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(meteorobs) July 8, 2003 Meteor Observations from California

I was a bit more rested for this watch and managed to stay awake the entire
three and a half hours. I was listening to some tunes during the first half
of the session just to make sure I stayed awake. Activity was constant but
unremarkable. Out of 27 meteors seen only one was a possible shower member.
The sky did not seem quite as good as yesterday and the magnitude estimates
verified a loss of a couple tenths of a magnitude. The highlight of the
session was non-meteoric. It was the sudden appearance of an old friend, the
NOSS satellite triad. For those not familiar with it, NOSS stands for Naval
Orbiting Surveillance System. It is a group of three satellites that travel
together in a triangle-shaped formation. They appeared at 3:51 PDT in the
constellation of Pegasus during the playing of Strauss's Blue Danube. It was
pretty cool scene as it looked as if a part of an entire constellation was
being relocated in the sky. They were as bright as second magnitude before
fading as they traveled northward.

July 8, 2003

0800-0904 UT  1.00  6.60  0   JPE   0  SPX  0  NPX   6  SPO    6 TOTAL

0904-1008 UT  1.00  6.59  0   JPE   0  SPX  0  NPX  10 SPO  10 TOTAL

1008-1130 UT  1.28  6.40  1   JPE   0  SPX  0  NPX  10 SPO  11 TOTAL

TOTALS:          3.28  6.52  1   JPE   0  SPX  0  NPX  26 SPO  27 TOTAL

The first column gives the period watched stated in Universal Time (UT)
which is PDT + 7 hours. The second column gives the percent of that
particular hour actually spent observing the sky. The third column gives the
average limiting magnitude estimated during each period. The last several
columns list the activity seen during each period. I was facing east at an
altitude of 50 degrees during the entire session. No breaks were taken. JPE
= July Pegasids, SPX = Southern Apex, NPX = Northern Apex, and
SPO = Sporadics (random activity).

Location: Deerhorn Valley 116 45' 21" W 32 41' 21" N ELE = 667 m

Bortle Scale Estimate: Class 3  (Rural Sky)

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 54 F (12 C) 57%
Ending         "         "        "                        54 F (12 C) 58%

MAGNITUDES:

JPE:    0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (1) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6 (0) AVE: +3.00
SPO:   0 (2) +1 (1) +2 (3) +3 (6) +4 (10) +5 (4) +6 (0) AVE: +3.27

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA



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