(meteorobs) Observation August 7/8 2004

[Pierre Martin]

This past Sunday morning, I enjoyed a quick but enjoyable observing 
session at Bootland Farm, located west of Ottawa.  The skies were clear 
with above-average transparency, despite the forecast that called for 
poor skies.

When I arrived at the site late in the night, I was surprised at how 
nice the sky looked despite the presence of the First Quarter Moon.  
There was some nice structure visible in the summer Milky Way.  The 
limiting magnitude reached 6.3.  My only regret was to not have been 
there earlier to enjoy the skies before the moonrise.  I can just 
imagine how nice it might have been.

For this session I faced the south, and then later on the south-west 
keeping the Moon away from my field.  I observed for an hour and a half 
teff, and recorded as many as 30 meteors.  The sporadics were quite 
abundant.  The Perseids were also clearly present as they are now 
building to a crescendo for the Thursday morning peak.  The variety was 
pretty good, which reminds me why this is my favorite time of the year 
for meteor observing.

Clouds arrived for good near the end of the night to force sign-off.

Clear skies for the peak night!  Fingers crossed!!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: August 7/8 2004
BEGIN: 0545 UT (0145 EDT)  END: 0755 UT (0355 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North  Elevation: 400 ft
City & Province: BOOTLAND FARM site, Arnprior, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		KCG (Kappa Cygnids)____________________________18:56 (284) +58
		CAP (Alpha Capricornids)_______________________21:04 (316) -06
		ANT (antihelions)______________________________22:00 (330) -11
		SIA (South Iota Aquarids)______________________22:28 (337) -14
		NDA (North Delta Aquarids)_____________________22:16 (334) -05
		SDA (South Delta Aquarids)_____________________23:12 (348) -13
		PER (Perseids)_________________________________02:44 (041) +58
		NPX (sporadics from north apex)________________03:00 (045) +31
		SPX (sporadics from south apex)________________03:00 (045) +01
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM___PER_KCG_CAP_ANT_SIA_NDA_SDA_NPX_SPX_SPO

0545-0645__2229+09__1.00__6.33__5___0___0___0___0___2___2___2___1__12
0650-0755__2212+16__0.48__6.25__1___0___1___0___1___0___1___0___0___2

TOTALS:_____________1.48________6___0___1___0___1___2___3___2___1__14 = 
30

The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods broken down as 
close as possible to one hour of true observing, in Universal Time. The 
second column (Field) is the area in in the sky where I centered my 
field of view. The third column (TEFF) represents effective observing 
time (corrected for breaks or any time I did not spent looking at the 
sky).  The next column (LM) is the average naked eye limiting 
magnitude, determined by triangle star counts. All following columns 
indicate the number of meteors for each shower observed.
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
______-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

PER____0___0___1___0___2___1___1___1_____+2.66
SDA____0___0___0___0___1___0___2___0_____+3.33
NDA____0___0___0___0___1___1___0___0_____+2.50
CAP____0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0_____+3.00
SIA____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1_____+5.00
SPO____1___0___0___2___3___2___7___2_____+2.94

Note: Magnitude scale is to determine the brightness of sky objects. 
Magnitude -8 is comparable to a quarter moon, magnitude -4 with the 
planet Venus, magnitude -1 with the brightest star Sirius, magnitude +2 
to +3 with most average naked eye stars and magnitude +6 to +7 are the 
faintest stars the naked eye can see under typical dark conditions. A 
meteor of at least magnitude -3 is considered a fireball.  The above 
table contains the magnitudes from all observed meteors, and the 
average (last column) for showers.
------------------------

SKY OBSCURED (FOV): Yes, 20% cloud cover from 6:50-7:55 UT (F = 1.25)

------------------------

Dead time: 36 min. for break

Breaks (UT): 6:45-6:50, 7:09-7:45
-------------------------