During Thursday afternoon there was a surge of tropical moisture into the area. When this moisture rose over the mountains it created towering cumulus clouds. Luckily, this was not a strong surge and these clouds dissipated soon after sundown. The moisture also disrupted the marine layer and the low level stratus that blocked a lot of city lights the night before was not present tonight. When I arrive at my viewing site near 11:30pm PDT, it was full of cars and I was lucky to find my favorite parking site still unoccupied. The traffic driving up the curving mountain road was non-stop most of the night. I usually have only 1-2 cars pass all night long!

I had to face half-way up toward the south to avoid the headlights. The sky was impressive but there was a layer of haze 20 degrees high in all directions. It was especially bad in the west toward San Diego plus the waxing gibbous moon was in that direction during my first hour of viewing. The humidity was much higher tonight and the limiting magnitude as not quite as good as it had been the previous night. By facing south I could not distinguish the beta Perseids from the much more numerous regular ones. I could have probably seen any kappa Cygnids had they shot my way, but none did.

The first hour was good considering the moon was still bright for most of it. At 12:42 I saw a bright flash reflected in the back window of my truck. I turned around in time to see a fading Perseid train. The crowd enjoyed that one but really went nuts two minutes later when a slow Anthelion fireball shot through Aquarius and Pisces and disappeared just over the hill toward the east. Now I did catch that meteor and it was awesome! It peaked at an estimated magnitude -8 and actually split in two before extinguishing. The most impressive feature was the strong aqua color and golden sparks that were present.

Once the moon set near 1am PDT, the activity seemed to kick into high gear. There were moments when 2-3 Perseids were visible within seconds. There were also lulls in the action but rarely did more than 2 minutes pass without seeing a meteor. The second and third hour produced about a Perseid a minute. The fourth really kicked into high gear as 93 Perseids were seen during that hour. It’s interesting to note that the last minute of this hour produced 7 Perseids while the first minute of the next hour produced none! The brightest Perseids of the night, magnitudes -6 and -5, also occurred within two minutes of each other during this strong period.

Overall, it was the most satisfying Perseid display I have seen since the 1990’s. I was glad to get the time off from work and although I lost two days of wages, it was still well worth it!

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Observer: Robert Lunsford (LUNRO)
Date: 16-Aug 12 Mean Solar Long: 139.866
Beginning Time (UT) 0700 Ending Time (UT) 1200
Total TeFF: 5.00

LOCATION: 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: 20-64%
Ending Temperature/Relative Humidity: 18-75%
METHOD: Visual Recording on Tape
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Showers Observed
ANT 22:08 (332) -12 03-02-00-02-00 7 Total
ERI 03:04 (046) –09 00-00-01-02-01 4 Total
PER 03:12 (048) +58 25-57-60-93-67 302 Total
SDA 23:32 (353) -12 00-02-00-04-00 6 Total
SPO 03-03-04-12-04 26 Total
Hourly Counts 31-64-65-113-72 345 Total
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Period 1 0700-0800 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds) Mean LM 6.18
FOV 315 +00 TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 139.786

Meteor Counts: ANT 3, ERI 0, PER 25, SDA 0, SPO 3 TOTAL 31

Magnitude Distribution
ANT -8 (1) +2 (2) Mean -1.33
PER +1 (2) +2 (5) +3 (7) +4 (10) +5 (1) Mean +3.12
SPO +2 (1) +3 (1) +5 (1) Mean + 3.33
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Period 2 0800-0900 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds) Mean LM 6.45
FOV 330 +00 TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 139.826

Meteor Counts: ANT 2, ERI 0, PER 57, SDA 2, SPO 3 TOTAL 64

Magnitude Distribution
ANT 0 (1) +3 (2) Mean +1.50
PER -2 (1) -1 (1) 0 (2) +1 (11) +2 (16) +3 (9) +4 (9) +5 (8) Mean +2.51
SPO +2 (1) +3 (1) +4 (1) Mean + 3.00
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Period 3 0900-1000 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds) Mean LM 6.50
FOV 345 +00 TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 139.866

Meteor Counts: ANT 0, ERI 1, PER 60, SDA 0, SPO 4 TOTAL 65

Magnitude Distribution
ERI +2 (1) Mean +2.00
PER -3 (1) -1 (1) 0 (4) +1 (17) +2 (11) +3 (17) +4 (7) +5 (2) Mean +2.07
SPO +1 (1) +2 (2) +4 (1) Mean +2.25
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Period 4 1000-1100 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds) Mean LM 6.45
FOV 000 +00 TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 139.906

Meteor Counts: ANT 2, ERI 2, PER 93, SDA 4, SPO 12 TOTAL 113

Magnitude Distribution

ANT +3 (2) Mean +3.00
ERI +2 (1) +3 (1) Mean +2.50
PER -6 (1) -5 (1) 0 (4) +1 (16) +2 (27) +3 (25) +4 (15) +5 (4) Mean +2.30
SPO 0 (1) +1 (1) +2 (2) +3 (3) +4 (4) +5 (1) Mean +2.92
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Period 5 1100-1200 UT
F = 1.00 (0% Clouds) Mean LM 6.27
FOV 015 +00 TOTAL TeFF: 1.00
Mean Solar Long: 139.946

Meteor Counts: ANT 0, ERI 1, PER 67, SDA 0, SPO 4 TOTAL 72

Magnitude Distribution
ERI 0 (1) Mean 0.00
PER -1 (1) 0 (4) +1 (13) +2 (14) +3 (19) +4 (14) +5 (2) Mean +2.43
SPO +3 (1) +4 (2) +5 (1) Mean +4.00

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Total Magnitude Distribution
ANT -8 (1) 0 (1) +2 (2) +3 (3) Mean +0.71
ERI 0 (1) +2 (2) +3 (1) Mean +1.75
PER -6 (1) -5 (1) –3 (1) -2 (1) -1 (3) 0 (14) +1 (59) +2 (73) +3 (77) +4 (55) +5 (17) Mean +2.39
SPO 0 (1) +1 (2) +2 (6) +3 (6) +4 (8) +5 (3) Mean +3.04