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(meteorobs) Observations April 4/5-00

     My session last night began with a bit of a bang.  As soon as I got into my lawn chair, before I had even turned on my recorder to "initialize" the session, a gorgeous -2 soared
down between Libra and Virgo.  It had a long path length, was yellow/green, and seemed to brighten continously along its path.  Oddly, though it was quite speedy it had no train but did display an impressive wake.
   Rates were down a bit from my previous session, but seemed to complement the lower rates recently reported by Bob Lunsford.  But overall they weren't terribly bad for early April, in fact, still a bit better than my small sample from roughly this time last year.  I observed from 12:27 to 3:33AM local time.  I saw nothing definite from the radiant
in Northern Virgo, but the Virginids made a showing for themselves with 3 seen.
    Perhaps most remarkable was the clarity of the skies.  I had very high *average*
LM's, almost peaking at 6.7 during the first period.  These were perhaps the clearest skies I've had yet at my site -- the Zodiacal Band was easily seen.  It was truly enjoyable to be out under such a broad panopoly of stars.  It seemed that there were literally
hundreds of faint stars that were *just* out of my visual reach but which still gave the sky
a very rich texture.

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OBSERVER:  Kim S. Youmans (YOUKI)  DATE:04-04/05-00
BEGIN: 04:27UT  END 07:33UT  LOCATION:  Treutlen Co, Ga.
82. 24' 25" W;  32. 24' 45" N   METHOD: Tape
Elev 240 ft  Facing South
3 periods, sky 0% obscured, No breaks

Period 1  4:27 - 05:30 UT  SPO(3)
Dead time =2 min  Teff = 1.02  F= 1.00
SolarLong. 015.721x Avg LM = 6.68

Period 1  05:30 - 06:32 UT  SPO(5) VIR(2)
Dead time =3 min  Teff = 0.98  F= 1.00
SolarLong. 015.763x Avg LM = 6.64

Period 3  06:32 - 07:33 UT  SPO(5) VIR(1)
Dead time =3 min  Teff = 0.96  F= 1.00
SolarLong. 015.806x Avg LM = 6.57

Limiting Magnitudes
04:45 UT  (IMO 9)+6.64   (IMO 16)+6.79
05:17 UT  (IMO 9)+6.61   (IMO 16)+6.70
05:45 UT  (IMO 16)+6.79  (IMO 11)+6.68
06:15 UT  (IMO 16)+6.70  (IMO 11)+6.40
06:45 UT  (IMO 16)+6.70  (IMO 11)+6.40
07:15 UT  (IMO 16)+6.79  (IMO 11)+6.40

Center FOV - Midperiod (UT)
Period 1 13hrs 10min +08
Period 2 14hrs 05min +18
Period 3 15hrs 10min +18

Showers Observed
VIR(3)   200x   -5x
SPO(13)

Mag Distribution
Period 1
SPO(3)     -2(1)         +2(1)       +4(1)

Period 2
SPO(5)                         +3(2)       +5(3)
VIR(2)                                     +5(2)

Period 3
SPO(5)            +1(1) +2(1) +3(1) +4(1) +5(1)
VIR(1)                  +2(1)
 

Meteor Data

Period 1
(Time UT, Shower, Mag, Speed, DCV  Meteor ID
01  04:27   SPO   -2      4   10x     BB    yellow/green
02  05:15   SPO   +2      4   00x     BC
03  05:20   SPO   +4      4   18x     BD

Period 2
(Time UT, Shower, Mag, Speed,   DCV    Meteor ID
04  05:32   SPO   +3      2     12x      BE
05  05:34   VIR   +5      2     15x      BF
06  05:52   SPO   +5      2     25x      BG
07  06:01   SPO   +3      2     10x      BH
08  06:19   SPO   +5      3     40x      N/A
09  06:20   SPO   +5      2     45x      N/A
10  06:29   VIR   +5      3     08x      BI

Period 3
(Time UT, Shower, Mag, Speed,   DCV    Meteor ID
11  06:36   SPO   +4      4     30x      N/A
12  06:43   SPO   +1      3     35x      BJ
13  07:11   VIR   +2      3     30x      BK
14  07:12   SPO   +2      3     20x      N/A
15  07:31   SPO   +3      2     05x      BL
16  07:32   SPO   +5      2     08x      BM

Remarks: