(meteorobs) Observation November 18/19 2004

[Pierre Martin]

Hi,

It was difficult getting out of bed so early this past Friday morning, 
but the effort was well worth it...  Despite the heavy ground fog, the 
sky turned out to be still very observable out at the Stetsons Field 
and I was able to get in about 2 hours of effective observing time 
before dawn.  I concentrated my field of view toward the Leonids 
radiant, and the limiting magnitude varied from 6.1-6.2.  Temperature 
wise, it was quite comfortable for this time of the year, hovering a 
few degrees well above 0C.

The first hour produced 11 Leonids, which is about what I expected for 
a normal return of this shower.  For some reason, the hour was very 
poor in sporadics.

The second hour was a different story!  The Leonids more than doubled 
their rates with 23 meteors, and sporadics were also more active.  
Considering the generally poor sky conditions, I was quite pleased with 
those rates.

Although no fireballs were seen, I would say that the most interesting 
feature of the Leonids on this night were the large number of bright 
meteors in the mag -1 to +1 range.  Most of these left nice trains and 
showed vivid colors.  The most prominent colors seen were blue, green 
and yellow.  I also noticed that a few of the bright meteors seemed to 
occur within short times of each other, as Robert Lunsford reported.

I wouldn't call this a spectacular session, but it was nice.  Seeing 
Leo all the way up with the occasional bright meteor radiating from its 
sickle sure brought back memories of the incredible displays of 1999 
and 2001.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: November 18/19 2004
BEGIN: 0845 UT (0345 EDT)  END: 1050 UT (0550 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 400 ft
City & Province: Boundary road, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting & cord align
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		ERI (Delta Eridanids)__________________________04:12 +00
		ANT (antihelions, North and South Taurids)_____04:56 +23
		AMO (Alpha Monocerotids)_______________________07:48 +01
		LEO (Leonids)__________________________________10:12 +21
		NPX (sporadics from north apex)________________09:56 +27
		SPX (sporadics from south apex)________________09:56 -03
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____LEO_NTA_STA_AMO_ERI_NPX_SPX_SPO

0845-0949__0840+19__0.98__6.15___11___0___0___1___0___2___1___1
0949-1050__0946+23__0.95__6.11___23___2___0___1___0___3___1___8

TOTALS:_____________1.93_________34___2___0___2___0___5___2___9 = 54

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
_______-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO_____0___1___4___2___4___3___2_____+2.63
LEO_____5___5___6___6___7___4___1_____+1.62
NTA_____0___1___0___0___0___1___0_____+2.00
AMO_____0___0___0___0___1___1___0_____+3.50

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: 8.57 min total (including 7.07 min for plots)

Breaks (UT): 8:50-8:51, 9:41(30sec)

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