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(meteorobs) May 16, 2002 Meteor Observations from California

Clear skies to the east were too inviting to ignore so I took advantage 
of the weather and the new moon to conduct an early morning meteor 
session. My normal site at Jim Foster's home in Deerhorn Valley was 
obscured by fog so I decided to head up to the Pine Valley viewpoint, 
located on the western slopes of the Laguna Mountains. Upon arrival the 
skies were superb as the fog blanketed the city lights. The stars were 
bright right down to the horizon. The Milky Way appeared as a white 
satin sheet impressed upon the inky sky. A faint glow of starlight was 
present over the entire sky. It was as if the heavens above were frosted 
by tiny diamonds. Needless to say I was impressed! It was the kind of 
night that did not need shooting stars to provide entertainment. Not to 
be outdone, the streaks of light did their best to outperform the starry 
background. The slow, colorful antihelion meteors from Scorpius were 
quite active tonight. The faster Eta Lyrids were not ready to quit quite 
yet. Even a rare Corona Australid was witnessed crawling upward toward 
Capricorn late in the morning. The surprise of the session had to be the 
Eta Aquarid activity. After a dismal showing last week these swift 
meteors came back to life piercing the sky with several sharp, 
needle-like streaks of light. My initial thoughts were that they 
belonged to the nearby northern apex radiant. Plots revealed a sharp 
point in western Pisces proving these meteors originated from Halley's 
comet. Satellite activity was surprisingly slow but there was one bright 
object that appeared high in the sky early in the session. At 0947 UT 
(2:47 AM PDT) the object was unveiled near the 2nd magnitude star 
Rasalhague (Alpha Ophiuchi). It was of equal brightness to the nearby 
star and slowly drifted eastward at an exceedingly slow pace. After 
taking nearly 5 minutes to cross 10 degrees of sky it slowly faded into 
the shadows again. It must have an extremely high orbit to appear to 
move so slowly against the stellar background.

This was the experience I needed to again light my fire for observing as 
I have suffered numerous frustrating sessions of late. I look forward 
again to getting out under the stars next week to see what surprises 
await me.

May 16, 2002

0800-0903 UT  1.00  6.81  1 ANT 0 CAU 0 ELY 0 ETA 0 NPX 0 SPX  6 SPO 
7 TOTAL

0903-1008 UT  1.00  6.77  2 ANT 0 CAU 2 ELY 1 ETA 1 NPX 0 SPX  5 SPO 
11 TOTAL

1008-1130 UT  1.38  6.75  3 ANT 1 CAU 1 ELY 6 ETA 0 NPX 0 SPX  4 SPO 
15 TOTAL


TOTALS:       3.38  6.77  6 ANT 1 CAU 3 ELY 7 ETA 1 NPX 0 SPX 15 SPO 
33 TOTAL

The first column gives the period watched stated in Universal Time (UT) 
which is PST + 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. ANT = Antihelion radiant, CAU = Beta Corona Australids, ELY = Eta 
Lyrids, ETA = Eta Aquarids, NPX = Northern Apex, 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 Sky Site)

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity:   42 F (6 C)  42%
Ending         "         "         "       41 F (5 C)  36%

MAGNITUDES:

ANT:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (3) +3 (3)  +4 (0)  +5 (0) +6 (0)  AVE: +2.50
CAU:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0)  +4 (1)  +5 (0) +6 (0)  AVE: +4.00
ELY:       0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (2)  +4 (1)  +5 (0) +6 (0)  AVE: +3.33
ETA:       0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (0) +3 (0)  +4 (2)  +5 (3) +6 (0)  AVE: +3.43
NPX:       0 (1) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0)  +4 (0)  +5 (0) +6 (0)  AVE:  0.00
SPO:      -2 (1)  0 (1) +1 (2) +2 (2)  +3 (3)  +4 (2) +5 (4)  AVE: +2.73

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA

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