Mark Shelton met my son, Max and me at about 8:45 PM yesterday to begin the night’s Perseid meteor shower observing at Skyline Drive. Mark left us around 1:30 AM but Max and I stayed until about 5:15 this morning. It was very windy for the first couple of hours, so neither Mark nor I set up telescopes as we had originally planned to do. It was, however, clear and dark – perfect for meteor observing. For the first couple of hours after dark the shower seemed to be very slow and I didn’t attempt to make any kind of formal count until later. There seemed to be a short spike in meteor numbers around 12:30, then numbers appeared to drop off. I counted only about 20 during a period of about 45 minutes before Mark left, but I was also talking too much (sorry, Mark). Around 2:30 it seemed as though numbers were beginning to increase so at 3:00 I began to make a serious count. Between 3:00 and 4:00 I counted 64 shower members and 9 sporadics. Between 4:00 and 5:00 I counted 70 shower members and 9 sporadics. I forgot to take with me charts for estimating the limiting magnitude, but the air was both transparent and steady, so I’d guess that it was easily 6.5, but probably even better than that. The “sporadics” included at least a few members of the Delta Aquariids; anyway I’m pretty certain that they were. I was really surprised to see four meteors within less than a minute that appeared to radiate from the right spot in Aquarius. I was also pretty sure that I saw three or four Delta Aquariids during a short observing session Wednesday night, around 11:30, and since the peak of this shower typically occurs July 29/30 I’m not sure what to make of what I saw both Wednesday and last night. Did anyone else see any Aquariids this week? Another treat last night was to see the zodiacal band, especially toward dawn as the zodiacal light on the eastern horizon really became apparent. Max, who is 12, easily spotted the zodiacal band and zodiacal light as soon as I explained to him what they are. It was real easy to see why the zodiacal light is known as the false dawn in some parts of the world. All in all a great night, even if the Perseids weren’t as productive for me as they’ve been in past years. If I can get enough sleep today I may even try to observe again tonight. (There are advantages to being underemployed.) Kim
Fine report, Kim. I think I'll have to try Skyline Drive sometime. Best wishes, Joe --- On Fri, 8/13/10, Kim <kimharch@cut.net> wrote: From: Kim <kimharch@cut.net> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Perseids To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Friday, August 13, 2010, 7:07 AM Mark Shelton met my son, Max and me at about 8:45 PM yesterday to begin the night’s Perseid meteor shower observing at Skyline Drive. Mark left us around 1:30 AM but Max and I stayed until about 5:15 this morning. It was very windy for the first couple of hours, so neither Mark nor I set up telescopes as we had originally planned to do. It was, however, clear and dark – perfect for meteor observing. For the first couple of hours after dark the shower seemed to be very slow and I didn’t attempt to make any kind of formal count until later. There seemed to be a short spike in meteor numbers around 12:30, then numbers appeared to drop off. I counted only about 20 during a period of about 45 minutes before Mark left, but I was also talking too much (sorry, Mark). Around 2:30 it seemed as though numbers were beginning to increase so at 3:00 I began to make a serious count. Between 3:00 and 4:00 I counted 64 shower members and 9 sporadics. Between 4:00 and 5:00 I counted 70 shower members and 9 sporadics. I forgot to take with me charts for estimating the limiting magnitude, but the air was both transparent and steady, so I’d guess that it was easily 6.5, but probably even better than that. The “sporadics” included at least a few members of the Delta Aquariids; anyway I’m pretty certain that they were. I was really surprised to see four meteors within less than a minute that appeared to radiate from the right spot in Aquarius. I was also pretty sure that I saw three or four Delta Aquariids during a short observing session Wednesday night, around 11:30, and since the peak of this shower typically occurs July 29/30 I’m not sure what to make of what I saw both Wednesday and last night. Did anyone else see any Aquariids this week? Another treat last night was to see the zodiacal band, especially toward dawn as the zodiacal light on the eastern horizon really became apparent. Max, who is 12, easily spotted the zodiacal band and zodiacal light as soon as I explained to him what they are. It was real easy to see why the zodiacal light is known as the false dawn in some parts of the world. All in all a great night, even if the Perseids weren’t as productive for me as they’ve been in past years. If I can get enough sleep today I may even try to observe again tonight. (There are advantages to being underemployed.) Kim _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
participants (2)
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Joe Bauman -
Kim