(meteorobs) Observation October 5/6 2004

[Pierre Martin]

On Tuesday evening October 5, I returned to the Stetsons Field 
(east-end of Ottawa) to observe for any Giacobinids activity.  This 
time, I had the company of Joe Silverman and Bruce Harding.  I watched 
for 3 hours teff, beginning as soon as the evening twilight was ending. 
  In that time period, I recorded 15 sporadics, 5 antihelions/Taurids 
and 1 Giacobinid.

So, no unusual Giacobinid activity was seen here.

The one Giacobinid meteor seen was a faint mag +4 that went into 
Lacerta.  The path to the radiant is off by a few degrees to the north, 
so even the alignment is a bit uncertain.

A couple of highlights... At 8:35pm EDT a near earthgrazer sporadic of 
mag 0 appeared with long 40 degrees path!  Another memorable meteor was 
at
9:36pm EDT with a 25 degrees long Taurid that gradually flared up as it 
travelled for a few seconds.

As I was leaving under clouding-over skies just before 11pm, Larry 
Stewart and Shane Finnigan arrived to attempt a bit of viewing.

Clear skies,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: October 5/6 2004
BEGIN: 2340 UT (1940 EDT)  END: 0300 UT (2300 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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		GIA (Giacobinids)______________________________17:28 +54
		ANT (antihelions or Taurids)___________________01:40 +10
		ORI (Orionids)_________________________________05:28 +13
		NPX (sporadics from north apex)________________06:40 +38
		SPX (sporadics from south apex)________________06:40 +08
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM____GIA_ANT_ORI_NPX_SPX_SPO

2340-0047__2115+77__1.00__6.18___0___0___/___/___/___5
0047-0154__2115+77__1.00__6.23___0___2___/___/___/___6
0154-0300__2115+77__1.08__6.17___1___3___/___/___/___4

TOTALS:_____________3.08_________1___5___/___/___/___15 = 21

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
________0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO_____1___0___2___6___5___1_____+3.13
ANT_____1___0___1___1___1___1_____+2.80
GIA_____0___0___0___0___1___0_____+4.00

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: 15.66 min (including 0.5 min for plots)

Breaks (UT): 23:42-23:49, 00:41 (20sec), 1:26 (20sec), 1:42-1:49, 
2:02-03

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