(meteorobs) Observation October 28/29 2005

[Pierre Martin]

The skies were overcast on the evening of October 28, but cleared later 
on.  Greg Baggs telephoned me and was looking for company to observe 
Mars.  We decided to meet up at Boundary road (east of Ottawa) at 
midnight (local time).  Greg had a 4" rich-field refractor setup while 
I did meteor observations.  The skies overhead were beautifully crisp 
and clear and had a decent transparency.  Very nice for a site so close 
to home.  Orion was shining in all its glory and the winter Milky Way 
was visible.

Observing 2 hours teff, I recorded 34 meteors.  The South Taurids were 
surprisingly active and almost equalled the sporadic background!  A few 
North Taurids and late Orionids were also seen.

The Taurids produced a number of brilliant meteors.  The most memorable 
was a spectacular STA fireball that appeared at 1:22am EST.  It was a 
magnitude -5 that was well seen plunging 30 degrees into the 
north-east.  It had a vivid blue white color and fragmented into 
several components at the end of its path.  Greg also managed to see it 
well, judging by his shoutings ;0)

At 1:44am, two Taurids fireballs (one STA and one NTA) appeared in the 
same sky area only 3 seconds apart!  Both were of magnitude -3 and 
traced similar path lengths, however it was interesting to note that 
the NTA left a longer lasting 4 secs train.  The STA left only a wake.

Another highlight worth mentioning was the earthgrazing sporadic at 
0:43am EST.  It never exceeded magnitude +3 but the path length was 
spectacular... 60 degrees across the zenith and into the western sky!

Finally, I also much enjoyed some quick peeks of Mars as well as some 
wonderful wide-field low-power views of M42, M31 and M45 in Greg's 
refractor.  Very nice 3-D like views with pin-point stars across the 
field.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 28/29 2005
BEGIN: 0500 UT (0000 EST)  END: 0715 UT (0215 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 300 ft
City & Province: Boundary road, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting & cord align
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OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		ANT (STA and NTA combined)_______________________03:28 +19
		ORI (Orionids)___________________________________06:44 +16		SPO 
(random sporadics)
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OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen;  / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO_STA_NTA_ORI

0500-0611__0330+12__1.01__6.23____9___7___3___3
0611-0715__0415+08__1.02__6.21____5___5___1___1

TOTALS:_____________2.03_________14__12___4___4 = 34

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

SPO____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___6___6___1_____+3.50
NTA____0___0___1___0___0___1___0___1___1___0___0_____+0.50
STA____1___0___1___1___0___1___2___1___0___2___3_____+1.42
ORI____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___1___2_____+4.25

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

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Dead time: 12 min (breaks) + 1.66 min (plots) = 13.66 min

Breaks (UT): 5:31-40, 6:40-43

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