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