By Robert Lunsford
There
was much anticipation in being able to watch from dark skies again.
The day did not look promising as cirrus clouds covered the afternoon
sky. Satellite pictures did show that these clouds would be gone
by midnight so I made the effort to drive eastward without actually
being able to see the sky above. Fog cloaked the coastal areas
and no stars were visible until I had driven some 25 miles.
Upon reaching
an altitude of 1000 feet I broke through the fog and the skies
were perfectly clear. The bright quarter moon shone in the west
but I knew it would soon be setting. Everything was in order but
wouldn't you know it? The meteors somehow forgot to show up! In
3 hours of watching under good dark conditions yielded a minuscule
11 meteors. What a disappointment!
With LM's
this good one should be seeing much better activity but it just
was not there. I was well rested but I will admit that the dry
wind out of the east was blowing in my face did affect my eyes
as they were constantly irritated and watering. Regardless, here
is my meager data in which 4 of the 11 meteors were member of
the Eta Aquarid shower. There was also one meteor from the northern
apex and one possible Eta Lyrid meteor. The highlight of the night
was a -1 Eta Aquarid that was seen low in the south below the
tail of Scorpius. Being that low to the southern horizon it traveled
quite slowly lasting a second and one half.
May
1, 2001
0900-1000
UT 0.97 1.00 6.42 0 ETA 4 SPO 4 TOTAL
1000-1100 UT 0.97 1.00 6.34 2 ETA 3 SPO 5 TOTAL
1100-1200 UT 0.98 1.00 5.93 2 ETA 0 SPO 2 TOTAL
TOTALS:
2.92 1.00 6.23 4 ETA 7 SPO 11 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.
Time was lost for plotting and data entry tonight. 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 southeast at an altitude of 60 degrees during the
entire session. No breaks were taken.
ETA
= Eta Aquarids and SPO = Sporadics (random activity). Moonset
occurred a 0925 (2:25 AM PDT)
Location:
Alpine Viewpoint 116 39'00" W 32 50'00" N ELE = 975
m
Bortle
Scale Estimate: Class 3 (Rural Sky)
Beginning
Temperature/Relative Humidity: 58 F (14 C) 49%
Ending " " " 58 F (14 C) 46%
MAGNITUDES:
ETA:
-1 (1) 0 (2) +1 (0) +2 (2.5) +3 (.5) +4 (0) +5 (0)
AVERAGE: +1.38
SPO: -1 (0) 0 (0) +1 (1) +2 (2) +3 (2) +4 (2) +5 (0)
AVERAGE: +2.71
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