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Re: Memories.... (Re: (meteorobs) Perseid grazers)

Marco and All,

Many thanks for sharing these memories. It sounded like a wonderful 
trip! I was laughing out loud at some of your comments. I think we all 
have acted like a lunatic on occasion. Hopefully we will both have more 
memories such as these to add to our recollections as the years pass.

Clear Skies!

Bob Lunsford


Marco Langbroek wrote:

> 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
> 
> ---
> 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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