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(meteorobs) Apr 3/4 Meteor Observations From California



I managed to watch for 3 hours this morning. It was foggy over the
coastal cities so the light dome to the west was not as bad as Monday
morning. Unfortunately the activity was poor tonight. There was no
miracle hour like yesterday as only 14 meteors were seen during the
entire 3 hour session. What I saw was mostly on the faint side. 

The Virginids were nearly absent with only 1 seen. The radiant in
northern Virgo which produced 3 meteors yesterday produced 2 more this
morning. There was also some nice activity from the apex source with the
highlight being a long, very swift second magnitude streak that quickly
shot through Serpens and into eastern Virgo. 

There was a bit of a breeze off the desert that kicked up during the
last hour that warmed things up plus blew my weather instrument off the
roof of the truck on to my head. That sure helped me to stay awake!

April 3/4 2000

0930-1030 UT  0.95  6.64  1 VIR    5 SPO    6  TOTAL
1030-1130 UT  0.96  6.56  0 VIR    6 SPO    6  TOTAL
1130-1230 UT  0.99  6.39  0 VIR    2 SPO    2  TOTAL

TOTALS:       2.90  6.53  1 VIR   13 SPO   14  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 60 degrees during the entire
session. No breaks were taken. VIR = Virginids and SPO = Sporadic
(random activity). 

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity:   52 F (11 C)  41%
Ending         "         "         "       57 F (14 C)  26%

MAGNITUDES:

VIR:   +4 (1) AVERAGE: +4.00
SPO:    0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (2) +3 (3) +4 (4) +5 (2) AVERAGE: +3.08

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA
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