[meteorite-list] 2002 Perseid-Meteor Observations from California

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:16 2004
Message-ID: <20020816174756.69722.qmail_at_web10412.mail.yahoo.com>

Still trying to catch-up on the huge number of posts
while I was out of town for the Perseid Meteor Shower.
 Looks like I missed out on a large number of
interesting threads.

My Perseid viewing in the Mojave Desert was washed out
by an unbelievable amount of smoke in the air from all
the various brush fires throughout the state. Here is
an example of an excellent report from a meteor
observer that was located in one of the few smoke-free
spots in SoCal (San Diego Co.):
 
-------------- Attached Message ---------------
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 16:06:25 -0700
From: Robert Lunsford
Subject: (meteorobs) August 13, 2002
Meteor Observations from California

    The clouds that caused so much trouble the
previous night moved out leaving a perfectly clear sky
for tonight. I tried to nap before heading out but
couldn't. I decided to head out early and try to view
some Perseid earthgrazers. Virtually all of the 18
Perseids seen before 10:00pm were earthgrazers. Most
of them were faint and nearly all of them hugged
either the northwestern or eastern horizon. Perseid
rates
slowly climbed throughout the session peaking between
10-11UT (3-4am PDT). The 39 Perseids per hour confirms
my thoughts that the 11/12 would be slightly better
than the 12/13, at least from my vantage point on the
west coast. There will be no doubt next year as Aug.
12/13 will be the better night. It is always this
night the year before a leap year. It won't matter
much as it coincides with the full moon in 2003.

>From what I saw I would agree that this was one of the
weakest Perseid displays in memory. I have had better
rates in the past with the moon in the sky!
Despite the low numbers, there were still some
impressive fireballs.
Colors were quite vivid this year with the most
impressive being a pure copper colored Perseid seen
Monday morning. Most of the colors I saw were orange,
followed by yellow and blue. The minor shower numbers
were unimpressive. Sporadic rates seen this morning
were about what I expected. It would have been very
quiet before 10pm had not the Perseids been in action.
I must work tonight but I plan a couple of more 3 or 4

hour sessions on Thursday and Friday mornings.

August 13, 2002
0430-0600 UT 1.50 6.68 18 PER 1 SDA 2 SPO 21 TOTAL
0600-0700 UT 1.00 6.53 15 PER 1 KCG 6 SPO 22 TOTAL
0700-0800 UT 1.00 6.47 20 PER 1 SDA 6 SPO 27 TOTAL
0800-0900 UT 1.00 6.39 25 PER 1 CAP 1 KCG 2 NDA 1
                                  SDA 8 SPO 38 TOTAL
0900-1000 UT 1.00 6.39 37 PER 2 SDA 1 NPX 1 SPX 9
                                       SPO 50 TOTAL
1000-1100 UT 1.00 6.40 39 PER 2 NDA 3 NPX 1 SPX 9
                                       SPO 54 TOTAL
1100-1200 UT 1.00 6.37 38 PER 1 SPX 7 SPO 46 TOTAL

TOTALS: 7.50 6.48 1 CAP 2 KCG 4 NDA 192 PER 5
SDA 4 NPX 3 SPX 47 SPO 258
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. A cassette
recorder was used to record data tonight so no time
was lost recording. 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 northeast at an altitude of
60 degrees during the entire session. No breaks were
taken.
CAP = Alpha Capricornids,
KCG = Kappa Cygnids,
NDA = Northern Delta Aquarids,
PER = Perseids,
SDA = Southern Delta Aquarids,
NPX = Northern Apex,
SPX = Southern Apex, and
                      
SPO = Sporadics (random activity).

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

Bortle Scale Estimate: Class 4: Rural / suburban
transition

Beginning Temperature: 62 F (17 C)
/Relative Humidity 48%
Ending " " " 61 F (16 C)
45%

MAGNITUDES:
CAP: 0 (1) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6
(0) AVE: +0.00
KCG: 0 (1) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (1) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6
(0) AVE: +1.50
NDA: 0 (1) +1 (0) +2 (0) +3 (0) +4 (3) +5 (0) +6
(0) AVE: +3.00
PER: -5 (1) -4 (1) -3 (2) -2 (3) -1 (9) 0 (24)
+1 (24) +2 (36) +3 (42) +4 (37) +5 (11) +6 (2)
       AVE: +2.15
SDA: 0 (0) +1 (0) +2 (1) +3 (2) +4 (1) +5 (0) +6
(0) AVE: +3.00
NPX: 0 (1) +1 (0) +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (1) +5 (0) +6
(1) AVE: +2.25
SPX: 0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (0) +3 (1) +4 (0) +5 (0) +6
(0) AVE: +1.33
SPO: 0 (1) +1 (2) +2 (7) +3 (13) +4 (14) +5 (7)
+6 (4) AVE: +3.51

                      Bob Lunsford
                      San Diego, CA USA

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Received on Fri 16 Aug 2002 01:47:56 PM PDT