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(meteorobs) Monitoring high sporadic rates -- call for observers
It has been slowly becoming obvious that sporadic
meteor rates have been rather high for March this year. No fewer
than 6 experienced observers have reported higher than normal sporadic
rates beginning late in Febuary and continuing until the present time.
To paraphrase Robert Lunsford, sporadic rates in March are on the
decline reaching a nadir in April/May before climbing again in late June
and July. To quote him directly, "I'm not used
to seeing 10/hr this time of year!" I personally don't recall
seeing 10/hr sporadics at all last March. This may just be a statiscal
fluke or random fluctuation in rates, but then again, without plenty of
data, there's no way to know.
I would like to urge all observers who can to
get out over the next three mornings and add their data to the pool.
The full moon is fast approaching, and only limited hours are left for
pre-dawn observing. The following periods are a very rough summary
of the last few hours of visual observing left before full moon:
Thursday morning March 16 3:30AM until twilight
Friday morning March 17 4:15AM until twilight
Saturday morning March 18 4:55AM until twilght
I'm not sure if Saturday morning will have enough useful observing
time at all.
The moon will be low enough on the horizon beginning at these times
for useful observations if
the observer faces away from it.
Times given are somewhat dependent on the observers longitude.
I also urge moon-proof radio observers to monitor sporadic rates
and post their data and their interpretations/comments on it.
It would also be good to hear from long-time observers and their
accounts of historical trends in March sporadic rates.
Kim S. Youmans
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