(meteorobs) Observation July 29/30 2005

[dob14.5 at sympatico.ca]

I went to Bootland Farm on the Saturday morning July 30, in the hopes of catching some good meteor activity.  The end of July period is one of my favorites of the year to do meteor observing due to the variety of active radiants.  On the way there, things were looking very promising - a nice clear sky, and at 10:54pm, I saw a spectacular slow moving meteor of magnitude -4 in the western sky (possibly a Caprocornid).  As soon as I arrived at the site, clouds were forming out of nowhere and within minutes they took over half the sky.  Although there was too much patchy cloud moving in and out to log on for a formal meteor watch, I was still happy to just sit back and watch casually.  There was much to be seen in between the clouds.  I saw over a dozen of meteors.

Just after 2:30am local, the skies cleared up enough to start recording what I saw.  In the hour that followed, I saw 19 meteors.  The South Delta Aquarids made up the most activity with 8 members.  The Perseids were also starting to show up in low numbers.

After the end of this hour, the clouds returned and put an end to the night.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: July 29/30 2005
BEGIN: 0640 UT (0240 EDT)  END: 0735 UT (0335 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North  Elevation: 200 ft
City & Province: Bootland Farm (near Arnprior) Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting & cord align
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OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		CAP (Alpha Capricornids)_________________________20:36 -10
		ANT (anthelions)_________________________________21:28 -14		
		NDA (N. Delta Aquarids)__________________________21:52 -08
		SIA (S. Iota Aquarids)___________________________21:54 -16
		SDA (S. Delta Aquarids)__________________________22:24 -16
		PAU (Pisces Austrinids)__________________________22:56 -29
		PER (Perseids)___________________________________02:04 +55
		SPO (random sporadics)
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OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO_CAP_SIA/ANT_NDA_SDA_PAU_PER

0640-0735__2241+10__0.91__6.25____4___2_____1_____1___8___0___3  =  19

*Note: SIA/ANT activity combined together

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.
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MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
______+1__+2__+3__+4__+5_____AVE

SPO____0___1___2___1___0_____+3.00
CAP____0___0___0___2___0_____+4.00
SIA____0___0___1___0___0_____+3.00
NDA____0___1___0___0___0_____+2.00
SDA____0___3___2___1___2_____+3.25
PER____1___0___1___1___0_____+2.66

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.

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SKY OBSCURED (FOV): None

F = 1.00

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Dead time: 30 sec (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 6:52 (30sec)

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