Results of the AKM Video Meteor Network - August 2003
=====================================================
45 observing nights in a row? A dream? No, it's possible!
In Australia? In the Sahara desert? No, in central Europe, or in more detail:
In Germany!
Unbelievable, but true: I managed to observe between July 28 and September 11
without missing a single night. Thus, I obtained 31 observings nights in
August, the ultimate (and not anymore beatable :-) result for a meteor
observer.
For the first time, the 10 observers collected more than 1.000 hours effective
observing time in a single month and thereby increased the former best monthly
result (August 2001) by more than 100 hours, despite the fact, that most data
of Orlando Benitez-Sanchez are still missing.
In short, the unusually perfect observing conditions in central Europe in
2003 continue, and by the end of August 2003 I collected 153 observing nights,
which is as much as in the whole of my best year 2001. With 135 nights,
Joerg Strunk is on a good track as well. Currently he "ranks" second still
in front of our Australian observer Steve Quirk.
Just in time for the Perseids, Ilkka Yrjola resumed his video observations.
Mirko Nitschke, on the other hand, has increasing problems with the analysis
of his video tapes, which is why he will quit the observation. That is
unfortunate, since he had joined the network four years ago and recorded
almost 5.000 meteors in more than 200 observing nights ever since.
Observations from a full month without a break allow interesting analyses. You
can, for example, plot the activity graph of the most active meteor showers in
summer (see next graphs). Since the effective observing time and the conditions
(moon, transparency) are changing from one day to the next, the graphs show the
ratio between the number of shower and sporadic meteors in each night. This
eliminates most of the variability. The algorithm comes to its limits, though,
when skies are especially bright or the transparency is really poor (as on
August 12). In this case, only the brightest meteors are recorded. Since most
meteor showers have a smaller population index than the sporadics (i.e. they
have a larger fraction of bright meteors), the ratio is shifted towards the
shower meteors in these cases.
The reduce the scatter, each data point was averaged with the previous and
following point. The graphs of the Perseids and kappa Cygnids show clear maxima on
August 12/13 and 17/18, respectively. The other showers do either have an incomplete
activity profile with no beginning or end, or a flat profile without a clear maximum.
Only the Perseids reach values larger than 1/3 of the sporadic activity.
1. Observers
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Code Name Place Camera FOV LM Nights Time Meteors
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BENOR Benitez-S. Maspalomas TIMES4 (1.4/50) 20 dg 4 mag 2 14.2 h 77
EVAST Evans Moreton EMILY (1.8/28) 36 dg 5 mag 3 10.6 h 99
KOSDE Koschny Noordwijkerh. ICC3 (0.85/25) 25 dg 6 mag 15 76.8 h 412
MOLSI Molau Seysdorf AVIS (2.0/35) 40 dg 6 mag 31 161.1 h 1347
MINCAM1 (1.4/12) 35 dg 4 mag 6 36.6 h 127
AKM1 (0.85/25) 32 dg 6 mag 19 97.6 h 939
NITMI Nitschke Dresden VK1 (0.75/50) 20 dg 8 mag 5 20.0 h 87
QUIST Quirk Mudgee SSO-WAT1 (0.85/25) 13 dg 5 mag 19 184.5 h 1108
RENJU Rendtel Marquardt CARMEN (1.8/28) 28 dg 5 mag 23 123.4 h 646
STORO Stork Ondrejov OND1 (1.4/50) 22 dg 8 mag 8 43.0 h 329
STRJO Strunk Leopoldshoehe MINCAM2 (0.8/8) 42 dg 4 mag 24 124.8 h 423
MINCAM3 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 17 98.6 h 541
YRJIL Yrjola Kuusankoski NONAME (2.0/35) 38 dg 4 mag 8 30.2 h 100
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Sum 31 1021.4 h 6235
2. Observing Times (h)
======================
Aug 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
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BENOR 7.4 6.8 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVAST - 4.5 - - - - - - 3.0 - - - - 3.1 -
KOSDE - 5.2 5.0 4.4 5.0 5.2 - - - 4.8 3.8 5.0 5.6 - 5.1
MOLSI 5.2 6.2 4.3 6.0 6.7 6.4 5.3 6.0 6.1 6.4 5.0 3.7 3.1 6.4 5.8
5.5 4.2 6.1 6.8 7.0 7.0 - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - 5.5 5.9 6.3 5.4 4.1 3.1 6.5 5.6
NITMI - - - - 5.0 5.0 - - - - 5.0 - - - -
QUIST 11.3 12.1 12.0 11.6 6.0 9.2 11.4 11.2 7.5 - - - - - 11.3
RENJU - 4.6 - 5.5 4.4 5.9 5.0 4.9 - 6.4 6.0 - 2.8 6.6 5.7
STORO 5.0 5.7 5.8 5.8 5.9 6.1 6.0 - - - - 2.7 - - -
STRJO - 2.0 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.9 6.0 6.1 6.1 6.1 6.2 6.2 5.2 6.3 6.3
- - 4.8 5.9 5.8 6.3 2.5 6.3 6.4 5.5 5.1 4.9 - 5.5 6.9
YRJIL - - - - - - - - - - - 1.2 3.8 - -
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Sum 34.4 51.3 43.7 51.8 51.7 57.0 36.2 40.0 35.0 35.5 36.5 27.8 23.6 34.4 46.7
Aug 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVAST - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
KOSDE 6.3 6.4 - - 4.9 - - 3.5 - 6.6 - - - - - -
MOLSI 6.7 1.5 3.9 2.8 4.1 6.6 7.8 7.7 8.0 7.7 6.6 3.4 4.9 3.8 0.9 2.1
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6.3 1.4 3.3 0.6 - - 6.6 7.4 7.8 8.1 8.2 3.3 - - - 2.2
NITMI 2.0 3.0 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
QUIST - - 10.7 8.4 8.2 7.8 - - - 8.0 8.6 8.9 - 11.1 9.2 -
RENJU 6.4 - - 6.5 6.9 - 6.7 7.1 7.9 7.2 0.9 3.2 0.5 - 6.0 6.3
STORO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STRJO 6.4 1.0 - 5.1 6.2 4.8 0.5 7.0 - 6.8 6.7 0.5 - - - -
4.9 - - - 6.9 - - 6.2 - 7.4 7.3 - - - - -
YRJIL - 3.3 4.4 - 2.8 4.7 - - - - - 4.4 - - - 5.6
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Sum 39.0 16.6 22.3 23.4 40.0 23.9 21.6 38.9 23.7 51.8 38.3 23.7 5.4 14.9 16.1 16.2
3. Results (Meteors)
====================
Aug 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR 29 48 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVAST - 37 - - - - - - 29 - - - - 33 -
KOSDE - 40 47 28 33 31 - - - 8 25 6 3 - 30
MOLSI 61 46 42 43 47 57 39 54 51 70 60 42 17 63 58
16 22 26 24 22 17 - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - 56 58 97 38 34 26 64 64
NITMI - - - - 17 27 - - - - 27 - - - -
QUIST 118 95 66 72 73 84 72 51 32 - - - - - 74
RENJU - 10 - 30 25 30 40 32 - 54 46 - 25 51 33
STORO 59 47 54 62 22 43 37 - - - - 5 - - -
STRJO - 4 20 27 16 22 10 15 21 20 43 59 20 40 12
- - 17 24 21 18 11 22 20 40 59 92 - 48 44
YRJIL - - - - - - - - - - - 15 7 - -
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Sum 283 349 272 310 276 329 209 230 211 289 298 253 98 299 315
Aug 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
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BENOR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVAST - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
KOSDE 53 10 - - 39 - - 21 - 38 - - - - - -
MOLSI 61 9 15 23 28 42 65 84 70 54 84 9 9 34 7 3
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
70 6 19 2 - - 71 69 74 72 95 16 - - - 8
NITMI 10 6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
QUIST - - 49 45 29 19 - - - 51 54 48 - 27 49 -
RENJU 36 - - 22 27 - 14 36 32 39 2 6 2 - 32 22
STORO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STRJO 17 2 - 11 14 8 1 12 - 12 16 1 - - - -
49 - - - 21 - - 23 - 20 12 - - - - -
YRJIL - 20 16 - 7 18 - - - - - 4 - - - 13
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Sum 296 53 99 103 165 87 151 245 176 286 263 84 11 61 88 46
Sirko Molau, 2003/09/26