August 8/9 2016 observations from North Florida – PERs nudge 40 an hour!

Greetings all,

     Despite that pesky low pressure system hovering around in the northern Gulf of Mexico like a big wet helicopter, we continue to defy the odds by having some beautiful clear mornings to check out the PERs!  Bot Brenda Branchett and I managed another great hour under the stars.

     This morning it did get a bit more dicey for us however, as I was only able to get in one good hour due to lingering clouds.  I got down to Matanzas Inlet at about 0330 EDT and the sky was mostly clear.  I settled in and before long, I had bagged a -1 PER and then a 0 magnitude PER right behind it!  I was stoked for a great watch… but then…the clouds multiplied out of nowhere and the meteors promptly stopped.

    It took almost a full hour for the clouds to drain away, but they finally did and the PERs kicked right back in where they had left off!  I finished the second hour with 38 PERs plus 21 others for a total of 59 meteors – almost one a minute!  Brenda had a great hour too.

Here’s my results:

August 8/9, 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, but some residual high clouds around about 10% of the sky, Facing west

38 PER: -2 (2) -1(2), 0(2), +1(3), +2(7), +3(11), +4(8), +5(3)

2 SDA: +2

2 NDA: +2, +4

4 ERI: +3

13 SPO: +1(2), +2(2), +3(2), +4(3), +5

59 total meteors

24 of the 59 meteors left trains (16 PERs, 1 SDA, 1 NDA, 2 ERI and 4 SPO), a couple of the PERs were bluish and a couple were yellowish as usual..;o). 

Here’s Brenda’s impressions of that last hour: