(meteorobs) Observation October 29/30 2005

[Pierre Martin]

On October 29, I looked forward to a long night of observing.  I wanted 
to enjoy one of the relatively rare clear sky opportunities that we get 
around here at this time of the year.

Todd Weeks and I travelled together to Bootland Farm (west of Ottawa).  
Above Ottawa, there was still some cirrus clouds, but when we arrived 
at Bootland Farm, the skies were clear and looked mighty impressive.  
It sure was nice to be under dark skies again.  The Milky Way showing 
lots of structure and the unmistakable M31 was blazing high overhead.  
The skies were a little better (between average and above-average 
transparency) than the CSC had forecasted.

Already present since a few hours before we got there was Bryan Black, 
Mitch O'Brien, André Tremblay and Pete Carss who had his camper (and 
his family sleeping inside).  They all had their telescopes out to 
enjoy some deep sky observing.

I setup my meteor observing gear, and got busy for a long night.  I 
observed for 6 hours teff.  This is my longest and most productive 
night so far for 2005.  As with the previous night, I was seeing good, 
steady activity.  A total of 125 meteors were recorded!  The STAs were 
pretty good each hours, and the NTAs were slightly less active.  
Overall, this is the most Taurids I've ever been able to see in a 
single night!  Numbers of bright meteors appeared but no major 
fireballs (the brightest STA was a mag -3).  The Orionids were the 
other active source, producing a few meteors per hour.  After 1am, some 
thin cirrus clouds moved in.  From that point, the transparency (and 
LM) went up and down for the rest of the night but I was able to 
continue observing.  A highlight for me was viewing M42 in Todd's 10" 
dob (Fullum mirror).  It looked really spectacular at low power with 
superb contrast, resolution and details.  The Trapezium was razor sharp 
and the 3D-feeling of the whole field of view was something to be 
experienced.  Very nice!

At 4:30am, I signed-off from meteor observing and packed the stuff.  It 
was getting cold and damp (frosty).  Todd and I then went to  a truck 
stop restaurant for breakfast.  Then on for some general exploring and 
photography.  I was paying the price of staying up all night but it was 
worth it, and the company was great as always.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 29/30 2005
BEGIN: 0300 UT (2300 EDT)  END: 0917 UT (0517 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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_____________________________________radiant position
		ANT (STA and NTA combined)_______________________03:28 +19
		ORI (Orionids)___________________________________06:44 +16		SPO 
(random sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO_STA_NTA_ORI

0300-0400__0145+09__1.00__6.55____7___6___1___1
0400-0501__0228+08__1.00__6.45___11___9___3___2
0501-0612__0348+11__1.00__6.38____7___7___2___3
0612-0715__0435+10__0.99__6.44___11___6___6___4
0715-0816__0351+13__1.00__6.40___12___6___1___3
0816-0917__0452+14__1.01__6.21___11___4___2___0

TOTALS:_____________6.00_________59__38__15__13 = 125

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

SPO____1___0___0___1___3___6__18__17__13_____+3.37
STA____1___1___1___2___6___6___6___9___6_____+2.52
NTA____0___0___0___0___0___2___4___8___1_____+3.53
ORI____0___0___0___1___4___3___0___4___1_____+2.38

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: 12.08 min (breaks) + 5.39 min (plots) = 17.47 min

Breaks (UT): 5:30-39, 5:42(45sec), 6:16(20sec), 7:08-10

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