(meteorobs) Observation October 24/25 2004

[Pierre Martin]

I had a short but enjoyable meteor session this Monday morning at the 
Boundary road (Stetsons) site before heading to work.  The skies were 
mainly clear with just a few passing clouds that did not cause much 
problems.  The skies looked pretty good for a site this close to the 
city.  It was a cool morning at about freezing temperatures.

In 1.72 hours, I recorded a total 36 meteors.  The Orionids are 
obviously on their downslope of activity, but were still doing pretty 
good with 13 seen.  All the other streams produced at least some low 
level rates.

At 5:15am EDT, I saw a *very* fast moving satellite into Cancer, about 
mag 0, heading from north to south.  It must have been in quite a low 
Earth orbit.

Clear skies!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 24/25 2004
BEGIN: 0852 UT (0452 EDT)  END: 1035 UT (0635 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, cord align
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

0852-0952__0703+10__1.00__6.25____8___1___1___1___2___2___3___7
0952-1035__0702+17__0.72__5.84____5___1___0___0___1___1___1___2

TOTALS:_____________1.72_________13___2___1___1___3___3___4___9 = 36


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___2___3___3___6___1_____+2.88
ORI_____0___1___4___3___4___1_____+3.00
EGE_____0___0___0___1___1___0_____+3.50
NTA_____0___0___0___0___0___1_____+5.00
STA_____0___1___0___0___0___0_____+1.00
LMI_____0___0___0___2___1___0_____+3.33

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

10% clouds from 9:23-9:40 UT
20% clouds from 9:40-9:45 UT

(F = 1.04 for period 0852-0952)

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

Dead time: None

Breaks (UT): None

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