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(meteorobs) Report from Costa Rica



Hello, from Tamarindo. This is the first time in a year and a half since I've been in CR, that I have been able to observe meteor activity during a major shower. It is an astronomer's paradise here, because it is sooooo dark when you get even just a small distance from the little cities here on the NW peninsula. Except for one thing--the major meteor showers occur during our rainy season (May-Mid December)! And every one was clouded out.

This time, however, we got lucky. The weather here like other places in the world is not quite normal and here it's been unusually dry for several days. So the two of us took our lounge chairs down to the playa for 2-1/2 hours of viewing on the evening of 12/13 from 12:00 to 2:30 US Mountain Time.

Viewing conditions were not optimum, as I was not able to travel away from the town and the lights from the resorts did add some light pollution, but nothing like Los Angeles where I'm originally from. Although, we had about 30% cloud cover, it moved west over the ocean to reveal a beautiful, bright Milky Way.

The meteors came in flurries with lag times between with little or no activity. During the time period I counted 48 meteors. Not any big exciting ones. According to my very unscientific relative scale, most were pretty small and quite fast. I counted about 12 which we jokingly called "medium" sized as they had a bright head and tail that traversed an arc of about 45 degrees. The highlight of the evening actually came around 12:30 when a "big" bright one came shooting across the sky with it's tail stretching across an arc of about 90 degrees. There was a second similar one about an hour later.

My friend counted 42 meteors, some of which I did not see. I did not see any color, but my friend noted that the first "big" one had some blue color, but he thought it may have been from the cloud area it passed through.

Sorry for the unscientific reporting, but that's all I can do as I am over my head in work otherwise. But just thought you might want to hear.

Are there any notable showers viewable from here during the months: Mid-Dec through Apr. Our position is  Long: 85deg 50.18'    Lat: 10deg 18.3'

Cindee McCallister
Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica