Greetings again all,
I was finally able to get back out under the stars this morning for my first substantive meteor watch since the tail end of the eta Aquariids back in mid-May.  I ventured down to the Matanzas Inlet site once again and had pitch black skies and a sky full of stars and summer Milky Way.  What an awesome morning!!  There was a lot going on up there, too!

I logged two hours (2-4 a.m. EDT) and had a total of 32 meteors during the session.  Some clouds came in around the edges of the sky and tried to crash my party, but dissipated before becoming a major issue. I was watching for several radiants listed on Bob Lunsford’s excellent weekly reports and saw one or two from almost all of them.

Observed for radiants:
June Bootids (JBO)
f Ophiuchids (FOP)
Anthelions (ANT)
sigma Capricornids (SCA)
pi Piscids (PPS)
c Andromedids (CAN)

Here is the data:
June 30/July 1, 2016
Observer: Paul Jones, Location: North Bank of Matanzas Inlet, Florida, Lat: 29.75N, Log: 81.24W (approximately 18 miles south of St. Augustine, Florida).

0200 – 0300 EDT (0600 – 0700 UT)
Teff: 1.0 hour, No breaks, LM: 6.9, 10% cloud interference, Facing: West
3 ANT:  +2, +3 (2)
1 FOP: +3
11 SPO: +1, +2 (2), +3(2), +4(4), +5, +6
15 total meteors

0300 – 0400 EDT (0700 – 0800 UT)
Teff: 1.0 hour, No breaks, LM: 6.9 , 15% cloud interference, Facing: East
2 PPS: +2, +3
2 CAN: +1, +2
1 ANT: +4
12 SPO: 0, +1, +2(2), +3(4), +4, +5(2), +6
17 total meteors

9 of the 32 meteors left trains, yellow and gold colors were noted in a couple of them

I decided to face west the first hour mainly to watch for any FOPs and JBOs, as those radiants had moved well west of the meridian.  Also, I had a line of thunderstorms out over the ocean popping bright lightning every few minutes!  The ANTs were quite noticeable and I was pleasantly surprised to catch the FOP – a long, slow mover going east in Capricorn that had a good radiant line up and the right speed.   No JBOs showed up though, of course.

The “sea storms” subsided somewhat by the second hour so I turned to face east and it didn’t take long for me to start seeing CAN and PPS candidates!  I had about a half dozen meteors during the watch come the general area of each one of these two radiants – all being of swift velocity!  Being conservative and very picky about characteristics and exact path of the meteors however, I factored out all but two from each radiant as SPOs.  Still, a surprisingly good showing from them!

The brightest meteor of the watch was a lovely yellow zero magnitude, low in the SE.  It lined up well with the PPS radiant, but was obviously of a medium speed and way too slow to actually be a PPS.  One of the CAN meteors was a lovely golden bronze color and each of the four CAN/PPS candidates left glowing trains.
While I was there, a guy pulled up in the parking lot next to me.  He was going to fish in the inlet, I wished him good luck.  He came back later having caught two gigantic flounders!  Seeing them made my mouth water, I think I’ll have me some fried flounder for dinner tonight for sure… ;o).  It seems that Matanzas Inlet is great for catching way more than just meteors… ;o).

Clear skies all,

Paul J in North Florida