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(meteorobs) 18/19 Nov 2002, Wellfleet Massachusetts USA



> Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 17:03:15 -0500

Marconi Station at the Cape Cod National Seashore,
Wellfleet Massachusetts turned out to be a good
location. The shield of high clouds which moved
into southern New England from the west did not
reach Marconi Station before dawn.

The skies were effectively unimpeded the entire night.
Unfortunately, the full moon limited visibility to
approximately magnitude 3 or brighter and to within
approximately 35 degrees of the zenith during most of
the night expanding to approximately 60 degrees from
the zenith as the moon (FINALLY!) reached the cloud
bank on the western horizon.

The grazers were very entertaining, including a couple
of long traces with obvious dark segments. No bolides
and, unlike last year, no exceptionally bright, long
persistent trains.

Sadly, early dawn seemed to truncate our view of the
North American peak. I hope those fortunate enough to
be further to the west enjoyed a better look.  While
it was quite a show, and certainly worth losing a
night's sleep, it didn't reach the rate, or rise to
the level of spectacle, of the storm I observed in
Eastern Massachusetts last year. (The finale of last
year's storm, some 15 minutes before local sunrise,
was an extremely bright [Sporadic] originating near
the [Leonid] radiant and extending almost all the way
to the eastern horizon. The [train] remained clearly
visible, persisting for many seconds, even after it
crossed the terminator into the early daylight
portion of the sky. That's a tough act to follow!)

[PDF and XLS files are available from the author,
which are] doubtless, easier to read than the ascii
info appended below.

Richard Kramer


> UTC Date November 19, 2002 Location Marconi, Station, 
> Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
> Latitude 41.913 (N)
> Longitude -69.971 (W)
> UTC Time Begin 04:20 04:35 04:45 05:00 05:15 05:30 05:45 
> 06:00 06:15 08:45 
> 09:00 09:15 09:30 09:45 10:00 10:15 10:30 10:45 10:55
> End 04:35 04:45 05:00 05:15 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:15 06:30 
> 09:00 09:15 09:30 
> 09:45 10:00 10:15 10:30 10:45 10:55 11:15
> # 
> Leonid         7     3     3    5     9     2     4     5     
> 4     12 
> 18    12    23    14     16    34    58     9     0
> # 
> Taurid         0     0    0     0    0     0    0     1     0 
>     0    0 
>   0    0     0    0     0    0     0    0
> # .of 
> observors  2     1     1    1     1    1     1    1     1    
> 1     1    1 
>    1    1     1    1     1.5   2     2
> Notes:
>              3,4   3
> 
> NOTES:
> 1 Delta Ursa Major (magnitude 3.3) was near the limit of visibility 
> throughout the night.
> 2 Because of the full moon, limiting magnitude declined 
> sharply beyond approx 35 degrees from the zenith
> 3 Additional observor at this time, age 10, was seeing many 
> dimmer tracks barely noticeable to the main observor
> 4 Two curved tracks observed during this segment
> 5 Occasional, very broken cloud cover never exceeding 30% 
> between 04:20 and 06:00 were a negligible factor
> 6 Low moon and clouds on the western horizon extended good
> viewing to approx. 60 degrees from the zenith by 09:45
> Observors Richard Kramer, Ilana Kramer, Hannah Kramer, 
> Jacqueline Chados
> Contact kramer@sria.com

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