[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

(meteorobs) Perseid observations August 12/13 - narrative

	The second night of our campaing promised to be better than the first,
assuming the IMO predicted peak at 17h UT, which is 19h local time. We
slept till 11h in the morning, then hiked around the hills for a couple of
hours, had lunch and then decided to go to bed again. But then at around
5h in the afternoon Jure Z. came and woke us up. The rest of the afternoon
was spent worriedly watching the passing cirrus clouds.
	At 21:15 local, we went to observing location. It was rather cold
again, but this time there was absolutely no wind at all. By the time I
reached the top of the hill I was sweating gallons. I started my
observations at 21:31 local and immediately found rather high Perseid
rates. During the first hour we were seeing 1 Perseid every two minues,
some of them really great grazers. The best was a -2m orange 50 degree
grazer at 20:00 UT. More may have been missed due to a rather constant 20%
obstruction by semi-transparent cirrus clouds.
	The second hour started at 20:31 UT. LM was 6.5. Right at the
start of the period a -1m Kappa Cygnid appeared. Then, only 1 minute into
the period a brilliant -6m orange Kappa Cygnid fireball lit up the clouds
and the ground. Jure and I went screaming with excitement. Again, the
fireball appeared low in the east. The rest of the period saw the clouds
slowly recceding east.
	The third hour LM dropped to 6.8. Clouds were now only in the east
and low in the north, s other parts of the sky were dark. At 22:13 a -3m
PER fireball appeared Capricornus with train 4 seconds. There was a
spectacular burst of Perseid activity during 22:11-22:19 with 27 PER
occuring in 8 minutes! The activity quieted down somewhat during the
following minutes, but remained fairly high unitl the end of the period.  
	The fourth hour was marked by unusually dark skies. The moon had
risen at 22:07, but the cirrus clouds now formed a thick deck some 10-15
degrees up in the east, so the Moon was out of sight until 23:10! LM was
6.6. Perseids were appearing all over the sky, 101 in total during this
hour.  Rates dropped somewhat during the fifth hour, probably due to LM
drop. Rates were still well above 1/m from Perseids alone. There was still
a lack of bright meteors compared with the night before. The hour had one
-2m PER and four -1m PER. 
	The fourth hour rates dropped somewhat more (still remaining above
1/min). The moon was now higher in the sky, but I was facing southwest so
it was out of my view. Ten minutes into the period at 00:41 a -4m
bluegreen Perseid appeared in Serpens, leaving a 5 second train. This was
the brightest Perseid of the night. Before hour's end two more -2m orange
and yellow Perseids appeared. The last period saw rates on the rise again,
especially during the last 15 minutes (and after the end of observations).
At 02:09:04 a great -3m yelowgreen Perseid fireball shot down Auriga,
leaving a 9 second train. The last great meteor was a -3m sporadic
fireball very low in the southwestern sky at 02:20.
	
	We observed casually after 02:35 UT and saw several more
fireballs. I saw only a -3m PER at 02:49UT, but J&J saw a couple I
missed. They also made some photos of Jupiter and Venus and a beautiful
sunrise. Again, my last comment will be about the weather. There was no
wind tonight, but I found my sleeping bag glazed over with a 2mm thick ice
layer. Need I say more?

Clear skies!

Jure A.

To stop getting email from the 'meteorobs' list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html