[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) obs. LANMA 24-25 and 25-26 May 2001
Hi Folks,
I had two days off from work due to ascension day, and since the weather
here in the Netherlands was perfect with sunny warm days, this meant I was
able to do some observations. Below is a report and a table with data. I
went to Gronau on the 24th, (Gronau is just over the German-Dutch border),
and spent two pleasant days with Carl (Johannink) and Elisabeth, with a nice
bicycle tour through the rural landscape of Twenthe on the 25th, followed by
tea with the traditional home made stawberry pies of Elisabeth in their
garden. At night, Carl and I went to Lattrop observatory twice for two
observing attempts, one of which was very succesful.
The first night (24-25 May) however fizzled. In the afternoon a peculiar
kind of cloud streaks appeared in the sky. These moved towards the southern
horizon in the evening so we did go to the observatory and initially, during
twilight, experienced a quite good sky. Starting observations at around
22:00 UTC I counted a Lm of +6.4. Then, bad luck struck is. Just a quarter
of an hour later, clouds developed right above our heads. Eventually we
decided to quit and go home. Only 3 meteors for me this night in a mere 0.18
hours effective....
The next night we've been much more lucky and this night (25-26 May) was
harvesting meteors by numbers! At the observatory, Arnold (Tukkers) joined
us and because the small rooftop observing platform is a bit crampy and the
observatory dome a bit too prominent in the sky, the three of us went a few
hundred yards away to the so called "klootschietbaan" (I won't explain this
in detail, but it is a grass strip intended for a regional traditional kind
of ball play). Observations started at 21:45 UTC (23:45 local time) under a
clear sky (Lm +6.3). Rather immediately we saw good numbers of meteors, the
first 15 minutes yielded me as much as 6 and following this meteors kept
appearing at steady rates. Most of them however were quite faint. During the
second hour some haze (a very thin field of cirrus we had already seen low
at the northwestern horizon when we started) intruded and the Lm dropped
slightly, but observations were still well possible. During the third hour
this haze disappeared and conditions improved again.While we were plotting
meteor after meteor on our gnomonic maps, an owl and a bat made us a nightly
visit. Frogs croaked, and it is this with the typical starry sky of May
which makes this time of the year so attractive. The head of Scorpio
sparkled low at the southern horizon, flanked by a bright Mars. The
impressive sign of Ophiuchus rose, Leo made preparations to set, and a nice
milky way spangled with starclouds and dark clouds climbed higher and
higher. Low north, eternal twilight reigned, and we saw Capella graze the
horizon. We were on the lookout for possible tau Herculids, and saw a number
of those attractive slow Scorpiids which from a meteor point of view makes
this time of the year so attractive, flee the fan-area of Scorpio at the
southern horizon, producing long streaks accross the sky. By 1h UTC the sky
had become quite bright by twilight again. From the direction of the nearby
observatory, the creaking sound of an observatory dome turning to its
resting position suddenly broke the silence, and at 1:12 UTC we quit a very
succesfull session that had lasted some 3.5 hours. My plotting charts and
sheets were filled with 44 meteors, while Carl had 31 and Arnold 19. All of
us had seen at least one possible tau Herculid (from the new radiant, WGN
29:1), and I had a surprisingly nice batch of Scorpiids. This had been a
very nice night indeed!
- Marco
----------------
Obs: Marco Langbroek - LANMA
Loc.: Lattrop, the Netherlands, 52d 26' N, 6d 58' E
Date: May 25-26, 2001
UTC Teff Lm tHer oSco aSco Spo
21:45-22:45 0.87 6.3 1 0 1 14
22:46-00:00 1.10 6.1 0 3 1 9
00:00-01:12 1.20 6.3 0 2 0 13
TOTAL 3.17 <6.2> 1 5 2 36 44
strm/mag +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 <m>
Sporadics 4 9 13 3 7 4.0
omega Scorpiids 1 4 1 0 0 3.0
alpha Scorpiids 0 0 0 1 0
tau Herculids* 0 1 0 0 0
(* radiant tau Herculids from WGN 29:1)
---
Date: May 24-25, 2001
UTC Teff Lm tHer oSco aSco Spo
22:04-22:16 0.18 6.4 0 1 0 2
--------
---
Marco Langbroek private: marco.langbroek@wanadoodot nl
Leiden University work: m.langbroek@arch.leidenunivdot nl
Faculty of Archaeology
P.O. Box 9515
http://home.wanadoodot nl/marco.langbroek/
NL-2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
"What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?"
William Shakespeare: The Tempest act I scene 2
---
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html