I had an unexpected night off of work so I thought I would take advantage of the clear skies and try to view some meteors. After a 3 hour nap I woke and headed east to darker skies. Unfortunately the sky was clear all the way to the coast so the skies from my mountain site was not a good as it could have been. The previous night had a thick blanket of fog covering the city which I could have used this morning. Still, a limiting magnitude of +6.5 only 50 miles from a city of over 1 million people is not too bad! I faced due north to concentrate on the Aurigids.  Activity was about what I expected. I never have seen many AUR’s on August 31st no matter the predicted date of maximum. September 1st has always been the best morning. This morning was no different even though the first meteor of the night was a nice magnitude 2 AUR skimming the northern horizon. I didn’t see another AUR all night long. I did notice 3 meteors that intersected near 4:40 (070) +48, which is close to the old position listed for the AUR’s. The current AUR radiant lies close to theta Auriga, on the eastern portion of the constellation. It would be interesting to hear what others saw.
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Totals were low for the other sources as they were nowhere near maximum. Sporadic activity was good with a couple of bright meteors seen during the second hour. The highlight of the night was a long –1 sporadic that shot out of Monoceros heading overhead. The last hour was cut short due to clouds. These alto cumulus appeared over the eastern horizon near 0500 local time and were overhead 15 minutes later. Still, it was a nice getaway and I enjoyed the nice, warm breeze off the desert that made viewing quite comfortable.
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Well, it’s back to work tonight. Perhaps I’ll have another opportunity to view again next week?
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Observer: Robert Lunsford (LUNRO)
Date: 16-Aug-31 Mean Solar Long: 158.227
Beginning Time (UT) 0930 Ending Time (UT) 1217
Total TeFF: 2.78LOCATION: Pine Valley Viewpoint, CA, USA
LONG: 116 29′ 43″ W LAT: 32 49′ 49″ N
Elevation: 1300m Bortle Scale: Class 4: Rural/suburban transition
Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 73 (23C) – 30%
Ending Temperature/Relative Humidity: 72 (22C) – 29%
METHOD: Visual Recording on Tape
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Showers Observed
August Gamma Cepheids (AGC)  00:08 (002) +77    00-01-00        1 Total
Anthelion (ANT)                              23:20 (350) –05    02-00-00        2 Total
Aurigids (AUR)                                 06:02 (091) +39    01-00-00        1 Total
Northern Delta Aquariids (NDA)  00:05 (001) +08   00-01-01         2 Total
Orionids (ORI)                                  03:52 (058) –01   00-00-01         1 Total
Sporadics (SPO)                                                               09-12-07       28 Total
Hourly Counts                                                                  12-14-09       35 Total
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Period 1   0930-1030 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds)   Mean LM 6.49
FOV 015 +60   TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 158.195
Meteor Counts: ANT 2, AUR 1, SPO 9  TOTAL 12
Magnitude Distribution
ANT   +4 (2)  Mean +4.00
AUR   +2 (1)  Mean +2.00
SPO   +2 (1) +3 (5) +5 (2) +6 (1)  Mean + 3.67
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Period 2   1030-1130 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds)   Mean LM 6.46
FOV 030 +60   TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 158.236

 

Meteor Counts: AGC 1, NDA 1, SPO 12  TOTAL 14

Magnitude Distribution
AGCT +3 (1)  Mean +3.00
NDA   +4 (1)  Mean +4.00
SPO   1 (1) 0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (3) +3 (3) +4 (1) +5 (2)  Mean +2.42

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Period 3   1130-1217 UT
F = 1.33 (25% Clouds)   Mean LM 6.21
FOV 045 +60   TOTAL TeFF: 0.78
Mean Solar Long: 158.387
Meteor Counts: NDA 1, ORI 1, SPO 7  TOTAL 9
Magnitude Distribution                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              NDA +2 (1)  Mean +2.00
ORI  +4 (1)  Mean +4.00
SPO  +2 (1) +3 (2) +4 (3) +5 (1)  Mean +3.57
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Total Magnitude Distribution
AGC  +3 (1)  Mean +3.00
ANT  +4 (2)  Mean +4.00
AUR  +2 (1)  Mean +2.00
NDA  +2 (1) +4 (1) Mean +3.00
ORI   +4 (1)  Mean +4.00
SPO   -1 (1) 0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (5) +3 (10) +4 (4) +5 (5) +6 (1)  Mean +3.11