Greetings again all,
      Well, once again Mother Nature smiled broadly on me this morning from Matanzas Inlet!  There were mountains of thick fog almost everywhere else except over me at the Inlet!  I managed to stay totally clear until almost sunrise and had two more glittering hours of pre-max, Perseid observing.
     I ended up with the grand total of 150 meteors between 0325 and 0525 EDT with 114 of them being Perseids!  Needless to say, it was a busy session indeed.  I tried out my new toy on this watch – a digital voice recorder to keep track of my data and it worked like a charm!  I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner…;o).  I was able to voice record my impressions on each meteor without having to take my eyes away from the sky at all.  With the PERs doing their usual clumping and spurting, I was able to see many additional follow-on PERs this way!
Here’s what I ended up with:
CAP – alpha Capricornids
ERI – eta Eridanids
ANT – Anthelions
PER – Perseids
SDA: South delta Aquariids
PAU – Piscids Austrinids
NDA: North delta Aquariids
KCG: kappa Cygnids
BPE – beta Perseids
Session One:
August 10/11 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). LM: 6.9, Clear, Facing: west
0325 – 0425 EDT (0725 – 0825 UT), Teff: 1.0 hour, No breaks
49 PER: -3, -2, -1(2), 0(4), +1(3), +2(11), +3(14), +4(10), +5(3)
5 SDA:  +3(3), +4(2)
4 NDA: +3, +5(3)
1 KCG: +2
1 ERI: +3
1 ANT: +2
10 SPO: 0, +1, +2, +4(6), +5
71 total meteors
16 of the 71 meteors (13 PERs, 1 KCG, 1 ERI and 1 SPO) left trains. Yellow and blue tints were seen in the brighter PERs.
Session Two:

August 10/11, 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).

 

0425 – 0525 EDT (0825 – 0925 UT) Teff: 1.0 hour, No breaks, LM: 6.9, Clear, facing: west

65 PER: -4, -2, 0(4), +1(6), +2(17), +3(17), +4(12), +5(7)

1 SDA: +2

3 ERI: 0, +2, +3

9 SPO: -1, +1, +2, +3(4), +4(2)

79 total meteors

27 of the 79 meteors left trains (22 PERs, 2 ERI and 3 SPO), a couple of the PERs were bluish and a couple were yellowish as usual..;o).  The -4 PER left a train that lasted several seconds, as did the -2 PER and a couple of the zeroes.

 

     There several just spectacular bright PERs shooting out in all directions and many of them were long-pathed and colorful!  The well known PER clumping effect was noted big time this morning also as several minute lulls in activity were followed by furious spurts of 4 or 5 PERs in quick succession.  A couple of really nice ERIs graced the second hour as well!

     At the end of the second hour, I kept on observing, digging deeply into astronomical twilight on what we used to call “bolide patrol”; that is, searching the gathering twilight for Perseid fireballs that seem to have a habit of popping into the twilight skies.  I didn’t catch any this morning, but I did catch an additional 20 PERs this way with a lovely -1 in 30 minutes from 0525 – 0555 EDT.  It was mostly casual observing, but fun to see if I could “catch a big one”…;o).  Maybe in the morning…

Looks good here for the max… all fingers are crossed!

Hope everyone gets a chance to see it… Paul J in North Florida