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(meteorobs) The Three M's



That's right, the typical mid-August Persied shower seems to always contain
plenty of Mosquitoes, Meteors, and Moonlight.  If only I could take these
selectively, I could have a wonderfully pleasant evening!

I got to step out last night (Aug. 11/12) for a bit of late night observing.
Thunderstorms kept me inside until after midnight, but the sky cleared up
nicely by 1am with >6 mag. skies.  I practiced official recording with pen
and paper, but with a bright moon rising I didn't know how to account for
the changing Lm.  (suggestions?)

In my first hour I saw 24 PER and 4 SPO (which I didn't associate with any
specific radiants).  I thought the SPO were pretty low, but my second hour
yielded the same.  Since the radiant was close to 60 deg. above the horizon
at that time, I decided to actually look directly at it for the first hour
just to see what I could see (I wasn't submitting a report, anyway).  At
around 1:45am local time, I spotted my very first point meteor!  I happened
to be looking directly at the dark patch from which it appeared, and it
reached -1 mag.  The event only lasted ~2 sec, with the decay in brightness
much faster than the rise.  The meteor did appear to move --at most-- 1/4
degree east, so I'm not sure it's defined as a true point meteor, but it's
the closest I've ever seen--the highlight of my evening!

The second hour had only 14 PER and 4 SPO, with (as already mentioned by
various list members) long periods of no activity.  With the moon rising in
elevation and haze building around the horizon, I was forced to center my
FOV at the zenith.  Is this ever acceptable in submitted reports?  The
periods of inactivity were growing longer, so I went in at 3:15am.

Not a bad evening all told, but definitely weaker than other years.


--Terry Johnson
Greenbrier, AR
35.27 N, 92.24 W
Central Savings Time


ps.
Just so you know, upon discovering that your wife does not have any Skin So
Soft in the bathroom drawers, do NOT just put on any comparable lotion
believing it might shoo away mosquitoes--it doesn't.  (stop laughing, I
received enough of that from her this morning!)






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