An overview is given of the Jordanian observation of the 22nd Astronomical Camping, specifically of the 1998 Draconids meteor shower around its peak.
The Jordanian Astronomical Society organized an observation camping devoted to the 1998 Draconids meteor shower. It was held between 7-9 October, in a site close to Al-Azraq Oasis which is located 150 Km east of Amman, the capital of Jordan. The Coordinates of the observing site are :-
37:06:45 E , 31:42:58 N , h=555 m .
15 members participated in this camping. It was expected that a storm or a high activity would occur ! But unfortunately, from Jordan the activity was very low, especially on the first night (7-8/Oct.), also the Moon strongly affected the observation, particularly on the first night, while no clouds disrupted the observations !
This camping is the first one in which both techniques are used; visual and radio observations. It is well-known that the radio observation may be done at night or at daytime. And as our radio does not work by battery, so the electricity was a vital thing, and it is difficult to find an electric supply in the desert ! So two members of the Radio-Astronomy Committee in JAS had to move few kilometers to Hamza Oil Field (about 7 Km East of the camp), where they were able to find electricity. However, the generator there is rather old, and must be paused for two hours or so after about 6 hours working. Thus on 8 Oct. radio observation was started at 7:30 UT, until 12 UT, when it was the time for lunch-break in the camp and the generator was paused. Later on, at 15:25 UT radio observation was continued till 20:25 UT. Unfortunately, we knew as we came back to Amman that the highest activity occurred during the generator's pause !!
Anyway, although the activity was low during our both observations, it was very interesting to observe the same meteor visually and by radio simultaneously !
Also, apart of meteor observation, on 8 Oct. at 13:30 UT Mahmoud Al-Qadri, member of JAS, pointed a 3-inch telescope towards the Sun, and projected it on a white papers in a shadowed place, to form a big disk of the Sun, and he was able to count about 57 Sunspots.
The observers were:-
* Remarks:-
* Remarks:-
Visual Observation
Raw Reports
8 October 16:20 - 17:00 (UT) Observer Obs. Interval Teff Lm # Draconids ZHR ALKZI 16:20 - 17:00 0.70 5.4 12 61 TELKH 16:20 - 17:20 1.00 5.5 12 40 KHADA 16:15 - 17:20 1.08 5.5 15 48 ODWIB 16:15 - 17:00 0.75 5.7 07 25 ODEMO 16:10 - 16:53 0.55 6.0 09 33 8 October 17:00 - 18:00 (UT) Observer Obs. Interval Teff Lm # Draconids ZHR ALKZI 17:00 - 18:00 1.00 5.6 9 30 TELKH 17:20 - 18:20 0.83 5.2 8 50 ODWIB 17:00 - 18:30 l.50 4.8 6 30 ODEMO 16:53 - 18:00 1.10 5.5 8 26 8 October 18:00 - 19:00 (UT) Observer Obs. Interval Teff Lm # Draconids ZHR ALKZI 18:00 - 19:00 1.00 5.1 2 13
The Unified Report
Day Time (UT) # Observers # Draconids ZHR ± 8/10 16:20 - 17:00 5 55 39 14 8/10 17:00 - 18:00 4 31 33 11 8/10 18:00 - 19:00 1 2 13 --
Radio Observation
Day Time (UT) Teff Frequency Number 8/10 07:30-08:30 1.0 97.2 15 8/10 08:37-09:07 0.5 92.6 05 8/10 09:10-10:04 0.8 95.8 18 8/10 10:06-10:20 0.2 87.9 05 8/10 11:03-12:03 1.0 97.2 22 8/10 15:25-16:25 1.0 97.2 12 8/10 16:25-17:25 1.0 97.2 13 8/10 17:25-18:25 1.0 97.2 10 8/10 18:25-19:25 1.0 97.2 15 8/10 19:25-20:25 1.0 97.2 13 Total 8.5 Hours 128 Meteors
By Moh'd Odeh. Jordanian Astronomical Society (JAS), All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission. For more information Send E-mail or contact us at :
The Jordanian Astronomical Society (JAS), P.O.Box 141568, Amman 11814 Jordan