The annual PERSEIDE (Perseids) event organized by the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM) took place this year between July 20 - August 17. Over 60 participant from all the country (and two SARM members from abroad) attended this ninth edition of PERSEIDE 2001 after the next program:

Part one:

The National Astronomical Camp for Youth, July 21-30, at Corbasca - Bacau included: a summer meteor and astronomy school (with classes of meteors, astro-photography, astronomical instruments, deep sky, variable stars, meteorology, meteor observing sessions), astronomical contest for youth, workshops, lectures on general astronomy, a short review of the June 2001 total solar eclipse in Angola, Africa, seen by SARM member prof. Mihai Tetileanu, cultural and artistic actions, a gala of the Astropoetry Festival, trips and a program with the public. In order to graduate "The Perseid 2001 Astronomy Summer School", every participant sustained a complex test. Perseids and the summer meteor shower were observed visually and photographically.

Part two:

The National Perseids Network, 10-17 August, with observational expeditions or camps in 5 places: Piatra Arsa-Bucegi Mountains (the most important, with over 30 participants), Cindrel-Alba, Feleac-Cluj, Palanca-Bacau, Vama Veche-Black Sea. Visual and photographically observations were made.

This year the Romanian summer meteor observations have been carried out from six observational camps across Romania:

(1) Corbasca (27.2 E, 46.3 N), 500 m. altitude

(2) Piatra Arsa (25.5 E, 45.4 N) at 2000 m. altitude

(3) Vama Veche (28.3 E, 43.5 N), Black Sea

(4) Amarasti (24.2 E, 44.8 N)

(5) Feleac-Cluj

(6) Cindrel

in which many active observers have reported their results. Our analysis uses the data of the most notable ones active in the first four (1-4) places:

Valentin Grigore (GRIVA)

Dan Mitrut (MITDA)

Cristina Tinta (TINCR)

Emil Neata (NEAEM)

Alexandru Conu (CONAL)

Raul Truta (TRURA)

Iulian Olaru (OLAIU)

Their observations were split up into three observing periods, which are shown on first figure (fig-1.gif). Bad weather conditions have hindered us to observe in full the Perseids maximum this year, over the entire Romanian territory. However, the increasing slope of its activity is present in our observations as you will see later. We have presented also on this figure the daily cumulative observing time of all observers. We remark a high concentration of observing time just after the Perseid maximum. The total observing time reaches about 53 hours.

The summer meteor showers covered by our campaign are depicted on next figure (fig-2.gif), where a logarithmic histogram shows the number of observed meteors of the following showers:

Perseids (PER)

alpha-Capricornids (CAP)

Southern delta-Aquarids (SDA)

Northern delta-Aquarids (NDA)

kappa-Cygnids (KCG)

Sporadics (SPO)

Also, some SIA (Southern iota-Aquarids) and PAU (Piscis Austrinids) were reported. Totally, the number of all meteors observed by our team is slightly above 950. We must underline also that several meteors coming from a new radiant were reported. They were judged here as sporadics, but on our next paper at this Conference we will present a dedicated analysis for this new shower.

The number of observational data at our disposal allows us to generate a consistent analysis for the following meteor showers: Perseids (PER) and Southern delta-Aquarids (SDA).

For the first shower (PER) we present our ZHR computation, including more than 300 counted meteors spread over the solar longitude spectrum, on next figure (fig-3.gif). The individual ZHRs (marked with crosses) are computed in the standard way (IMO) and some rejection criteria, like the restriction for the radiant's elevation to be at least 10 degrees above the horizon, were later used to kill some erratic results. The presence of Moon in the midnight has forced many observers to start their observations just after twilight, but having the radiant too low above the horizon.

The individual ZHRs are than averaged into smoother values (marked with black squares on the same figure). Next, our results are superimposed over the IMO averaged ZHRs (marked with open circles) as they were reported at "News and Forthcoming Events" web page. As you can see, our observations mimics pretty well the IMO results.

For the second shower (SDA) we present the individual and averaged ZHR evolution on last figure (fig-4.gif). A typical activity with a maximum ZHR around 10, occurring at 125 degrees in solar longitude, is shown.

Finally, we want to thank the main contributors cited previously for their valuable observational material.

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SARM at IMC 2001

After the successfull event IMC 2000 organized by SARM in Pucioasa, Romania, the following seven members of SARM represented Romania to IMC 2001 (International Meteor Conference) organized in Cerkno, Slovenia between Sep, 20-23, 2001: Alexandru Conu, Cristina Tinta, Adriana Nicolae, Catalin Spranceana, Gelu-Claudiu Radu, Ionut Ilesoi and Andrei Dorian Gheorghe.

Beside two technical papers ("Romanian Observational Campaign on Summer Meteor Showers in 2001" and "New Radiants in Cygnus") the Romanian contribution to IMC 2001 included an exquisite "Meteor Art" stand containing some Leonids 2000 photos, an artistic contribution on the computer, art drawings, and poetry, all of them signed by numerous SARM members and collaborateurs.

Click here for some images from IMC 2001 by Alex Conu.