(meteorobs) Observation December 22 2005

[Pierre Martin]

Hello all,

I'm looking after a friend's house over the Holidays, and it contains  
lots of pets.  In hoping to see some Ursids near their peak, I was  
able to get the following done...

- Pierre


========================


I enjoyed a short but productive observation at the Tremblay road  
site.  The conditions were above-average quality, comfortable and not  
too turbulent.  It was in fact far less turbulent than on any of the  
previous nights I've been there.  It actually felt a bit eery, but  
nice to have those quiet times again.

In 1.82 hours TEFF, I logged as many as 30 events!  Not bad for a  
night when no really major rates were predicted.  The first hour had  
some surprisingly decent unexpected activity that came out of the FIN  
radiant.  Oddly enough, the FIN rates declined sharply during the  
second hour when a light was suddenly turned off.  As always, the YLA  
made a presence in low (but obvious!) numbers - this time they were  
either very bright or a bit on the dim side - but always great fun to  
have around, playful and they even behaved accordingly at all my  
commands.  They would often exhibit fast velocities and persistent  
trains.  The CAT activity was sometimes present and sometimes nowhere  
to be seen, but ALWAYS conspicuous and somewhat noisy as soon as it  
was snack time.  Only one PAR was glimpsed per hour but they were  
bright and a beautiful green color.  At one point, I thought that I  
might have seen a tiny sample of the periodic FRO (Frog) but it was  
caught in the corner of my eye so I called it a sporadic.  The GFI  
were active in large numbers but I chose not to record them - due to  
my losing count and counting the same ones over and over again (too  
many errors and data uncertainties!).  The GFIs I did see had lots of  
twisting and curving paths among other amazing anomalies!  It would  
have made it extremely difficult to plot any of them too.  The SOL  
radiant was, at best, quite low.  As a result, only one SOL was  
logged, but it moved VERY slowly before coming to a dead stop!   
Unfortunately, the real night sky was solid overcast, so not a single  
Ursid meteor was seen.  I took a few breaks during my watch to relax  
a bit.  At one point, I went outside to the 120ED/EQ6 and enjoyed  
some pretty decent views all while eating some Krispy Kremes....  
until... I woke up and realized I was dreaming.

The second hour's sightings were completely identical to those seen  
in the first hour.  Very strange!  I'm still trying to find out why.
Otherwise, a fine session!  Another observer named Celeste arrived  
later to take over.  Looking forward to more of this again...  
hopefully with more fireballs!

Clear skies!  Merry Christmas!!! :0))

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: December 22 2005
BEGIN: 2252 UT (1752 EST)  END: 0050 UT (1950 EST)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.142 West; Lat: 45.302 North  Elevation: 180 ft
City & Province: Tremblay road, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: visual
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED:___________________________________________radiant position
		FIN (Finches)____________________________cage in room
		CAT (Cats)_______________________________anywhere comfortable
		PAR (parrot)_____________________________cage in kitchen
		YLA (Yellow Labs)________________________radiant very diffuse, food
		GFI (Gold Fish and others - combined)____Multiple tanks
		SOL (Solomon)____________________________Big stinky cage
		URS (Ursids)_____________________________near star Kochab in Ursa  
Minor
		SPO (sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff___LM____FIN__CAT__PAR__YLA__GFI__URS__SOL__SPO
2252-2352___var_____0.89__-27.5__11____3____1____2____/____0____1____1
2352-0050___var_____0.93__-27.5___3____2____1____2____/____0____0____0

TOTALS______________1.82_________14____5____2____4____/ 
____0____1____1  =  30

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 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 observing).  The  
next column (LM) is the average naked eye limiting magnitude,  
determined by triangle star counts. All following columns indicate  
the numbers observed.
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

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

FIN____0___0___0___0___0___1___5___7___1___0_____+2.72
CAT____0___0___0___1___1___1___0___2___0___0_____+1.20
PAR____0___0___0___2___0___0___0___0___0___0_____-1.00
YLA____2___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___2_____+0.50
SOL____0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0_____+1.00
SPO____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0_____+4.00

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.
------------------------

OBSCURED (FOV): None

F = 1.00

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