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(meteorobs) Observation: 2002 August 12/13, CURMA
The only clear night since the moon departed turned out to be the
Perseid maximum. Since my telescope is somewhere unknown in the
western hemisphere I did some visual watching. I went up on the
Berkshire downs to reduce the light pollution. There were plenty of
casual watchers filling the car park by the Ridgeway path. I was able
to find a spot to park, and then walked along a little way to find a
secluded spot---a crop semi-circle---with good shielding from the road
and headlights of the public leaving.
Skies were much brighter than I'd become accustomed to on Mauna Kea.
Despite hearing of some progress on the dark skies campaign, there
seems to be even more pouring lots into the sky in direct vision, as
well as bluish glows from Swindon and Newbury. Throughtout the night
there was patchy cirrus, made bright like noctilucent clouds from the
light pollution. This delayed the start of formal watching by 30
minutes. Despite all this, the limiting magnitude was respectable and
fairly stable.
Another contrast to Hawaii were the large number of aircraft with
distracting lights.
It was a mediocre Perseid display. Rates were steady but
unspectacular.
Malcolm
DATE: 2002 August 12/13 BEGIN: 21:53 UT END: 03:05 UT
OBSERVER: Malcolm Currie (CURMA)
LOCATION: Long: -1.388; Lat: +51.564
Location: Berkshire Downs, nr. Wantage, United Kingdom
Elevation: 160m
RECORDING METHOD: Paper, illuminated watch
--------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:
RA Dec
PER 45.8 +58.4 (03h 3m, +58.4) 59 km/s
NDA 336.6 -4.6 (22h 26m, -4.6) 42 km/s
SDA 350.2 -12.6 (23h 21m, -12.6) 41 km/s
NIA 319 -7 (21h 16m, -7) 31 km/s
SIA 341.4 -13.6 (22h 46m, -13.6) 34 km/s
KCG 284.4 +58.4 (18h 58m, +58.4) 25 km/s
CAP 320 -4.4 (21h 20m, -4.4) 25 km/s
--------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS:
Period (UT) Field Teff F LM
PER NDA SDA NIA SIA KCG CAP SPO
21:53-22:59 60,+80 1.01 1.12 6.60
39 1 9
23:00-00:01 75,+80 0.92 1.04 6.63
43.5 2.5 0.5 1 12.5
00:02-01:03 90,+80 0.93 1.01 6.58
45 1 1 11
01:04-02:04 0,+40 0.91 1.00 6.60
48 10
02:05-03:05 10,+40 0.89 1.01 6.59
48 1 12
Totals:
223.5 2.5 1 2 1.5 1 54.5
Total Meteors: 283
Total Teff: 4.66h
---------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHR -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 TOTAL MEAN
PER 1 3 6 7 13 22 38 51.5 43 29 10 223.5 1.15
NDA 1.5 1 2.5
SDA 1 1
NIA 1 1 2
SIA 0.5 1 2
KCG 1 1
SPO 1 2 4 10.5 14 16 7 54.5 2.76
---------------------------------------------------------
SKY OBSCURATION:
Variable patchy cirrus until midnight and towards dawn.
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