(meteorobs) Observation July 28/29 2006

Pierre Martin dob14.5 at sympatico.ca
Wed Aug 2 01:26:47 EDT 2006


On Friday July 28, I joined Joe Silverman and Roland Prevost for a  
night at Bootland Farm.

I arrived in Arnprior before sunset and since it was still quite  
early I went to Wendy's to grab some burgers and happened to meet Joe.
The detour on White Lake / Kippen roads seems faster than I  
expected.  This may be due to the fact that the road is straighter  
and significantly better compared to Stewartville road.  It does add  
perhaps an additional 5 minutes drive but it is not significant.   
When I arrived to the site, I was greeted by Roland who was already  
setup with his beautiful 16" f/4.3 Starmaster GOTO truss dob.  It's a  
very impressive piece of equipment!  Shortly after, Joe arrived and  
setup his T-Scope 12.5" f/5 truss dob.  They both proceeded to a full  
night of deep sky observing, comparing notes, eyepieces, details and  
experiences.  It was interesting to overhear their chatting while I  
was comfortably tucked inside my coffin busily recording meteors.

As predicted, the sky conditions started off a bit iffy.  Thin cirrus  
clouds moved in from the west and covered parts of the sky.  They  
remained thin enough that observing was still very much possible.   
This would last until nearly midnight when the skies cleared  
completely with an average-quality transparency - and would stay so  
until dawn.  With the temperature hovering at a balmy 22C and little  
wind, the mosquitoes were out in full force all night long!  But the  
ever annoying little buggers did not prevent our enjoyment of the  
clear dark skies.

I observed meteors for almost 5 hours, taking only a few brief breaks  
to get a snack or to enjoy some views in the scopes.  I recorded 108  
meteors... a very productive and rewarding session!  During the  
busiest periods, meteors were coming on an average of one every 2  
minutes.  The variety of meteors is what makes this time of the year  
among my favorite to be out for meteors.  The sporadics provided most  
of the activity seen, but the South Delta Aquarids followed not too  
far behind!  The SDAs were especially active during the fourth hour.   
Lots of faint meteors though!  The Alpha Capricornids were well  
represented, with some occasional slow and impressive meteors.  I was  
surprised to see some possible late Alpha Cygnids (I realize that  
only two possible candidates can be chance alignment sporadics but  
they had all the correct characteristics).

The top highlight of the night was a spectacular mag -5 sporadic  
fireball at 1:22am EDT !!  It moved slowly high up in the south on a  
6-8 degrees path.  It ended with a brilliant blue terminal flash that  
lit up the ground and surprised Joe who thought it was someone's  
white flashlight.  The train left behind lasted a full 8 seconds  
before distorting and fading away.

Another event worth mentioning was quite an unusual looking sporadic  
meteor seen at 1:40am.  High up in Pegasus, this average-brightness  
mag +2 meteor crossed a long 20 degrees path heading south-east.   
What made it so interesting was its vivid color changing rapidly from  
yellow to orange to yellow again.  Then, the meteor turned completely  
nebulous!  As it gradually faded, it seemed to swell up in appearance  
and become diffuse.  As it continued to fade, the color disappeared  
and eventually the swelled-up meteor gracefully faded into  
invisibility.  I've only ever seen a few meteors with such a distinct  
look.

Lastly, a noteworthy event was the two sporadic meteors that  
**simultaneously** appeared in the same quadrant of the sky at  
4:02am.  They were unrelated but still neat to see them almost cross  
each other!!

At 4:20am, I signed off - exhausted but pleased at the results!   
Roland and Joe ended their observations just minutes earlier and had  
gone into their cars to catch some sleep.  I slipped into my tent and  
promply passed out.  Details below...

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: July 28/29 2006
BEGIN: 0240 UT (2240 EDT)  END: 0820 UT (0420 EDT)
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
		Cap (Alpha Capricornids)____________________20:32 -10
		Ant (Antihelion)____________________________21:16 -14
             	SDA (South Delta Aquarids)__________________22:40 -16
		PAU (Pisces Austrinids)_____________________22:52 -29
		PER (Perseids)______________________________01:56 +54
		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

0240-0345__1952+15__1.05__6.25____8___2___3___3___0___1___0
0425-0525__2101+12__1.00__6.35____7___8___2___2___0___7___1
0525-0632__2214+17__1.00__6.35____6___3___1___2___0___1___0
0632-0739__2245+08__1.00__6.39____13__11__0___1___1___3___1
0739-0820__2245+08__0.68__6.27____11__6___1___1___0___2___0


TOTALS:_____________4.73__________45__30__7___9___1__14___2  = 108

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
______-5__-4__-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5__+6______AVE

SPO____1___0___0___0___0___1___5___3___13__14__8___0_____+3.13
SDA____0___0___0___0___0___0___1___4___6___12__5___2_____+3.73
CAP____0___0___0___0___0___0___1___2___1___3___0___0_____+2.86
ANT____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___2___2___3___1_____+4.11
PAU____0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0___0_____+1.00
PER____0___0___0___1___1___1___0___2___2___6___1___0_____+2.57
ACY____0___0___0___0___0___1___0___1___0___0___0___0_____+1.00

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: 16.25 min (breaks and plotting)

Breaks (UT): 3:45-4:25, 5:55-6:02, 7:00-7:07












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