Event 250 was seen on May 5 at 02h50, [m.sub.v] = -3, speed fast, colour white with orange terminal burst, duration 0.5 seconds leaving a 2 second
persistent train. Event 251 was seen on May 7 at 03h10, [m.sub.v] = -3, speed fast, colour yellow, with a
persistent train.
These include: time of appearance (UT); apparent magnitude (brightness); type (shower member, or random, 'background' sporadic); constellation in which seen; presence and duration of any
persistent train. Watches should ideally be of an hour's duration or longer (in multiples of 30 minutes).
CENTRAL Trains today launched a hard-hitting campaign to crack down on
persistent train fare cheats.
Duration was about 4 seconds, left a 4 seconds
persistent train, and disappeared in a small cloud of smoke which persisted for more than 15 minutes.
Colour yellow becoming white, duration 2 seconds, no fragmentation or
persistent train. The object was independently observed by Ms J Cooke from Somerset West who reported the same time to Cliff but no further details.
Visual observers carried out watches by the Meteor Section's standard method, (9) recording type, time of appearance, magnitude, presence and duration of any
persistent train, and other parameters for individual meteors.
They are typically fast and bright, and they occasionally leave
persistent trains. Every once in a while, a Perseid fireball will blaze forth, bright enough to be quite spectacular and more than capable of attracting attention even in bright moonlight.
"The Perseids have a large number of bright meteors, many of which leave
persistent trains," says Dr John Mason of the British Astronomical Association, "and people like to watch it on a warm summer's evening."
These are swift meteors that produce a high percentage of
persistent trains, but few fireballs," the description on the American Meteor Society calendar reads.
The meteors are similar to the eta Aquariids, yielding fast, often bright meteors with
persistent trains, although rates are lower at maximum, seeing that the stream is located at greater distance from Earth's orbit.
So any shower members seen will be earthgrazers that skim far across the top of the atmosphere nearly horizontally and leave long, colorful,
persistent trains (as observed in 1986 and 1994).
Jane Houston Jones of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) declared in a blog post that the Lyrids are known to producing bright meteors where several have
persistent trains.