(meteorobs) Observation August 5/6 2005

[dob14.5 at sympatico.ca]

On Friday night August 5, after the OAOG gabfest, I joined a number of people out at Bootland Farm to observe into the morning hours.  Present were Bryan Black, Joe Silverman, Mike Campbell, Shane Finnigan and a few others that escape my mind right now.  The skies were crystal clear and this time, and this time the clouds were nowhere in sight.  The Milky Way looked beautiful and structured, and meteor activity was coming in "hot and heavy".

I signed-on just before 1am local time and observed for over 2 hours teff.  It was a productive session with good rates, especially with a heavy sporadics.  I recorded 65 meteors (including 33 sporadics, 18 Perseids, 6 South Delta Aquarids, 4 North Delta Aquarids, 2 Alpha Capricornids, 1 anthelion and 1 PAU).

The highlight of the night... At 1:32am EDT, an impressive mag -4 Perseid fireball went by near the zenith.  It was electric blue, flared along its 20 degrees path and left a 20 seconds persistent train.

Before dawn, I enjoyed my first good look at Mars this year in Joe's 12.5" dob.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: August 5/6 2005
BEGIN: 0450 UT (0050 EDT)  END: 0703 UT (0303 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
		KCG (Kappa Cygnids)______________________________18:52 +58
		CAP (Alpha Capricornids)_________________________21:00 -08
		ANT (anthelions)_________________________________21:56 -11		
		NDA (N. Delta Aquarids)__________________________22:12 -06
		SIA (S. Iota Aquarids)___________________________22:24 -15
		SDA (S. Delta Aquarids)__________________________23:08 -14
		PAU (Pisces Austrinids)__________________________23:20 -27
		PER (Perseids)___________________________________02:36 +57
		SPO (random sporadics)
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OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO_PER_KCG_CAP_SIA/ANT_NDA_SDA_PAU

0450-0557__2201+08__1.01__6.55___13___8___0___1_____1_____3___4___1
0557-0703__2309+08__1.10__6.56___20__10___0___1_____0_____1___2___0

TOTALS:_____________2.11_________33__18___0___2_____1_____4___6___1  = 65

*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
______-4__-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5__+6_____AVE

SPO____0___0___0___0___0___1__11___8___6___6___1_____+3.24
PER____1___0___0___0___0___1___1___5___4___6___0_____+3.33
CAP____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___2___0___0_____+4.00
ANT____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0_____+4.00
NDA____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___2___1___0_____+4.00
SDA____0___0___0___0___1___0___1___2___2___0___0_____+2.66
PAU____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0_____+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.

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SKY OBSCURED (FOV): None

F = 1.00

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Dead time: 6.5 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 5:18 (30sec), 5:46-52

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