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(meteorobs) Re: NM2002Aug9/10 Perseids not much

The night of 2002 Aug 9/10 was the first reasonably clear night around here,
and even then it wasn't the best.  Weather outlook isn't very good the next
2 nights so I will have to get lucky.

>Day: 11/12   Month: 08 Year: 2002        Begin: 6:22 UT   End: 8:29  UT
>
>Location  long. 81.5W    lat. 26.5 N  
>
>Site: Lehigh Acres, Florida   Country: USA
>
>Observer: Norman McLeod    IMO code: MCLNO
>
>
>
>Observed Showers:
> 
>Perseids, South Delta Aquarids, North Delta Aquarids, South Iota Aquarids,
Alpha Capricornids, Pisces Austrinids, Alpha Cygnids, Kappa Cygnids, Eridanids.
>
>
>UT Period 06:22 - 08:29     Teff 2.12    F1.00     LM 6.8     16 PER    2
SDA    2 NDA    1 CAP    0 KCG   1 PAU   0 SIA   6 SPOR    28 TOTAL
>
>
>
>Perseid Magnitude Distributions
>         
>PER   -1(2)  +0(3) +1(1) +2(3) +3(3) +4(3) +5(1)         Total 16

>SPOR   -1(0)  +0(1) +1(0) +2(0) +3(1) +4(2) +5(2)         Total 6

I am including the Eridanid here as a sporadic, a swift yellow 0m with
1-second train.  These come from the Big Bend of Eridanus in early/mid
August.  From my earliest days I was aware of these bright trained meteors
but have never plotted enough of them to get a radiant.  The shower name is
my own.  Nothing was seen coming from Cygnus.

Overall a rather dull night with a few nice Perseids.  I was hoping for more
meteors than this.  Where is the steady rain of 7/hour sporadics when I need
it?  I skipped the final dark hour ; observing went 222 - 429 EDT, and dawn
would begin about 545 EDT.  Seven of the 16 Perseids were trained with no
train lasting more than 3 seconds.

It is now AM of Aug 11 and the sky is cloudy.  There is a lot of cirrus
blowing northward from a tropical wave passing by in the Caribbean.  No rain
today but there should be heavy showers around next 2 days.  Best hope is
for partial clearing overnight.

The news media is telling people to expect 80 Perseids/hour.  That should
insure some public disappointment, except for some unknown person with high
perception in a dark location.

Last weekend I was in north Florida for a family reunion.  Back in the
ancestral town of Aucilla, I left the gathering around 10 PM.  A partial
clearing revealed a magnificent black sky, easily LM 7.5.  It's been some
time since seeing anything like that.  The stretch of Florida between Tampa
and Tallahassee will likely stay dark forever as there are only a few small
towns with nothing to attract visitors to this region.  The town of
Chiefland further south does have a subdivision owned by astronomers, so
they are able to keep lights out of there.

Norman





Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society

Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com

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