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(meteorobs) Meteor Observations From California 3/18/04

I had the pleasure of viewing with Pete Gural, who was out here on a
business trip from Virginia. We viewed from the western slopes of Mt. Laguna
in order to get above the persistent fog that has plagued the San Diego area
this past week. The sky was impressive with only small hints of light
pollution to the west. There was a band of cirrus in the west when we
started observing, just before 2:00am local standard time. Cirrus did
eventually envelope some of the sky, reducing the limiting magnitudes but
not really affecting our observations. I did notice that the meteors during
the second half of the session were consistently brighter than those seen
earlier. Perhaps the thin cirrus layer was obscuring the fainter activity.
The activity was surprisingly good for a March morning. I thought I would
have difficulty staying awake  from the lack of activity but the rate of
meteors was fairly constant until the third hour. During the third hour both
Pete and I noticed that activity seemed to have dropped off quite a bit.
For me, no memorable meteors were seen. There were some unusual
satellites that occurred during the last hour. There were several that
flashed and one that produced a scintillating effect during the short time
it was visible.

March 18, 2004

0947-1047 UT  0.94  6.44  1 ANT  0 NPX  1 SPX  6 SPO  8 TOTAL

1047-1147 UT  0.93  6.31  2 ANT  0 NPX  1 SPX  6 SPO  9 TOTAL

1147-1247 UT  0.97  6.27  1 ANT  1 NPX  0 SPX  2 SPO  4 TOTAL

TOTALS:          2.84  5.24  4 ANT  1 NPX  2 SPX  13 SPO  21 TOTAL

The first column gives the period watched stated in Universal Time (UT)
which is PDT + 8 hours. The second column gives the percent of that
particular hour actually spent observing the sky. Time was lost tonight due
to plotting and data entry on paper. 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 south at an altitude
of 50 degrees during the entire session. No breaks were taken. ANT =
Antihelions (Virginids), NPX = Northern Apex, SPX = Southern Apex,
and SPO = Sporadics (random activity).

Location: Pine Valley Viewpoint 116 29' 43" W 32 49' 49" N  ELE = 1300 m

Bortle Scale Estimate: Class II Typical Truly Dark Site

Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 52 F (11 C) 48%
Ending              "               "             "        55 F (13 C) 46%

MAGNITUDES:

ANT:  0 (0) +1 (1) +2 (3) +3 (0) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6 (0) AVE: +2.46
NPX : 0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (1) +3 (0) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6 (0) AVE: +2.00
SPX:   0 (0) +1 (1) +2 (1) +3 (0) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6 (0) AVE: +1.50
SPO:   0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (2) +3 (5) +4 (5) +5 (0) +6 (0) AVE: +2.86

Bob Lunsford
San Diego, CA USA

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