Results of the AKM Video Meteor Network - April 2002
====================================================

The first days of April were record breaking. The excellent weather of
the last week of March continued for the German observers for many days and
presented to me a unique observing series here in Aachen. Aachen lies south 
of the Eifel mountains. Typically we have winds from north-west that push
the clouds against the hills. So it sometimes happen that we have
clear skies everywhere, but overcasted skies starting some 20 km before the 
city gates. This time it was vice versa. The wind came from south and the 
weather shadow of the mountains kept skies clear even when the fine weather 
had capitulated at all other sites. In the end I could observe in 18 nights 
in a row between March 24/25 and April 11/12 with just a single night missing. 
These are Australian conditions and a clear record for central Europe! Later 
skies had to recover somewhat from the long spell of sunshine and starry 
nights (a real blessing for all allergic people) and almost prevented any 
further observation in the rest of the month, whereas the were also clear 
nights in north-east Germany in the second part of April. During the
Lyrids it was partly clear at most sites, but the increase in meteor numbers 
was limited.

All in all we got a perfect outcome in April thanks to the fine weather,
even though a few regular observers were missing. By chance there were
five observers with almost identical effective observing times of above
eighty hours. Together with two other observers we achieved a total of more 
than 500 hours, as many as only in the best months before. The number of 
recorded meteors was little inferior to April 2001 because Rob McNaught
changed a gear down. The European observers, however, could increase their
outcome several times.

For our unlucky fellows April was a successful month, too. Steve Quirk 
restarted operation of his camera in Australia by April 19.  Ilkka Yrjola of 
Finland also did first tests with his camera and the new intensifier just days
before his observing saison in the high North was over. In fall he will
be among the active observers again. Andre Knoefel resumed operation as
well, but only after the excellent weather in Germany had gone. Last but not 
least also Stephen Evans managed to observe in four nights, but he is currently
moving and will not be able process his video tapes until a few weeks from 
now.


1. Observers
============

Code    Name       Place           Camera          FOV    LM Nights Time Meteors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR Benitez S. Maspalomas    TIMES4 (1.4/50)    20 dg  4 mag   7  49.1 h   122
MCNRO McNaught   Coonabarabran SSO1 (1.2/55)      19 dg  8 mag  12  88.3 h  1664
MOLSI Molau      Aachen        AVIS (2.0/35)      40 dg  5 mag  14  87.2 h   231
NITMI Nitschke   Dresden       VK1 (0.75/50)      20 dg  8 mag   6  30.1 h    41
QUIST Quirk      Mudgee        SSO-WAT1 (0.85/25) 13 dg  5 mag   9  80.3 h   185
RENJU Rendtel    Marquardt     AKM2 (0.85/25)     32 dg  6 mag  15  88.8 h   356
SPEUL Sperberg   Salzwedel     AKM1 (0.85/25)     32 dg  6 mag  12  87.3 h   280
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum                                                             27 511.1 h  2879


2. Observing Times (h)
======================

April  01   02   03   04   05   06   07   08   09   10   11   12   13   14   15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -   7.0
MCNRO   -    -   5.5   -    -    -    -    -   9.9 10.0  8.8  5.6   -   3.3   -
MOLSI  5.2  9.1  8.5  8.4  4.7  8.4  4.8  8.6  5.9  8.4  8.0   -    -    -    -
NITMI  5.0  5.0  5.0  4.9   -    -   5.1   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
QUIST   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
RENJU  7.3  8.4  8.1  7.7  5.0  7.2  8.0  8.1   -    -    -    -    -    -    -
SPEUL  8.2  8.0  8.4  8.6  8.4  8.0  7.8  7.5  6.0   -   7.1   -    -    -    -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum   25.7 30.5 35.5 29.6 18.1 23.6 25.7 24.2 21.8 18.4 23.9  5.6   -   3.3  7.0

April  16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR   -    -   6.8  7.1  6.3   -    -    -    -    -    -    -   7.9  7.5  6.5
MCNRO   -    -    -    -   8.2  9.5  8.3  8.8 10.4   -    -    -    -    -    -
MOLSI   -   1.6   -    -    -   4.1   -   1.5   -    -    -    -    -    -    -
NITMI   -    -    -    -    -    -   5.1   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
QUIST   -    -    -   7.5 11.5 11.2   -  10.4 11.4  2.2   -   9.6   -   4.5 12.0
RENJU   -   3.5   -    -   7.0  6.8  5.6   -    -   1.8   -    -   2.7  1.6   -
SPEUL   -    -    -    -   2.7  6.6   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum     -   5.1  6.8 14.6 35.7 38.2 19.0 20.7 21.8  4.0   -   9.6 10.6 13.6 18.5


3. Results (Meteors)
====================

April  01   02   03   04   05   06   07   08   09   10   11   12   13   14   15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -   33
MCNRO   -    -   57    -    -    -    -    -  318  253  252  208    -   24    -
MOLSI  15   22   21   20   11   22   18   26   12   17   20    -    -    -    -
NITMI   5    7    8    8    -    -    3    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
QUIST   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
RENJU  27   25   24   40   19   34   35   33    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
SPEUL  23   26   29   37   31   16   24   18   13    -   17    -    -    -    -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum    70   80  139  105   61   72   80   77  343  270  289  208    -   24   33

April  16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR   -    -   21   29    6    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    5   11   17
MCNRO   -    -    -    -  154  102  107  144   45    -    -    -    -    -    -
MOLSI   -    2    -    -    -   20    -    5    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
NITMI   -    -    -    -    -    -   10    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
QUIST   -    -    -   13   24   13    -   22   27    3    -   46    -    6   31
RENJU   -   19    -    -   26   37   23    -    -    3    -    -    8    3    -
SPEUL   -    -    -    -    4   42    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum     -   21   21   42  214  214  140  171   72    6    -   46   13   20   48

Sirko Molau, 2002/05/17