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(meteorobs) Perseids in Louisiana



Morning, all:

I'm just in from a couple hours of observing. Mark, I'll send in a regular
report later, but here it is in a nutshell.

I did pretty well considering our weather prediction was for 40 to 80
percent cloud cover and 40 percent chance of rain.  I observed from 2:30 to
4:30 CDT (7:30 - 9:30 UT).  It was mostly clear with intermittent,
quick-forming, fast moving clouds, and a limiting magnitude of about 5 to
5.5.  There was a good deal of distant lightning.  I shut down officially at
9:30 UT due to encroaching twilight and clouds, and because the lightning
was getting bright enough to leave brief after-images!

I saw 27 Perseids, not many of them faint because of conditions (not to
mention my eyes seem to be getting older!).  There didn't seem to be a peak
around 8:30 UT as some were predicting, but about half of my Perseids were
seen from 9:00 - 9:30 UT.  I also saw 4 Capricornids and 5 sporadics.

Normally I'm pretty stoic about living with mosquitos.  Getting bit bothers
me less than the stench of most sprays.  That didn't seem like a wise move
this year with over 70 cases of West Nile Virus in Louisiana and 7 deaths.
I found that a combination of light spraying, a couple of mosquito coils,
and a new butane gizmo called Thermacell did a great job of keeping the
mosquitos away.  I don't think I even heard one, much less getting bitten.
The Thermacell may have been the key, as the others have not been that
effective in the past.  If you have a mosquito problem, you might want to
consider getting one, although they are a little pricey.  Not as expensive
as West Nile, though.

Dave Hostetter


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