(meteorobs) Observation April 18/19 2006

[Pierre Martin]

Hello all,

Here's my short meteor report from last Tuesday evening's session  
from Bootland Farm.  Observing under a good clear sky and an  
unusually mild and dry night was a pleasure.  During my one hour teff  
signed-on, the meteor rates were low.  Only 4 meteors were seen.  I  
signed on just a few minutes after a number of other local observers  
out that same night reported a fireball around 11pm local time.  From  
the descriptions I got, it looked like it may have been a member of  
the Virginids (eclipticids).

The highlight was the single Virginid that I observed.  Just as I was  
doing a LM count in triangle #11, this beautiful meteor crawled a  
persistent path straight up from Arcturus to northern Bootes.  It had  
a vivid blue-green color and reached mag +1.

Unfortunately, it was clouded out for the Lyrids max.

Clear skies!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: April 18/19 2006
BEGIN: 0315 UT (2315 EDT)  END: 0423 UT (0023 EST)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North  Elevation: 300 ft
City & Province: Bootland Farm, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting & cord align
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:________________________________________radiant  
position
             LYR (Lyrids)_____________________________17:36 +34
             VIR - ECL (Virginids - Eclipticids)______14:32 -14
             SPO (sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO_VIR_LYR

0315-0423__1340+13__1.13__6.40____3___1___0

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__+2__+3______AVE

SPO____0___2___1_____+2.33
VIR____1___0___0_____+1.00

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: 0.35 min (plots)

Breaks (UT): None