(meteorobs) Observation August 12/13 2006

[Pierre Martin]

On Sunday morning August 13, I observed at Boundary road site (east  
of Ottawa) for almost 3 hours teff until dawn.  A number of OAOG  
members were present most of the night there including Ivo Leupi,  
Chris Couzineau, Chris Cloutier and Greg Quelle.  Ivo and Chris were  
running multiple guided cameras and I had my two DSLR (Canon 30D and  
300D) in automated operation while I kept busy recording the visual  
activity.  I had a large umbrella mounted on my surveyor tripod that  
worked wonderfully well to block the glare from the Moon and protect  
my eyes from accidentally staring up at it.  Ivo and Chris also used  
umbrellas for their setups.

The Perseids were a bit more active in numbers than the previous  
night, but the bright meteors were fewer.  No Perseids got brighter  
than mag 0, except for a -3 fireball that I observed casually (and  
photographed http://tinyurl.com/euaol) in bright morning twilight.

The highlight was actually a long and vividly brilliant mag -2 yellow  
sporadic (possibly Aquarid) earthgrazer descending into the northern  
sky.  Luckily, it flew completely within the FOV of one of my  
cameras!  http://tinyurl.com/k976p

I also managed to capture the following meteors...
http://tinyurl.com/ft7tj
http://tinyurl.com/h2ep9
http://tinyurl.com/kgguh

Clear skies,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: August 12/13 2006
BEGIN: 0525 UT (0125 EDT)  END: 0840 UT (0440 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
		PER (Perseids)______________________________03:12 +58
		KCG (Kappa Cygnids)_________________________18:55 +58
             	SDA (South Delta Aquarids)__________________23:24 -12
		Ant (Antihelion)____________________________22:12 -08
		SPO (sporadics)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_FIELD____Teff__LM_____SPO__PER__KCG__SDA__ANT

0525-0628__2059+79__1.00__5.48____3____21___0___/___/
0628-0734__2222+78__1.01__5.48____7____24___0___/___/
0734-0840__2331+77__0.83__5.48____3____19___0___/___/

TOTALS:_____________2.84_________13____64___0___/___/  = 77

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

SPO____1___0___0___1___2___3___6___0_____+2.77
PER____0___0___2___8__16__18__17___3_____+2.77

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): 20% from 5:25-35, 20% from 6:00-15

(F = 1.11 for period 0525-0628)

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

Dead time: 24.08 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 5:45 (30sec), 5:51-53, 6:15 (15sec), 6:42-47, 7:10  
(30sec), 7:43-59