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Re: (meteorobs) April 22/23 Lyrid "Peek"



Your quite welcome, Mark, my pleasure to share the brief dabbling in "meteor 
immortality".  It was clearly a case of being far luckier rather then 
better, I must say.  The one overriding lesson I took from this experience, 
however, was to humble myself and find new respect for the marvelous 
unpredictabiliity of the natural world. I realized after this experience 
(and also again for the 1998 Leonids) that the more we THINK we know about 
natural events, the less we ACTUALLY do!  We should never assume for one 
minute that we fully understand or can accurately predict how the natural 
world will behave.

This was back in the years long before the internet and widespread use of 
cell phones, my first concern at the time,(almost a panic at first) was to 
get somebody else out there to confirm what I was seeing.  I was actually 
doubting my own senses! Fortunately, I was not alone, others saw it, too.  
Recalling this experience brings home to me the true value and importance of 
the present forum. Sharing knowledge and lessons learned like this makes it 
less likely unexpected events like the 1982 Lyrid outburst will get past us.

Paul


>From: Mark Fox <unclefireballmtf@yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: meteorobs@atmob.org
>To: meteorobs@atmob.org
>Subject: (meteorobs) April 22/23 Lyrid "Peek"
>Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 17:17:10 -0700 (PDT)
>
>April 23, 2002
>
>Greetings Meteor Enthusiasts!
>
>I did not exactly go meteor hunting last night as I
>may have liked.  I woke around ~2:20 P.M. EDT and
>found the skies rather clear despite the annoying
>moon.  However, instead of getting dress to go out, I
>decided to look out of the "big" window in my house
>that overlooks Pickerel Lake (SE, I think).  I did
>this for a short while to see if it was worthwhile to
>meteor hunt.  In all, I saw a 1-2 deg., 0 mag., white
>flash that I took to be a late Lyrid.  Nothing else in
>the way of meteors was seen though.
>
>Nevertheless, I did spy the constellation Scorpius
>which I believe could be the first time.  Very
>interesting star pattern!
>
>After my window "session", I decided to sneak out in
>my night clothes for a few minutes.  It was cold, cold
>enough to kill apricot blossoms, and thus our apricot
>crop for this year, sadly.  In any event, I recorded
>about 11 stars in Star Area 14 (about 5.5 LM) with no
>meteors seen.  The close radiant and the many trees
>were not extremely helpful.  I went back to bed close
>to 3:00 A.M. EDT.
>
>I would like to thank Mr. Paul Jones for his
>intriguing Lyrid episode!  The only "really"
>fascinating meteor shower experience I ever recall
>witnessing were the Perseids of 1993 --- long before I
>was really into meteors, meteorites, glass insulators,
>and even before I really delved into coin collecting!
>Boy, that was a long time ago!
>
>Long, bright, and dazzling trains!
>
>Mark Fox
>Newaygo, MI USA
>
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