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(meteorobs) Re: Florida observing
Chuck,
>If I had a large enough yacht I could venture
>out about 30 miles offshore and eliminate light scatter.
I would double that as a minimum. In the late 70's I could get away with
observing meteors 25 miles west of Miami with a reasonable sky. The boat
needs to be larger that 24 feet. A month ago 3 people took a boat that size
60 miles into the Gulf and disappeared. The boat and one body appeared at
Cape Canaveral 2 weeks later, carried around the Keys and up the east coast
a ways by currents.
>Could you please give me directions to yours.
Just find a place west of the midline of the Florida peninsula. The sky is
excellent in the interior leaning west of the middle. Almost all the people
live near the coasts but fewer on the west coast. Lehigh Acres is 15 miles
inland from Fort Myers, and for convenience to astronomers a huge area is
laced with a maze of roads. It rates a regular Bortle class 3 but can get
near class 2 on the best nights. Further inland has a solid class 2, and
can nearly reach class 1 on some nights.
My visual acuity for stars is better than average, so I don't know if you
would see stars as faint as I do. Lew Gramer does just as well, but I have
been with others that see one-half to a full magnitude less in the same sky.
Meanwhile on Geminids, I expect to see about 40/hour tops on Dec 13/14 in
the hour before moonrise. Will need to see a couple more maxes in dark sky
to find out what has changed. Two years ago I was down about a quarter from
the typical max rates in the 1980's - 1990's. The peak could have sharpened
so that I missed it (formerly a full day wide), or the whole thing could be
lessening. My hunch leans toward the latter.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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