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(meteorobs) Video Observation Results April 2002
Results of the AKM Video Meteor Network - April 2002
====================================================
The first days of April were record breaking. The excellent weather of
the last week of March continued for the German observers for many days and
presented to me a unique observing series here in Aachen. Aachen lies south
of the Eifel mountains. Typically we have winds from north-west that push
the clouds against the hills. So it sometimes happen that we have
clear skies everywhere, but overcasted skies starting some 20 km before the
city gates. This time it was vice versa. The wind came from south and the
weather shadow of the mountains kept skies clear even when the fine weather
had capitulated at all other sites. In the end I could observe in 18 nights
in a row between March 24/25 and April 11/12 with just a single night missing.
These are Australian conditions and a clear record for central Europe! Later
skies had to recover somewhat from the long spell of sunshine and starry
nights (a real blessing for all allergic people) and almost prevented any
further observation in the rest of the month, whereas the were also clear
nights in north-east Germany in the second part of April. During the
Lyrids it was partly clear at most sites, but the increase in meteor numbers
was limited.
All in all we got a perfect outcome in April thanks to the fine weather,
even though a few regular observers were missing. By chance there were
five observers with almost identical effective observing times of above
eighty hours. Together with two other observers we achieved a total of more
than 500 hours, as many as only in the best months before. The number of
recorded meteors was little inferior to April 2001 because Rob McNaught
changed a gear down. The European observers, however, could increase their
outcome several times.
For our unlucky fellows April was a successful month, too. Steve Quirk
restarted operation of his camera in Australia by April 19. Ilkka Yrjola of
Finland also did first tests with his camera and the new intensifier just days
before his observing saison in the high North was over. In fall he will
be among the active observers again. Andre Knoefel resumed operation as
well, but only after the excellent weather in Germany had gone. Last but not
least also Stephen Evans managed to observe in four nights, but he is currently
moving and will not be able process his video tapes until a few weeks from
now.
1. Observers
============
Code Name Place Camera FOV LM Nights Time Meteors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR Benitez S. Maspalomas TIMES4 (1.4/50) 20 dg 4 mag 7 49.1 h 122
MCNRO McNaught Coonabarabran SSO1 (1.2/55) 19 dg 8 mag 12 88.3 h 1664
MOLSI Molau Aachen AVIS (2.0/35) 40 dg 5 mag 14 87.2 h 231
NITMI Nitschke Dresden VK1 (0.75/50) 20 dg 8 mag 6 30.1 h 41
QUIST Quirk Mudgee SSO-WAT1 (0.85/25) 13 dg 5 mag 9 80.3 h 185
RENJU Rendtel Marquardt AKM2 (0.85/25) 32 dg 6 mag 15 88.8 h 356
SPEUL Sperberg Salzwedel AKM1 (0.85/25) 32 dg 6 mag 12 87.3 h 280
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 27 511.1 h 2879
2. Observing Times (h)
======================
April 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7.0
MCNRO - - 5.5 - - - - - 9.9 10.0 8.8 5.6 - 3.3 -
MOLSI 5.2 9.1 8.5 8.4 4.7 8.4 4.8 8.6 5.9 8.4 8.0 - - - -
NITMI 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.9 - - 5.1 - - - - - - - -
QUIST - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RENJU 7.3 8.4 8.1 7.7 5.0 7.2 8.0 8.1 - - - - - - -
SPEUL 8.2 8.0 8.4 8.6 8.4 8.0 7.8 7.5 6.0 - 7.1 - - - -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 25.7 30.5 35.5 29.6 18.1 23.6 25.7 24.2 21.8 18.4 23.9 5.6 - 3.3 7.0
April 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - - 6.8 7.1 6.3 - - - - - - - 7.9 7.5 6.5
MCNRO - - - - 8.2 9.5 8.3 8.8 10.4 - - - - - -
MOLSI - 1.6 - - - 4.1 - 1.5 - - - - - - -
NITMI - - - - - - 5.1 - - - - - - - -
QUIST - - - 7.5 11.5 11.2 - 10.4 11.4 2.2 - 9.6 - 4.5 12.0
RENJU - 3.5 - - 7.0 6.8 5.6 - - 1.8 - - 2.7 1.6 -
SPEUL - - - - 2.7 6.6 - - - - - - - - -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum - 5.1 6.8 14.6 35.7 38.2 19.0 20.7 21.8 4.0 - 9.6 10.6 13.6 18.5
3. Results (Meteors)
====================
April 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 33
MCNRO - - 57 - - - - - 318 253 252 208 - 24 -
MOLSI 15 22 21 20 11 22 18 26 12 17 20 - - - -
NITMI 5 7 8 8 - - 3 - - - - - - - -
QUIST - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RENJU 27 25 24 40 19 34 35 33 - - - - - - -
SPEUL 23 26 29 37 31 16 24 18 13 - 17 - - - -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 70 80 139 105 61 72 80 77 343 270 289 208 - 24 33
April 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - - 21 29 6 - - - - - - - 5 11 17
MCNRO - - - - 154 102 107 144 45 - - - - - -
MOLSI - 2 - - - 20 - 5 - - - - - - -
NITMI - - - - - - 10 - - - - - - - -
QUIST - - - 13 24 13 - 22 27 3 - 46 - 6 31
RENJU - 19 - - 26 37 23 - - 3 - - 8 3 -
SPEUL - - - - 4 42 - - - - - - - - -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum - 21 21 42 214 214 140 171 72 6 - 46 13 20 48
--
**************************************************************************
* Dipl.-Inform. Sirko Molau * *
* RWTH Aachen, Lehrstuhl fuer Informatik VI * __ *
* Ahornstr. 55, D-52056 Aachen, Germany * " 2B v 2B " *
* * *
* phone: +49-241-8021615 * Shakespeare *
* fax : +49-241-8022219 * *
* email: molau@informatik.rwth-aachendot de * *
**************************************************************************
* www : http://www-i6.informatik.rwth-aachendot de/Colleagues/molau *
**************************************************************************
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