(meteorobs) Observation July 30/31 2006

[Pierre Martin]

On Sunday July 30, some clear skies were expected for the first half  
of the night.  I was too tired to head out to a dark sky site, so I  
decided to go to the Boundary road site which is only 20 minutes  
drive from my home.  I'm glad I didn't go too far, because as it  
turns out, a low level layer of opaque clouds quickly formed after  
sunset and would plague most of the night!  :0(  The mosquitoes were  
also back due to a rise in temperature.

After a false start, I returned to the site later on at night and was  
able to catch a clear sky that lasted a little more than half an hour  
before clouds took over for good, forcing a premature sign-off.  The  
transparency was poor with the Milky Way being just barely visible.   
Yet there was some decent meteor activity to be enjoyed.

The nicest meteor was a yellow mag 0 Capricornid seen at 1:46am that  
slowly rose straight up in the south.

Clear skies,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: July 30/31 2006
BEGIN: 0527 UT (0127 EDT)  END: 0608 UT (0208 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)____________________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

0527-0608__2242+22__0.68__5.75____6___4___2___2___0___0___0  =  14

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
_______0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO____0___2___1___0___2___1_____+2.83
CAP____1___0___0___0___1___0_____+2.00
ANT____0___0___0___1___1___0_____+3.50
SDA____0___0___2___2___0___0_____+2.50

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: None

Breaks (UT): None