(meteorobs) Observation May 7/8 2004

[Pierre Martin]

Hi all,

Here's my late meteor observing report for Friday May 7/8.  I did a 
quick 2 hours session at the Casselman site until the moonrise.  The 
sky was nice and clear and it was comfortable temperature.

The session was fairly quiet with a total of 8 meteors recorded.  No 
signs of IRAS-Araki-Alcockids were seen.  The highlight turned out to 
be the very first meteor at the moment that I signed on... it was a 
beautiful Antihelion earthgrazer that crossed a huge 40 degrees path 
across Ursa Major!  It was not that bright at magntude +3 but it's 
moderate speed and persistance made it a memorable sight.

My limiting magnitude decreased rapidly during the second hour due to 
the gibbous Moon rising.

Clear skies!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: May 7/8 2004
BEGIN: 0318 UT (2318 EDT)  END: 0523 UT (0123 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 50m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
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OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		ANT (Antihelions or Sagittarids)_______________16:12 (243) -21
		CAU (Beta Corona Australids)___________________18:24 (276) -41
		ELY (IRAS-Araki-Alcockids)_____________________19:16 (289) +44
		SPO (random sporadics)
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OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)__FIELD___Teff__F_____LM_____ANT_CAU_ELY_SPO

0318-0420__1541+19__1.00__1.00__6.13____1___0___0___2
0420-0523__1631+22__1.04__1.00__5.81____0___0___0___5

TOTALS:_____________2.04________________1___0___0___7  =  8

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 fourth column (F) is a value for obstructions in the field of 
view such as clouds (1.00 = 100% clear skies). 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
_____+1__+2__+3__+4_____AVE

SPO___1___0___2___4____+3.29
ANT___0___0___1___0____+3.00

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): None
------------------------

Dead time: 2.25 min. (including 1.75 min for plotting)

Breaks (UT): 4:14 (30 sec)

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