(meteorobs) Observation October 21/22 2004

[Pierre Martin]

Hi!

Here's my Orionids observing reports, starting with Oct 21/22...

The Friday morning predawn hours were spent at the Bootland Farm site 
(located West of Ottawa near Arnprior).  When I arrived near midnight, 
the skies were almost completely clear with only a few clouds.  It was 
also a dry night with no dew - something rather uncommon so it was 
nice.  I soon settled my big sleeping bag and meteor gear to get in a 
full night of observing. Unfortunately, an unexpected shift of wind 
caused a bank of low clouds to move in from the south and soon covered 
the whole sky!  The skies remained very poor all the way to dawn, 
despite teasing me with occasional sucker holes.  Through the holes, I 
was seeing meteors on a regular basis so I knew the activity must have 
been good.  I decided to wait it out in case it might clear.  Trying to 
sleep while it was cloudy was fruitless.  Every once in a while, the 
light of a bright meteor passed through the thin clouds and caused some 
interesting halo effects.  I must have counted a few dozens of meteors 
this way.

As I was just about to give up, the skies suddenly opened up just 
before 6am EDT.  The opening had less than 20% cloud cover with rather 
hazy skies (mag 5.8) and growing morning twilight.  But this was better 
than nothing and allowed me with half an hour of recording meteors 
before skies got too bright.  During this period, I counted only 5 
meteors (3 Orionids and 2 sporadics).

When I got back home, I checked the satellite weather image to see what 
went wrong.  It appears that I was under a very localized low cloud.  
Had I travelled to a more eastern site it would have been clear..  Oh 
well...

Clear skies!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 21/22 2004
BEGIN: 0955 UT (0555 EDT)  END: 1025 UT (0625 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
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OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		ORI (Orionids)_________________________________06:28 +16
		ANT (antihelions, North and South Taurids)_____03:04 +17
		EGE (Epsilon Geminids)_________________________07:12 +27
		LMI (Leo Minorids)_____________________________10:48 +37
		NPX (sporadics from north apex)________________08:04 +35
		SPX (sporadics from south apex)________________08:04 +05
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM____ORI_EGE_NTA_STA_LMI_NPX_SPX_SPO

0955-1025__0857+32__0.50__5.80___3___0___0___0___0___1___0___1  =  5

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__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO_____1___0___0___1___0_____+2.50
ORI_____0___0___1___1___1_____+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): Yes

20% from 9:55UT to 10:25UT (F = 1.25)

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

Dead time: 20 sec (for breaks)

Breaks (UT): 10:06 (20sec)

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