(meteorobs) Observation November 13/14 2004

[Pierre Martin]

Here's my report for the meteor observing portion of last Saturday 
night at Bootland Farm.  Under clear skies of below-average quality 
transparency, the limit magnitude was 6.3.  Low to the North, a weak 
but interesting aurora was visible.  The temperature went well below 
freezing with some frost, so it was nice to bundle up in my sleeping 
bag.

In the two hours of viewing centered on local midnight, I recorded 29 
meteors.  It was an interesting session with Taurids, and some early 
Leonids making an appearance.  My plots clearly confirm these.

The first Leonid seen just one minute before local midnight was an 
impressive 50 degrees long earthgrazer!  It was quite a sight even if 
the meteor never got any brighter than mag +3.  The other Leonid, seen 
about 20 minutes later was a mag 0 vivid *GREEN* meteor that streaked a 
long path into Eridanus and left a nice 3 sec train.

Another memorable meteor was a beautiful almost-pure-white South Taurid 
of mag -2 that went a long 20 degrees in Andromeda.

Here's hoping for more clear skies to enjoy some Leonids,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: November 13/14 2004
BEGIN: 0350 UT (2250 EDT)  END: 0605 UT (0105 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North  Elevation: 400 ft
City & Province: Bootland Farm, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		ERI (Delta Eridanids)__________________________03:48 -02
		ANT (antihelions, North and South Taurids)_____04:28 +22
		AMO (Alpha Monocerotids)_______________________07:28 +02
		LEO (Leonids)__________________________________10:00 +23
		NPX (sporadics from north apex)________________09:28 +29
		SPX (sporadics from south apex)________________09:28 -01
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____NTA_STA_ERI_AMO_LEO_NPX_SPX_SPO

0350-0453__0330+12__0.99__6.34____1___2___0___0___0___0___/___7
0453-0605__0524+17__1.00__6.35____2___4___1___0___2___2___/___8

TOTALS:_____________1.99__________3___6___1___0___2___2___/___15 = 29

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

STA_____1___0___0___0___0___3___2___0_____+2.50
NTA_____0___0___0___1___0___0___1___1_____+3.33
LEO_____0___0___1___0___0___1___0___0_____+1.50
ERI_____0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0_____+3.00
SPO_____0___0___2___0___3___8___2___2_____+2.82

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: 15.83 min total (including 14 min for plots)

Breaks (UT): 4:52 (30sec), 5:02 (30sec), 5:52 (20sec), 5:56 (30sec)

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