[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Late Perseid Report From MI + Strange Lightning!
August 19, 2003
Greetings Meteor Enthusiasts!
It has been many full moons since I last prowled for
meteors. What's more this summer has been the
cloudiest since I kept records a few years ago. Thus,
it is a wonder that I was able to view the Perseids
during peak night and have something to report ---
even if it was only five meteors. Boy, was it hard
to find time to write all of this up!
Like I have mentioned before, I live on a lake and
did my observations there, beginning at 7:04 UT (3:04
P.M. EDT); an uncommon and unearthly hour for my
meteor hunts. I was naturally worried about the West
Nile Virus so I avoided using my best observing area
in our bay, and shielded myself with a thick covering
of clothes. I decided to stand in front of our house
at the edge of the lake there until I realized that I
was probably staring too close to the radiant. So,
after some minutes, I settled for a different
direction and moved slightly which raised the
obstructions due to trees. Nevertheless, it also
raised my activity--- three meteors with two of them
within a minute. I must say every one of them were
lickety-split, as if faster than last year's. Is
that possible?
Throughout the hunt, I was happy to discover that the
mosquito situation was rather trivial, with no bats!
I was worried about them too after seeing at least
one flutter by when I inspected the night sky before
my family went to bed.
Before going into my soon to follow report, I thought
I would share with you a mysterious happening that
occurred on Aug. 11, 2003 at about 6:01 P.M. EDT. It
was rainy that evening with a few strokes of thunder
when all of a sudden--- Kaaboom! A very bright,
white light erupted just a little ways away from the
house, possibly over the lake. It was loud! At
first it appeared just to have been a very close,
unnerving lightning strike. But then my family noted
a few bizarre characteristics that began to push
aside the possibility of normal lightning to make
room for ball lightning! First of all it was
actually round (even I noted that) and it appeared to
some to have all occurred "above" the ground or
water. If it did hit land, it doesn't look like it
created any damage. Also, my father thought the
light possessed an orange center. Of course I am not
sure of exactly what it was, but it certainly wasn't
average.
Please inform me of any errors!
DATE: August 12/13 2003 BEGIN: 7:04 UT
END: 7:50:10 UT
OBSERVER: Mark Fox
LOCATION: Long: 85 deg. 49' W; Lat.: 43 deg. 27' N
City & State: Newaygo, Newaygo, Co., MI USA
Elevation: 760 feet
Start Temperature: 68.5°F (20.3 °C) @ 6:55 UT
End Temperature: 67.5°F (19.7°C) @ 7:53 UT
Wind: Calm.
RECORDING METHOD: Designate Tape Recorder or Manual:
manual (paper & pencil)
-----------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS: (Use 3 letter Codes)
PER
KCG
SPO
-----------------------------------------------------
PER RADIANT HEIGHT: 45+ deg.
-----------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS:
(On average, 10 sec/meteor should be subtracted for
recording purposes.)
0 = None seen; / = shower not watched.
PERIOD(UT) FIELD LM TEFF PER KCG SPO
7:04-7:29 *3h 47m ~5.0 0.39 2 0 0
24° 6"
7:37:30- Gamma ~5.0+ 0.19 3 0 0
7:50:10 Cygni
TOTAL TEFF: 0.58 hrs.
*Note: This area is where the star cluster Pleiades
is located.
-----------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +1.5 +2 +3 +4 +5
PER 0 0 1 0 2 2 0 0 0 0
KCG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
SPO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total: 5 meteors
-----------------------------------------------------
FIELD OF VIEW OBSCURED:
~66% FROM: 7:04 UT
TO: 7:29 UT (Tree Obstructions)
~40% FROM: 7:37:30 UT
TO: 7:50:10 UT
(Tree Obstructions)
Note: There was thick, drifting haze from about
7:45 UT onwards.
----------------------------------------------------
DEAD TIME: ~ 3 min.
BREAKS: 8 min., 30 sec (While I searched for a new
observing area.)
-----------------------------------------------------
LIMITING MAGNITUDE:
AVERAGE
STAR STAR
TIME AREA COUNT LM
NOTE: I did not use any star areas during the hunt.
I felt I was not getting accurate LM data from them
since the counts seemed a bit too low (probably from
the moon.) Thus, I used Pleiades, a 5.0 mag. star
near or in Cass. (described in the NAMN charts) and a
bit of experience to compute the LM for my
observations.
MEAN LIMITING MAGNITUDE: ~5.0
----------------------------------------------------
METEOR DATA:
SPEED
# TIME(UT) SHOWER MAG (1-5) COLOR TRAIN(SEC)
-----------------------------------------------------
1 7:13:04 PER 1 5 Wh. -
2 7:27:20 PER 1.5 5 Bril. Wh. -
SECOND PERIOD
3 7:39:30 PER -1 5 Wh. -
4 7:39:52 PER 1.5 5 Wh. -
5 7:43:45 PER 1 5 Wh.-Or. -
-----------------------------------------------------
PATH GENERAL LOCATION
# SHOWER LENGTH (and/or START
& END POINTS)
1 PER 5 deg. Between Taurus
& Cetus
2 PER 3- deg. Taurus
SECOND PERIOD
3 PER 12+ deg. Cygnus
4 PER ~5 deg. Lyra
5 PER ~10 deg. Cygnus
-----------------------------------------------------
# SHOWER "APPROXIMATE" DEGREES / SEC.
1 PER 10 deg./sec.
2 PER ~10 deg./sec.
SECOND PERIOD
3 PER 12+ deg./sec.
4 PER 10 deg./sec.
5 PER ~15 deg./sec.?
-----------------------------------------------------
SPEED (VELOCITY) SCALE:
0 = Stationary
1 = Very Slow
2 = Slow
3 = Medium
4 = Fast
5 = Very Fast
----------------------------------------------------
REMARKS:
1. The meteor time should hopefully be off by no more
than a couple or so seconds at most.
2. PER = Perseids; KCG = Kappa Cygnids; SPO =
sporadics.
Bright, blazing fireballs!
Mark Fox
Newaygo, MI USA
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
To stop getting all email from the 'meteorobs' lists, use our Webform:
http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html