(meteorobs) Observation August 6/7 2005

[dob14.5 at sympatico.ca]

On Saturday August 6, I joined Joe Silverman and a few other OAOG'ers for an all-night session at Bootland Farm.  The skies were clear and transparent, except for the occasional passage of just a few thin cirrus clouds.  The limiting magnitude varied between 6.4 and 6.6.

Meteor activity was very good.  While setting up, I again spotted some nice casual meteors.  One was a swift mag -3 blue Perseid fireball with a long 30 degrees path and a 10 secs train.  Then I soon saw a slow moving, persistent mag -2, yellow Alpha Capricornid.

I signed-on a bit after 1am EDT, and observed meteors for a full 3 hours.  In that time, I recorded 76 meteors.  Sporadic were less active than the previous night, but still good.  The Perseids were up in numbers slighly.  The highlights of the session came at 2:21am with a beautiful mag -3 blue Perseid with flash and 5 secs train.  Also noteworthy was the very dramatic Alpha Capricornid earthgrazing fireball seen at 3:41am... It was a persistent, slow-moving meteor of mag -3 that crawled along a 30 degrees with one of the most vivid BLUE-GREEN colors I've ever seen until it gradually fragmented into countless tiny pieces at the end of its path.  Wow!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: August 6/7 2005
BEGIN: 0520 UT (0120 EDT)  END: 0840 UT (0440 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

0520-0623__2229+09__1.05__6.46____9__12___0___1_____0_____1___0___0
0631-0730__2355+13__0.97__6.45____9__13___0___0_____2_____0___1___0
0738-0840__0106+12__0.98__6.39____8__12___0___2_____0_____3___3___0

TOTALS:_____________3.00_________26__37___0___3_____2_____4___4___0  = 76

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

SPO____0___0___0___1___2___5___6___9___2___1_____+3.15
PER____1___0___0___2___5___8___9___8___4___0_____+2.62
CAP____1___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___1___0_____+1.33
ANT____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___1___0_____+4.50
NDA____0___0___0___0___0___1___0___2___1___0_____+3.75
SDA____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___3___0___1_____+4.50

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: 4 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 6:23-31, 6:42 (30sec), 7:02 (30sec), 7:30-38, 7:53-56

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