Sunday morning
looked to be my only real opporunity to get to observe the Eta Aquarids this
year. So I took advantage of clear skies. A nasty weather system
cleared out saturday night but left lingering fog which lifted
gradually through the pre-dawn hours. Fortunately it was quite
clear enough at my site to observe with LM.s a bit above +6 most of the
session. But I was twenty minutes late getting to my site, and this wound
up costing me during the end of my second and last period...nautical
twilight began around 5:30AM local time, and that was when I had
planned to be ending for the night. I gave up 13 minutes shy of a full
hour when L.M.s took a steep nose-dive at 5:35. By that time I
was in a long lull and decided to salvage what I had of my LM, I
guess.
I thought the ETA
activity was fairly good, two days before the orbital-cross. Most of them
were obvious, even though the distant fog and other exctinction on the horizon
hid the water-jar asterism for the first several minutes of my watch. The
brightest were a 0 and a +1, with long path lengths -- both
appeared quite bluish to me. ETA's always seemed distinctive with
their speed and their trains and color. I had 6 trains out of 11 ETA's observed. Most
trains/paths were rather lengthy, even though I was facing towards the
radiant -- what I expect from the ETA's. They remained well
above the sporadic background during my 107-minute session. The SPO's
numbers were low and I saw nothing at all from the two apex radiants. I
logged one possible Beta Corona Autralid and one SAG.
**********************************************************
OBSERVER:
Kim S. Youmans (YOUKI) DATE: 05-03/04-2003
BEGIN:07:48UT END 09:35UT
LOCATION: Treutlen Co, Ga.
82. 24' 25" W; 32. 24' 45" N
METHOD: Tape
Elev. 240 ft
Facing Southeast, sky 0 %0bscured
No Breaks
Period 1 07:48-8:48UT SPO(2) ETA(5)
SAG(1)
Dead time = 0 min, Teff = 1.0
Avg. LM = +6.09, FOV Mid
period 19:50 +22
Sol Long. 43.428
Period 2 8:48-9:35 UT SPO(3) BCA(1)
ETA(6)
Dead time = 0 min, Teff = 0.783
Avg. LM = +5.84, FOV Mid
period 19:30 +29
Sol Long. 43.466
Limiting Magnitudes
08:15 UT (IMO 5)
+5.98 (IMO 13) +6.17
08:45 UT (IMO 5) +6.02 (IMO 13) +6.17
09:15 UT (IMO
5) +6.02 (IMO 13) +6.10
09:32 UT (IMO 5) +5.53 (IMO 13) +5.72
Showers Observed
ETA(11) 22:24 -02
SAG(1) 236
-20
BCA(1) 17:52
-42
NAPX(0) 20:52 -01
SAPX(0) 20:52 -31
SPO(5)
Magnitude Distribution
P1
ETA(5)
0(1) +1(1) +3(1)
+4(2)
SAG(1)
+4(1)
SPO(2)
+2(1) +3(1)
P2
ETA(6)
+2(1) +3(1) +4(3)
+5(1)
SPO(3) +3(1)
+4(1)
+5(1)
BCA(1)
+4(1)