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Re: (meteorobs) May 16, 2002 Meteor Observations from California
Thanks for sharing your report, Bob. The spirit of your narrative is
exactly the reason why I remain as excited about meteor observing now as I
did in 1974 when I first got started! Well said. I wanted to ask you for
more info about the Corona Australid you mention, however. I have always
fancied looking for the "obscure" radiants and I recall getting out in past
years in May to look for a radiant on an older listing marked the "Coronids"
(no success in seeing any as I recall). I will have to recheck my older
listings, but I thought it had referred to a radiant in Corona BOREALIS vice
AUSTRALIS so now I am confused! I seem to recall they were listed with an
extremely slow velocity, which sounds just like your meteor. Keep up the
great work. We all appreciate it!!
Paul in "sunny" Florida (which is a term invented by the Chamber of
Commerce/Tourism Board and does NOT infer any correlation whatsoever to our
after dark observing conditions! When was the last time anyone ever heard
our state referred to as: "starry Florida"?
>From: Robert Lunsford <lunro.imo.usa@coxdot net>
>Reply-To: meteorobs@atmob.org
>To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
>Subject: (meteorobs) May 16, 2002 Meteor Observations from California
>Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 21:14:28 -0700
>
>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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