[AZ-Observing] Re: Rare Aurigid Meteor Shower
- From: ketelsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 12:11:04 -0700 (MST)
Hi All-
I made a run up to Geology Vista on the Mount Lemmon Highway, not to get
away from light pollution with the moon out, but I figured just being at
elevation would darken the sky from less scattering. GV is about 6,500
feet... I got there about 0300 and played with several lenses on the
20Da, finally settling on the Canon 10-22mm zoom(!), used at 10mm, wide
open at F/3.5. At the beginning, the lens covered the Pleides down to the
horizon, where the Beehive was rising. When I started the sequence (30
second exposures every 40 seconds), I was alone, but by twilight there
were about 6 cars and about 20 people (mostly UA college students, I
suspect) that had made their way to the site. I started the series at
0340, and got about 105 frames until the sky got too bright. In those
frames a casual inspection revealed 19 Aurigids on 18 exposures, a pretty
good photographic success rate, in my opinion!
Of course, the interesting part of observing a shower in a group is just
how many a single observer misses. The prediction indicated rates might
reach a couple hundred per hour, and certainly with multiple observers it
likely surpassed that. I didn't do any precise counts, but with 30 second
exposures, you know that if there were a couple "wows!" per exposure
average, that would be over 200/hour... Cheating, I know, in an
"official" count, but as far as I'm concerned, a sighting by any observer
is a sighting. The predictions also indicated a peak at 1130 UT, but it
was certainly earlier than that by at least 20 minutes, I thought. Like
any small-number statistics, you would swear the show was over, then you
would get 6 or 7 in a minute...
I don't have a website, but will post a couple of the images on my work
computer in a couple hours. All-in-all, a lot of fun and well worth the
hour drive.
-Dean
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