(meteorobs) Observation May 6/7 2005

[Pierre Martin]

Late report...

I did some meteor observing to hunt for Eta Aquarid meteors into the 
morning pre-dawn sky.  I noted that the sky conditions seemed to have 
improved a notch.  I estimated the limiting magnitude then at 6.5.  
However, this value soon dropped during my watch due to morning 
twilight.  In a little over an hour, I got in 8 meteors.  The best was 
a magnitude -1 Eta Aquarid yellow-white with a 1 sec train.

I was glad to be out there!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: May 6/7 2005
BEGIN: 0725 UT (0325 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
		ETA (Eta Aquarids)_____________________________22:40 -01
		IAA (Eta Lyrids)_______________________________19:08 +44
		SAG (Sagittarids - ANT)________________________16:08 -20
		SPO (random sporadics)
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OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____ETA_IAA_SAG_SPO

0725-0840__1915+20__1.16__5.89____3___1___0___4  = 8

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
_______-1__0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5_____AVE

SPO____0___0___0___0___1___2___1_____+4.00
ETA____1___0___0___0___2___0___0_____+1.66
IAA____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.
------------------------

SKY OBSCURED (FOV): None

F = 1.00

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

Dead time: 5.33 min total (breaks and plots combined)

Breaks (UT):

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