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(meteorobs) Apr 2/3 Meteor Observations From California



I managed to watch for 4 hours this morning from the Laguna Mountains 50
miles east of San Diego. The skies were clear all the way to the coast
so the light dome in the west was bothersome and the skies less than
perfect. The activity was quite low the first two hours with only 10
meteors seen at this point. Activity suddenly exploded during the third
hour with 14 meteors (mostly faint) seen. Activity slowed considerably
during the last hour with only 3 being seen.

The Virginid (antihelion) radiant was active producing 6 meteors. Two
meteors also lined up with the apex radiant now situated in Sagittarius.
Plots also revealed 3 meteors intersecting at 13:25 +5 which could be
related to Kim Youmans radiant seen on April 1st. The highlight of the
session came late (the last meteor seen) as a -2 light green meteor
appeared just east of Acrab (Beta Scorpii) and shot straight down into
eastern Lupus. Another memorable meteor was a +2 slow sporadic which
appeared a distinct orange. 

April 2/3 2000

0815-0915 UT  0.97  6.54  3 VIR    2 SPO    5  TOTAL
0915-1015 UT  0.97  6.42  1 VIR    4 SPO    5  TOTAL
1015-1115 UT  0.91  6.29  2 VIR   12 SPO   14  TOTAL
1115-1215 UT  0.98  6.23  0 VIR    3 SPO    3  TOTAL

TOTALS:       3.83  6.37  6 VIR   21 SPO   27  TOTAL


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 50 degrees during the entire
session. No breaks were taken. VIR = Virginids and SPO = Sporadic
(random activity). 

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity:   47 F (8 C)  38%
Ending         "         "         "       50 F (10 C) 31%

MAGNITUDES:

VIR:   -2 (1) +3 (3) +4 (2) AVERAGE: +2.67
SPO:   -2 (1) +1 (2) +2 (5) +3 (5) +4 (4) +5 (4) AVERAGE: +2.90

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA
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