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(meteorobs) Observations May 10/11: great rates + more ETA's
Hi!
The weather remained stable so I went out again to observe
under a very clear sky. Due to the interference from the quarter
moon I decided to sleep until around half past midnight and then
get out in my backyard. It appears that I really needed sleep
yesterday as my rates were much better today.
The first period was quite normal with 11 sporadics seen. There
was still some interfering moonlight but I faced northeast with the
moon far behind me (and behind some trees...). The second hour
exploded with meteors - 17 sporadics and 1 SAG. It was quite
wild and for a change there were actually bright meteors! The third
hour was still quite active with the moon gone and I saw 11
sporadics, 1 SAG and 2 ETA's. The last period was only 26 minutes
with Lm dropping due to twilight, but it was still on the active side.
The best meteor was a +1.5m ETA on a looong 70 degrees path.
It was yellow and left a 2 second train. The second best was a +0.5
pure white sporadic that appeared in Cygnus' west wing, going only
7 degrees in 1 second and leaving a 2 second train.
The summary:
Period F teff LM SPO SAG ETA TOT
22:36-23:36UT 1.00 0.95 6.40 11 0 - 11
23:36-00:36UT 1.00 0.93 6.45 17 1 - 18
00:36-01:36UT 1.00 0.95 6.52 11 1 2 14
01:36-02:02UT 1.00 0.41 6.22 5 0 2 7
3.24 44 2 4 50
Magnitude distribution:
SPO: 0(0.5) +1(2.5) +2(6) +3(11.5) +4(10) +5(12) +6(1.5)
SAG: +1(1) +3(0.5) +4(0.5)
ETA: +1(0.5) +2(0.5) +3(0.5) +4(1.5) +5(1)
The average magnitude tonight was +3.67, again faint, but the overall
impression was that the meteors were brighter than yesterday. Perhaps
due to the brighter SAG's and ETA's.
There is also a lot of satellites running around the sky this time of the
year. I regularly see a tumbling piece of debris (or is it a satellite),
going north-sout, pulsating from +5 to +2 magnitude with a 1 second
period. I think I'll check what it could be. I saw no Iridiums tonight,
poor compared with yesterday when I saw 4 (-6,-4,0,+1).
If it stays clear I might try again tonight for some 2 hours in the
morning...
Clear skies!
Jure A.
P.S. - in my previous report I wrote that the ETA grazer went from
center of Hercules past beta UMi. You have probably noticed that
with that path it couldn't be an ETA. It actually started in northern
Cygnus and somehow (I must've been really far away...) I wrote
centrer of Hercules...
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