TVZHR PROFILE FOR THE 1991 PERSEID SHOWER

Image intensified video detection systems were used to observe the 199 1 Perseid meteor shower from two locations in eastern Canada. In 29.6 hours of total observing time a total of 668 meteors were detected, of which 403 were Perseids. We derived a profile of TVZHR (television ze nithal hourly rate) values for the 1991 Perseid shower over the solar longitude (epoch 2000) interval 138 degrees 51' to 141 degrees 01'. Th e apparent limiting stellar magnitudes of the observing systems were 9.4 and +8.8 (corresponding to limiting meteor magnitudes for our geom etry ranging from +8.7 to +7.0). Within the observing period, the maxi mum TVZHR rate was approximately 1600, and occurred at solar longitude 139.9 degrees. This is in good agreement with the second peak observe d by visual observers. The data suggest that TVZHR values should be di vided by a factor of approximately 5 to compare TVZHR and ZHR values.