Results of the AKM Video Meteor Network - February 2000 ======================================================= February was neither cold nor especially cooperative with the meteor observers in Germany. The statistics would have looked quite poor if there had not been at least a few clear nights at the end of the month. The relatively large number of observing nights is a little misleading, since in many nights observations were hampered by drifting clouds or could only be carried out for a few minutes in the evening. In addition, this is the time of the annual minimum of sporadic activity and the complete absence of major meteor showers, which is why we recorded only about two third as many meteors as in January. Video observations from the beginning of the months helped to reveal the true nature of a minor meteor shower, on the other hand. The xi-Bootids had been reported by a number of visual observers before, but were not yet included in IMO's working list. More information on that can be found in the next issue of WGN. 1. Observers ============ Code Name Place Camera FOV LM Nights Time Meteors ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOLSI Molau Aachen AVIS (2.0/35) 40 deg 5 mag 9 60.6 h 202 NITMI Nitschke Dresden VK1 (0.75/50) 20 deg 7 mag 2 14.1 h 52 RENJU Rendtel Marquardt CARMEN (1.8/28) 28 deg 5 mag 13 62.4 h 137 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall 16 137.1 h 391 2. Observing Times (h) ====================== Feb 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOLSI - 9.9 - - - - - - - 4.0 11.9 - 1.4 - - NITMI - - - - - - - - - - 9.1 - - - - RENJU - - 7.8 - 9.9 4.6 - 1.0 - - 9.2 0.8 0.5 - - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sum - 9.9 7.8 - 9.9 4.6 - 1.0 - 4.0 30.2 0.8 1.9 - - Feb 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOLSI - - - - 6.9 - - - - 10.7 7.5 1.2 7.1 - NITMI - - - - - - - - - - - 5.0 - - RENJU 9.2 - - - - 1.7 - - - 3.2 6.0 6.4 2.1 - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sum 9.2 - - - 6.9 1.7 - - - 13.9 13.5 12.6 9.2 - 3. Results (Meteors) ==================== Feb 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOLSI - 18 - - - - - - - 22 46 - 5 - - NITMI - - - - - - - - - - 33 - - - - RENJU - - 19 - 19 4 - 7 - - 24 1 1 - - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sum - 18 19 - 19 4 - 7 - 22 103 1 6 - - Feb 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOLSI - - - - 19 - - - - 44 31 2 15 - NITMI - - - - - - - - - - - 19 - - RENJU 18 - - - - 4 - - - 2 20 15 3 - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sum 18 - - - 19 4 - - - 46 51 36 18 - Sirko Molau, 2000/03/09