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From: djb@cbosgd.UUCP (David J. Bryant)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: Re: Pleiades, Meteors, Comet Halley
Message-ID: <1428@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 10:59:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.1428
Posted: Tue Aug 20 10:59:34 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Aug-85 07:18:24 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Oh
Lines: 52

I've heard stories about reliable observers back in the 1700's who reported 
seeing as many as 14 stars in the Pleiades.  Obviously these were people with
extraordinarily acute vision, plus they lived in an era before light
pollution.   I only see six, as do most people I've talked to.  The best 
response I've heard to the question "If there are seven sisters, why do I 
only see six?" is "The seventh one is very young and can't stay up 
this late."  I've never viewed the nebulosity naked eye, nor have I heard
anyone claim to.


A group of us here observed the Perseid meteor shower from 8:30pm EDT on the
11th until 3:30am EDT on the 12th.  We saw quite a few meteors, although
they did seem to be weirdly distributed (peak activity about 11:30pm and again
at 3:00am).  This year I specifically avoided attempts to photograph, count,
trace or otherwise study the meteor shower since all my previous attempts
have failed to the degree that I can only conclude that I am jinxed when it
comes to such activities.  Our metric of quality is whether the first-time
meteor shower observers "oooh" and "aaah" enough to come away satisfied
with the evenings viewing, which was clearly the case this year.   For the
record, the absolute best meteor was about 2:15am.  It left a bright
glowing first-magnitude trail over 45 degrees of the sky, disintegrating 
at the eastern edge of the "Water Jar" in Aquarius.  Nice display for those
few of us who were still up to see it.


On another note - Anyone tried spotting Comet Halley yet?  Theoretically it
should be visible in a 10-12" scope under nearly ideal observing conditions.  
My wife and I got up at 4:30 last Sunday morning and looked diligently until
sunrise, but saw no trace of the comet.  We're convinced we were looking in the
right area, so we can only conclude that it's still not bright enough to be
seen with our 10" Newtonian.  Admittedly our front yard is not the best of
sites, so perhaps we'll have to wait until later in the month, or early
September.  While we were looking, we did spot a magnificent meteor that
went streaking through Ursa Major and exploded in a flash bright enough to
cast a shadow of the finderscope on the tube of the main telescope - clearly
much brighter than Venus.


       *         * 
				David Bryant
				AT&T Bell Laboratories
               * 		Columbus, OH 43213
            *			(614) 860-4516
	 *  .
            :			djb@cbosgd.UUCP
                		cbosgd!djb@Berkeley.ARPA
       *         *


ps: There have been many reports of sound associated with meteors.  Most
    observers report a "whooshing" or "sizzling" sound, which matches
    closely the observations of psuvax1!santoro.