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(meteorobs) Observations May 23/24: good rates + major auroral storm
Hi!
I was out again tonight as it was clear. The activity was very good.
In 3 hours teff I observed 30 meteors, all of which appear to be sporadics.
The action started at 21:07 local with a monster -8 Iridium flare. I
started
my observations at 22:25 and I waited only 3 minutes for the brightest
meteor of the night, a +1.5 fast sporadic with a train shooting from the
handle of the Big Dipper into CVn. But the highlight of the night was a
100 degrees long +3 mag sporadic grazer. It took it 5 seconds to cover
the distance and it was interesting to observe it as it flew, it trailed a
10 degree wake behind the head. A really exceptional meteor.
As it is the year of the solar maximum I am always on the lookout for
any auroral activity. I am at 46 N but we get auroras very rarely, as the
geomagnetic north pole is shifted towards the North American continent,
and we get about as much auroras as Texas. We had some on April 6/7
but I missed it unfortunately. There is another storm occuring at the
moment
and it started around 23:00 UT yesterday. At 23:30 UT the north hemisphere
power was around 200 GW, which is apparently not enough for an aurora
at this geomagnetic latitude. The storm on April 6/7 had hemispheric powers
up to 550 GW!! I hope this activity persists or even increases by the time
darkness falls over here...
Wow, I'm way off topic :) Here's the summary:
Period F Lm teff SPO SAG TOT
20:25-21:25UT 1.00 6.29 0.97 10 0 10
21:25-22:25UT 1.00 6.39 0.97 11 0 11
22:25-23:31UT 1.00 6.42 1.06 9 0 9
3.00 30 0 30
Magnitude distribution:
SPO: +1(0.5) +2(4.5) +3(8) +4(10.5) +5(5.5) +6(1)
Average for this night is 3.63, faint, but this is mostly due to the lack
of 0 and +1 magnitude meteors, which I should've seen one or two,
but just refused to appear...
The forecast for the next few days is outstanding. Nothing but clear
blue sky :) See ya all later!
Clear skies!!
Jure A.
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