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Memories.... (Re: (meteorobs) Perseid grazers)
Perseid earthgrazers...... Brings back memories..... (hmmmm; I must be
getting old....). My most vivid memory of Perseid earthgrazers is from the
1992 campaign, and coincided with my very first ever meteor outburst
observations. Tomorrow, it will be exactly 10 years ago. That day, Peter
Jenniskens, Carl Johannink, Casper ter Kuile, Romke Schievink and me had
driven hundreds of kilometers by car to escape bad weather. We drove from
Holland to the Swiss-French border area, near Basel, split up into two
station each on one side of the border. Peter, Romke and me set up our
little tent in a nice Swiss mountain meadow, amidst fruittrees overlooking a
green valley, filled with cows with dangling cow-bells. We found that little
piece of heaven on earth by chance: we were driving around, taking a
secluded road near the hamlet of Blauen, in search for a place to observe,
when we saw a nice spot and a farmer working the field nearby. We explained
our business and asked him permission, and farmer Siegfried Meury then said
to us: "come along, I'll show you a better place to stay!". So he took us a
few hundred yards further into a lovely grove of fruittrees, pointed to the
fruits, and said: "take a few if you are hungry!". There was a small wooden
garden house there, and he took the key from his pocket, and said: "you can
use it for tonight!". So we set up our equipment (fotocamera's and
videocamera, and observing chairs) in an open field nearby, and Peter and I
our tent amidst the fruittrees on a spot overlooking the valley, while Romke
settled in the wooden garden house. As the sun was setting, we were setting
up the equipment. The sky was still a dark blue, the radiant of the stream
very low in the northeast, and only one or two of the brightest starts had
appeared and were still barely visible. We did not expect any serious
business untill a few hours from then. Suddenly, Peter let out a crazy and
very loud yell: WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! and started dancing over the
field from excitement. That was because of a splendid Perseid fireball of
deep negative magnitude grazing the skies, in a long trajectory low in the
sky, parrallel to the skyline of mountain tops. We were discussing the
event, when suddenly another one appeared, now seen by all three of us,
arching a long way through the skies, again triggering an exubberant
WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!! from Peter. Now Romke and I grew a bit
concerned, as Peter was yelling that loud that we feared people would come
down from the village with pitch-forks and flails to end the noise which
these annoying foreigners were making.... We were just telling him: "get
yourself together, it are just two bright Perseids and the moment of the
expected shower is still a few hours to go, what's the fuzz, a bright
Perseid or two isn't that unusual.......?!"....when we were interrupted by
yet another grazing Perseid in the negatives, I still see this one graze the
sky heading towards Arcturus. Now we all three yelled
WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Mind you: this was all in 3 to 5 minutes or
so...... When yet another bright grazer appeared, it was clear to us that
the expected shower was early (it was expected near 23h UTC that year, while
it happened close to 19:30 UTC in reality, which was about the moment that
we saw our series of bright earthgrazers in deep twilight). The dusk sky
background was still quite bright, we could just make out the big dipper.
Very worrying were the clouds that now quickly invaded. By 19:40, and after
a few more earthgrazers amidst scattered clouds, the sky was clouded....and
we were cursing. We felt that behind that cloud cover it must be flashing
with meteors now.... Half an hour later, the clouds disappeared. As darkness
settled (but with a near-full moon in the southern part of the sky), we saw
a nice activity still above normal annual levels, part of the descending
branch of the outburst just after its peak moment. Then again: ZAP, a bright
long trailing purple-blue -6 Perseid, with a persistent train, grazed
through the big dipper. Romke made a run for the videocam and filmed several
seconds of slowly disintegrating persistent train. That concluded the
earthgrazing show. With a bright moon low in the south, we continued to
watch a by this time fairly normal Perseid activity untill we grew tired and
backed off to our tent. The next morning, we woke up to the sound of Swiss
cow-bells in the valley, had a breakfast with fresh fruits, and hit the road
back to Holland, with a memorable divergence to visit Ensisheim, place of
the famous 1492 meteorite fall (it was the 500th anniversary of that fall,
with a very nice meteorite exhibit). There are a few things from this trip
which I have very vivid memories off, and the earthgrazing fireballs (and
Peter yelling like a lunatic, I have never seen him in such an exuberant
state of mind again except maybe for when the alpha Monocerotid outburst
occurred in 1995, when we were on a cold and lonely mountain top (Calar Alto
observatory) in the Spanish Sierre Nevada) are top amongst them. I think
this memorable event also hooked us with regard to the many meteor outburst
expeditions we conducted in later years, to France, Spain, Portugal, China,
the States.... Those earthgrazing outburst Perseids in the Swiss sky back in
1992 were the start of what has become the focus of our meteor work over the
past decade (meteor outbursts). I am sure Peter, Romke, Casper and Carl too
still have vivid memories off this all, even though we've seen quite some
spectacular displays in later years. But our 1992 'crash' trip to
Switserland awarded with these incredible earthgrazers appearing over the
mountains in twilight, will remain special as this was "the mother of all
meteor outburst experiences" for us all.
So far my memories from days now gone by....I hope they didn't annoy. It
seems that this years Perseids traditionally will disappear in rainclouds
again here in the Netherlands, so for the moment these memories is all I
have to communicate regarding the Perseids.
Marco
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Marco Langbroek private: marco.langbroek@wanadoodot nl
Leiden University work: m.langbroek@arch.leidenunivdot nl
Faculty of Archaeology
P.O. Box 9515
http://home.wanadoodot nl/marco.langbroek/
NL-2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
"What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?"
William Shakespeare: The Tempest act I scene 2
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