(meteorobs) Observation July 19/20 2006

[Pierre Martin]

The following night (Wednesday July 19) I returned to Boundary road  
site and observed meteors for almost 2 hours.  The sky was again  
quite transparent and clear.

My very first meteor seen 14 minutes into the watch would turn out to  
be the highlight of the night - a most impressive blue-colored  
sporadic earthgrazer that shot out of the east and across the  
zenith.  The 1st mag meteor traced a very swift 50 degrees long  
path!  Those long path meteors are always a thrill to watch as they  
race across the constellations.

The Perseids were quite present and only minute activity from the  
antihelion and Alpha Cygnid radiant was caught.  Details below...

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: July 19/20 2006
BEGIN: 0235 UT (2235 EDT)  END: 0430 UT (0030 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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:________________________________________radiant  
position
		Cap (Alpha Capricornids)____________________19:32 -14
		Ant (Antihelion)____________________________20:16 -18
             	SDA (South Delta Aquarids)__________________21:56 -19
		PAU (Pisces Austrinids)_____________________21:56 -34
		PER (Perseids)______________________________00:20 +50
		ACY (Alpha Cygnids)_________________________20:15 +48
		SPO (sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO_SDA_CAP_ANT_PAU_PER_ACY

0235-0335__1951+27__0.98__6.10____5___0___0___0___0___2___0
0340-0430__2105+21__0.83__6.10____7___0___0___1___0___1___1

TOTALS:_____________1.81_________12___0___0___1___0___3___1  = 17

Note: 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__+4__+5______AVE

SPO____2___1___4___4___1_____+3.08
ANT____0___0___0___1___0_____+4.00
PER____0___0___3___0___0_____+3.00
ACY____0___1___0___0___0_____+2.00

Note: 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: 8 min (breaks and plotting)

Breaks (UT): 3:35-40