Sept 30 / Oct 1 Meteors and Welcome to Bob Lunsford

Today we have a treat and the start of a great collaboration. Bob Lunsford of Chula Vista, CA has agreed to share the results of his meteor camera with The Transient Sky. Bob is a long-time observer of meteors (both visually and with video). He is director of the Meteor Section of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) and Operations Manager of The American Meteor Society (AMS). Thanks Bob for sharing your observations with us!

Though we both use the same commercial video surveillance camera to detect meteors, you will quickly notice that his system detects 3-4 times more meteors. Why is this the case? … Bob’s camera uses a image intensifier to see objects many times fainter than my system. Image intensifying technology is the same technology used in night vision goggles.  More info on his camera system can be found here.

In Tucson, it was another good night though a few clouds were around during the evening.

Notes from Bob’s camera results…
“My intensified video system ran from 0302 to 1249 Universal Time on October 1st. The sky was excellent with not a cloud visible during the entire session. The camera was pointed at the zenith to achieve the darkest possible sky. The meteor activity was impressive during the last few hours before dawn. Several negative magnitude meteors were captured but none that would qualify as a fireball.”

Obs  Date           TotTime TOT SPO NTA STA DAU
Carl 2008-10-01 UT  10h 33m  19  16  1   1   1
Bob  2008-10-01 UT   9h 47h  73  54  3   9   7

TotTime – Total amount of time each camera looked for meteors
TOT – total number of meteors detected
SPO – Sporadics (meteors not affiliated with any particular meteor shower)
NTA – Northern Taurids
STA – Southern Taurids
DAU – δ-Aurigids (Delta Aurigids)