50 degrees during the entire
session. No breaks were taken. TCE = Theta Centaurids, VIR = Virginids,
XOR = Xi Bootids, and SPO = Sporadic (random activity).
Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 50 F (10 C) 27%
Ending " " " 46 F (8 C) 29%
MAGNITUDES:
TCE: +1 (1) +4 (1) AVERAGE: +2.50
XOR: +3 (1) +4 (2) +5 (2) AVERAGE: +4.20
SPO: -1 (1) 0 (1) +2 (8) +3 (7) +4 (2) +5 (2) AVERAGE: +2.57
Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA
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