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(meteorobs) obs. LANMA May 5-6, 2000



(Message from Marco Langbroek via Casper ter Kuile)	
	
Sunny weather and hollidays last friday (Liberation Day here in the 
Netherlands) promised nice observing opportunities. We (Koen Miskotte, 
Casper ter Kuile and me)  have been out in the field at our Biddinghuizen 
meteor observatory all night -below a table with my data. It is overcast 
now, but if weather improves, we will be out again coming night, and this 
time we will continue well into twilight to catch the odd eta Aquarid (they 
are rare here: at 51 degrees latitude north the radiant rises at the moment 
twilight starts -even deep in twilight, it stays below 10 degrees!).

Last weeks were energy consuming -lots of long days, and have been 
travelling to Israel (including the Leonid MAC Workshop) etc. That came 
down upon me this night - I  inadvertently slept for an hour; took a small 
break and just fell asleep... Also, the  nasty virus that caught about 
everybody at the institute is still operative in my body - woke up today 
and felt extremely bad, up to the point of vomitting....

But this night was good, especially since I haven't observed for a while 
last months due to circumstances.  The sky at Biddinghuizen was dark albeit 
slightly hazy, most notably near the horizon. Limiting magnitude about +6.3 
to +6.4 (zenith). Still haven't lost the touch: got a nice batch of 
meteors, 31 in 2.77 hours effective to be exact. Among them some eta Lyrids 
(meteors from 1983 comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock) that Koen and I both found 
surprisingly active. Also, some mu Virginids were recognizable, and I had 
one possible alpha Scorpiid and one possible late alpha Bootid. And...one 
possible eta Aquarid too!

That last one was a spectacular meteor. It appeared at 1:09:23 UT, which is 
about at the moment that the radiant of the stream pops up over the 
horizon...  It had an exciting, extremely long trajectory of 90+ degrees 
(!): starting some degrees southeast of Altair (alpha Aql) and tracking an 
immense length of trail to beyond Arcturus (alpha Boo)! It took him some 
2-3 seconds I estimate. Clearly, this was an Earth-grazing meteor, which 
lines up with the possibility of an eta Aquarid appearing just as the 
radiant rises. The direction of the trail is in agreement with this 
possible stream identity. The meteor wasn't that bright (+3) but it's long 
trajectory and it's appearance as a 'fuzzy ball' type of meteor made it 
very appealing.

Other nice meteors appeared at 0:13:43, a -1 sporadic from Hercules into 
Ophiuchus (also a quite long trail),  and 1:27, a zero magnitude sporadic 
in Cygnus that concluded this night (I started at 21:25 UT (23:25 local 
time) and ended at 1:30 UT, having slept from 23:02 to 00:05 UT).

Below a table with my data.

- Marco Langbroek
   (the Netherlands)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
---------------------
UT                  Teff   Lm    nLyr   nAqr    mVir    aBoo    aSco    Spo
21:35-23:02   1.45   6.3     1         -          2          1           0 
       11
0:05-01:30   1.32   6.4     2        1          1          0           1 
      11
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