(meteorobs) Observation September 11/12 2004

[Pierre Martin]

On the evening of Sept 11/12, I went to the Stetsons Flyers field in 
the east-end of Ottawa.  I was greeted by a half dozen observers who 
were there with telescopes.  Still being exhausted from the previous 
night, I napped for most of the evening before finally signing-on for 
meteor observing at 11pm EDT.

Over the next two hours teff, I recorded 22 meteors.  The first hour 
was rather slow, but the second picked up a little more.  The final 
half hour was affected by approaching clouds that caused some sky 
obstruction.

Three probable Aries-Triangulids were recorded and plotted.  They were 
all seen during the second period.  No possible Sept Taurids were seen, 
although that area was still low in the sky.

The only memorable meteor was at 12:51am EDT with a very swift mag 0 
sporadic from the north apex, that left behind a two sec train.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: September 11/12 2004
BEGIN: 0300 UT (2300 EDT)  END: 0506 UT (0106 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 50 m
City & Province: Boundary road, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		KAQ (Kappa Aquarids)___________________________22:12 -07
		ANT (antihelions or Piscids)___________________00:16 +02
		ATR (Aries-Triangulids)________________________02:00 +29
		DAU (Delta Aurigids)___________________________04:08 +47
		NPX (sporadics from north apex)________________05:16 +38
		SPX (sporadics from south apex)________________05:16 +08
		SET (possible September Taurids?)______________?
		SPO (random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM____KAQ_ANT_ATR_DAU_NPX_SPX_SET_SPO

0300-0401__0030+29__1.01__6.30___0___1___0___2___0___0___0___3
0401-0506__0148+32__0.90__6.25___0___2___3___2___1___0___0___8

TOTALS:_____________1.91_________0___3___3___4___1___0___0___11 = 22

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___1___7___3___0_____+2.92
ANT____0___0___2___0___0___1_____+3.00
ATR____0___0___1___0___2___0_____+3.33
DAU____0___1___1___0___1___1_____+3.00

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): 5% clouds from 4:40-5:06 UT (F = 1.03 for 2nd 
period)

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

Dead time: 11.57 min. for total (1.33 min plots)

Breaks (UT): 3:07 (30sec), 3:43 (20sec), 4:03 (20sec), 4:05-13, 4:33 
(45sec), 4:51 (20sec)

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