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(meteorobs) Re: Lyrids Etas 2002 and more



Conditions for the 2002 Lyrids were no better further south in Florida than
what Paul Jones reported.  I was struggling to pass LM 4.0 with smoky
conditions in town, so I decided to skip the Lyrids this year.  This shower
has not done much for me since the strong 1982 outburst.  It used to be rich
in faint meteors which kept the peak rate around 15/hour.  With the faint
ones gone it is hard to see half that many.  Throw in poor conditions as
well, and I found it not worth the time this year.

I saw the 1982 Lyrids also.  There was no question of getting anyone to
confirm its strength as I was out at my remote site.  Besides, I was ready
to take what I was seeing as a lone wolf and get the display fully
documented.  It peaked at 4-5 Lyrids/minute for 5 minutes, but very few were
brighter than +4m.  Mark Adams waited until 4 AM to do a short watch, and
missed the whole thing as a result.  The most interesting report came from a
Britisher on a naval ship headed for the Falkland Islands conflict,
observing from south of the equator. 

A supposition in the realm of fantasy was brought up during the 1964
Perseids.  One of the group asked whether a meteor moving either from or
toward the radiant should be classed as a Perseid.  The one moving toward
the radiant projects back under the disk of the earth and is thus still
coming  "from"  the radiant.  Good for a momentary laugh.

Marco mentioned the sport of seeing an Eta Aquarid from the far north.  A
similar sport here is watching for daytime Beta Taurids.  I actually saw one
from the Keys in 1976.  The horns of Taurus were about 5 degrees below the
horizon soon after dawn started, when I saw a Beta Taurid low in the south
go 30 degrees in 4 seconds.  A special opportunity for the peak of this
shower came during the 1973 June 30 total solar eclipse.  I was on the ms
Canberra off the coast of Africa that day with 5m 42s of totality.  Despite
5 stars and 2 planets visible at 1030AM local time, I didn't see any
meteors.  The landscape and sky conditions interest me more than just
concentrating on the eclipsed sun.

Kim asked about the reliability of the Eta Aquarids.  I would say there
isn't any.  At first I thought I could depend on rates around 15/hour, but
many years I don't reach 10.  Getting 20 is a real treat, and once I hit
31/hour.  Astro conditions are reasonably good for Etas from south Florida.
The optimum latitude is 10 south, and based on relative radiant elevations
there and here, I can see about 3/4 of the highest possible observing rate.
Australia is better than Florida, but not by a whole lot.   A low radiant is
going to be much more variable in rates than a high one, especially when you
have only a couple of hours to see it on a given night.

Andrew from Adelaide described a UFO prank that I have seen here as a fire
balloon.  There was a brief spate of these going on at Florida State Univ in
the mid-1960's.  I had a nice view of one drifting by my dorm window a
couple hundred feet outside, but less than a hundred feet high.  One way to
make a fire balloon is to use two balsa sticks, a plastic dry-cleaner bag,
and birthday candles.  Mount the sticks perpendicular over the end of the
bag and mount a dozen or so candles along the sticks.  On a calm night, hold
the bag upright and light the candles.  It will rise very rapidly, then
drift away in the wind aloft.  The bag glows softly orange.  But doing this
in a region with drought requires a serious case of the stupids.

While observing the 1975 Geminids I thought someone had sent up a fire
balloon to the NE beyond a line of trees a quarter mile away.  Ten seconds
later I realized what it was: a night launch from Cape Canaveral.  The day
before, there had been a radio mention of the coming launch which I had
briefly forgotten.

Norman







Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society

Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com

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