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(meteorobs) Meteor Hunt of November 19/20, 2003!
November 25, 2003
Greetings Meteor Enthusiasts!
I’m sorry for the late report, but this one was my
second biggest that I ever typed.
It looked promising on Tuesday for doing some post
Leonid observations on the night of 19/20. Thus, I
did some “sample” hunting from 8:14:30 - 8:24:30 PM
EST to see how things looked, under a clear sky of
about 5.4 LM. No meteors. Then, rather early in the
night, I woke up for the big hunt. However, only
when I got dressed did I realize I had read my watch
wrong. ~1:15 PM EST was a bit early for the Leonids I
thought. Still, I decided to start observing.
In almost an hour of hunting I “bagged” 13 meteors, an
amazing number for me. Most were sporadics, with
possibly three Leonids. As I mentioned before, I
fumbled a lot during the hunt, and feel uncertain if
the data I compiled is as accurate as it may look, due
also to the slightly outdated radiant coordinates I
used. I feel the magnitudes of the meteors, for
instance, could be a little on the dim side if any are
off.
In regards to the possible Leonids I saw:
1. I have forgotten how many degrees between a meteor
radiant and the path of a meteor for one to be a
shower member. Was it twice the path length of a
meteor? The possible 20 deg. Leonid that produced
the 1 sec. train started somewhere around 20 deg. from
the radiant.
2. Also, since the “NPX radiant” was active near the
Leonid radiant, but at a lower rate, is it safe to
label the three possible Leonids as Leonids? All were
traced back to the “sickle area”. Are there any
further distinguishing marks that can be employed in
telling apart Northern Apex meteors from Leonids?
Like always, I appreciate any comments or corrections
with the report that begins now:
DATE: November 19/20, 2003 BEGIN: 6:50 UT
END: 7:53 UT
OBSERVER: Mark Fox
LOCATION: Long: 85 deg. 49' W; Lat.: 43 deg. 27' N
City & State: Newaygo, Newaygo, Co., MI USA
Elevation: 762 feet (observed by our lake shore)
Start Temperature: 38 F (03 C) @ 6:43 UT
End Temperature: 37 F (03 C) @ 7:56 UT
Wind: Calm.
RECORDING METHOD: Designate Tape Recorder or Manual:
manual (paper & pencil) + a traveling atomic clock
-----------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS: (Use 3 letter Codes)
LEO
NPX
AMO
SPO
-----------------------------------------------------
LEO RADIANT HEIGHT: about 35-40. deg. (At start of
session.)
-----------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS:
(On average, 10 sec/meteor should be subtracted for
recording purposes.)
0 = None seen; / = shower not watched.
PERIOD(UT) FIELD LM TEFF LEO NPX AMO SPO
6:50-7:53 *RA 07 39 18.1 ~5.4 0.95 3? 0 0 10
Dec +05 13 30
*Note: This area is where alpha Canis Minoris
(Procyon) is located. However, I also monitored
the Orion and Canis Major regions closely at times.
-----------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -2 -1 0 +0.5 +1 +1.5 +2 +3 +4 +5
LEO 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
NPX 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
AMO 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
SPO 0 1 0 1 3 1 2 1 0 1
Total: 13 meteors
-----------------------------------------------------
FIELD OF VIEW OBSCURED:
~50% FROM: 6:50 UT
TO: 7:53 UT
Note: The above was due to tree obstructions and
haze/thin clouds. ~15 deg. above the horizon (of my
field of view) were obscured by haze throughout my
observations. Thin clouds started to become annoying
at the end of my session, but overall, I think the
obstructions on average were ~50%.
----------------------------------------------------
DEAD TIME: ~ 6 min.
BREAKS: none
-----------------------------------------------------
LIMITING MAGNITUDE:
AVERAGE
STAR STAR
TIME AREA COUNT LM
0:32:00 4 7+ 5.1+
0:37:00 8 9 5.5
0:40:00 4 7+ 5.1+
1:00:00 8 ~10 5.9
1:00:00 4 ~8 ~5.3
1:00:00 9 6 -
MEAN LIMITING MAGNITUDE: ~5.4
----------------------------------------------------
METEOR DATA:
SPEED
# TIME(UT) SHOWER MAG (1-5) COLOR TRAIN(SEC)
-----------------------------------------------------
1 6:54:18 SPO ~2 5 Wh. -
2 6:58:30 SPO? -1 3 Wh. -
3 7:02:27 SPO 2 3 Yel. -
4 7:08:57 SPO 1 5 - -
5 7:16:17 SPO 3 5 Red -
6 7:19 SPO 1 3 Wh. -
7 7:23:35 SPO 5 - - -
8 7:33:00 LEO? 0+ 5 Wh. 1 (Wh.)
9 7:33:30 SPO ~1 ~3 - -
10 7:36:30 SPO 0.5 - Wh. -
11 7:39:20 SPO ~ 1.5 - Wh./Yel. -
12 7:43:55 LEO? 0 3 Yel. -
13 (7:56:28) LEO? 3 5 Yel. -
-----------------------------------------------------
PATH GENERAL LOCATION
# SHOWER LENGTH (and/or START
& END POINTS)
1 SPO 10+ deg. ~Gem.
2 SPO? 20 deg. CMa; SE
3 SPO ~5 deg. Head of Leo; E-SE?
4 SPO 15 deg. Same as before.
5 SPO 10 deg. Near Ori.’s belt; S
6 SPO ~12 deg. Passed by beta Orionis; S
7 SPO 2 deg. Between Gem. & top of Ori.; E
8 LEO? ~20 deg. Between the two dogs; SW
9 SPO ~10 deg. -
10 SPO 12 deg. Sliced through Leo; E
11 SPO ~10 deg. -
12 LEO? 12 deg. Under CMa; S
13 LEO? ~12 deg. CMi; SW
-----------------------------------------------------
# SHOWER “APPROXIMATE” DEGREES / SEC.
1 SPO ~15 deg./sec.
2 SPO? 10 deg./sec.
3 SPO ~7 deg./sec.
4 SPO ~15+ deg./sec.
5 SPO 15 deg./sec.
6 SPO ~12 deg./sec.
7 SPO 8? deg./sec.
8 LEO? ~10 deg./sec.
9 SPO ~10 deg./sec.
10 SPO 12 deg./sec.
11 SPO ~10 deg./sec.
12 LEO? 12 deg./sec.
13 LEO? ~12 deg./sec.
-----------------------------------------------------
SPEED (VELOCITY) SCALE:
0 = Stationary
1 = Very Slow
2 = Slow
3 = Medium
4 = Fast
5 = Very Fast
----------------------------------------------------
REMARKS:
1. The meteor time could be off some seconds due to my
slow response in recording them.
2. LEO = Leonids; NPX = Northern Apex meteors; AMO =
Alpha Monocerotids; SPO = sporadics.
3. CMa = Canis Major; CMi = Canis Minor; Ori = Orion;
etc.
4. The meteor directions indicated in this report are
estimates, but can be considered true north
directions.
5. Meteor # 2 could have been a Taurid, even though it
did seem a “tad” fast.
6. Meteor # 9 is sketchy except for the time.
7. Meteor # 13 was seen after the “official” session,
but included in this report nonetheless.
Is that okay?
Bright and rocky Geminids!
Mark Fox
Newaygo, MI USA
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