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(meteorobs) August 22, 2001 Meteor Observations From California

I had a nice 3 hour session from Mt. Laguna this morning. The marine
layer was thick and could actually be seen from the observing site. The
resulting skies were nice and dark as one LM estimate, when Pegasus was
overhead, yielded a LM of +7.19. I decided to go back to my old routine
of listening to the radio but still concentrated on the field instead of
the stellar points. This seemed to work well as activity was even better
than the previous morning. The Perseids were still the most active
shower with 10 members being seen. The North Delta Aquarids were not far
behind with 7 shower members. Activity for the North Iota Aquarids was
nearly nonexistent. I thought I would go the entire session without
seeing a Kappa Cygnid but 2 appeared during the last hour. 

I had an interesting occurrence at 4:44 (11:44 UT) when nearly
simultaneous meteors occurred in Eridanus. The first one headed east and
just as that one disappeared another appeared along the same path but
heading west. It looked like a little battle going on or perhaps a
response? 

Although a -5 fireball was seen low in the south it was short and not
that impressive. The real highlight occurred just as I was recording my
last meteor. A brilliant -7 object suddenly appeared high in the
southwest and was startling. Of course it was an unexpected iridium
satellite. This was the brightest flare I have seen from one of these
objects and was quite impressive.

August 22, 2001

0900-1000 UT   0.91  6.89    1 NDA 1 NPX 1 PER 1 SPX 11 SPO     15 TOTAL

1000-1100 UT   0.88  6.70    3 NDA 1 NIA 5 PER 3 SPX 7 SPO      19 TOTAL

1100-1200 UT   0.85  6.56    2 KCG 3 NDA 1 NPX 4 PER 12 SPO     22 TOTAL

TOTALS:        2.64  6.72    2 KCG 7 NDA 1 NIA 2 NPX 10 PER 
                             4 SPX 30 SPO                       56 TOTAL


The first column gives the period watched stated in Universal Time (UT)
which is PDT + 7 hours. The second column gives the percent of that
particular hour actually spent observing the sky. Time was lost for
plotting and data entry tonight. The third column gives the average
limiting magnitude estimated during each period. The last several
columns list the activity seen during each period. I was facing south at
an altitude of 60 degrees during the entire session. No breaks were
taken. KCG = Kappa Cygnids, NDA = North Delta Aquarids, NIA = North Iota
Aquarids, NPX = Northern Apex, PER = Perseids, SPX = Southern Apex, and
SPO = Sporadics (random activity).

Location: Pine Valley Viewpoint 116 29'43" W  32 49'49" N  ELE = 1300 m

Bortle Scale Estimate:  Class 2 (Typical Truly Dark Site)

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity:   53 F (12 C)  26%
Ending         "         "         "       51 F (11 C)  32%

MAGNITUDES:  

KCG:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (2) +3 (0) +4 (0) +5 (0) AVERAGE: +2.00
NDA:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (2) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (3) AVERAGE: +3.71
NIA:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0) +4 (1) +5 (0) AVERAGE: +4.00
NPX:       0 (1) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0) +4 (1) +5 (0) AVERAGE: +2.00
PER:      -1 (2) +1 (1) +2 (3) +4 (2) +5 (1) +6 (1) AVERAGE: +2.40
SPX:      -2 (1) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (1) AVERAGE: +3.33
SPO:      -5 (1)  0 (1) +1 (2) +2 (1) +3 (8 )+4 (10) 
                                      +5 (6) +6 (1) AVERAGE: +3.30


Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA
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