[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Perseid surge early morning August 11/12 ?
Hi all,
Just a quick note that I want to report success with Perseids
observations on the first peak night of August 11/12. Enjoyed crisp
clear skies just west of Ottawa, and I was able to record the
activity under dark magnitude 6.5 -6.6 skies. The dry weather could
hold, and we may possibly have another clear night here for August
12/13...
First impressions of August 11/12:
- The Perseids appeared weak and below average until 2:00 EDT (6:00 UT)
- Sudden strong showing of Perseids between 3:00 EDT (7:00 UT) and
4:30 EDT (8:30 UT)!! I don't yet have the numbers but the rates
definitely seemed to reach around the one-per-minute range.
- LOTS (majority) of Perseids appeared very faint (mag +4 to +5 range)
- I saw two nearly perfect "point" meteors (meteors directly on the
radiant coming "head-on"). One of them was a vivid magnitude 0 with a
path of less than 0.5 degrees!! It didn't even show any motion, only
a flash followed by a glowing train.
- Right before dawn, a spectacular Perseid fireball of magnitude -5
or -6. It produced a very vivid-blue terminal flash and left behind
a glowing persistent train for 12 seconds! It was very impressive.
- The number of meteors appearing nearly simultaneuously was a really
striking effect. Then it usually takes a few minutes before more
activity appeared.
- Even in brightening morning twilight, after 4:30am, I still saw an
occasional Perseid flash through the sky.
The full report will be ready soon,
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
To stop getting all email from the 'meteorobs' lists, use our Webform:
http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html
Follow-Ups: