(meteorobs) Tale of the tape

[Bruce McCurdy]

    Way back on October 7 the indefatigable Paul Martsching wrote:

>> Total meteors: one; after such an hour I wonder why I'm doing this?

    ... and Mikhail Maslov replied:

> I see, that your observation show a weak but continuous 
> Draconid activity during 1-6 UT 7 October on the level of 
> ~1 meteor per hour. That is very interesting and important 
> result, which may confirm my considerations on possible 
> weak Draconid action on 7 october, with ZHR just about 1 
> meteor peakin at 4:40 UT (first peak). 

    I guess to answer Paul's question, *that's* why. Well done.

    In response to Mikhail's forecast of enhanced Draconid activity, I too was out on the evening of October 6-7, a kind of weird and broken evening of observing which involved three different observing sites! (I was doing comparable Sky Quality Meter readings for existing and candidate sites of our Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve) Unfortunately, what also got broken was my audio tape, which only now have I been able to repair and transcribe. 

    As far as Giacobinids are concerned, I can only offer an anecdotal report that during 1.5 hours Teff I observed zero Draconids, however I did casually see two of them during times I was *not* counting, thus on the night saw them on the level of ~1 meteor per hour. For whatever that's worth, Mikhail. One of them was a majestic bright searing white, of mag -2 or -3 near the S.W. horizon that was my best meteor of the night, at around 0700 UT. 

    The rest of my night's results are summarized below. I will send my results from October 9 (traditional Draconid peak) by separate post, as I try to catch up on a bit of a backlog of observations. 

    Bruce
    *****

Observer: Bruce McCurdy MCCBR
Date: 2007 October 7, 0437 - 0537 UT; Teff = 1.0 hours
Location: Strathcona Wilderness Centre (gate), Range Road 212, Township Road 530
53.541 deg N., 113.000 deg. W.
Conditions: cirrus, poor transparency, city sky glow to west
Limiting magnitude: 5.6 throughout (SQM = 20.7)
Direction faced: north, centred on Polaris
method: Visual; microcassette recorder and talking watch

Active radiants:
Epsilon Ursae Minorids (EUR) 16:32 (248) +82
Draconids (GIA)  17:28 (262) +54
Northern Taurid (NTA)  01:52 (028) +14
Southern Taurid (STA)  02:00 (030) +08
Orionids (ORI)  05:44 (86) +14
Delta Aurigids (DAU)  06:00 (090) +49
October Camelopardalids? (OCA) 11:00, +79

0437    start
0440    DAU  +1
0442    SPO   +3
0449    NTA    +2
0458    DAU    +5
0459    SPO    +1
0513    SPO    +4
0516    DAU    +2
0537    end
***

0 EUR
0 GIA
1 NTA  +2
0 STA
0 ORI
3 DAU  +1, +2, +5
o OCA
3 SPO  +1, +3, +4
Total meteors: seven
***

Observer: Bruce McCurdy  MCCBR
Date: 2007 October 7, 0730 - 0800 UT; Teff = 0.5 hours
Location: Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve (Blackfoot) IMO location code 51128
53°32'12" N, 112° 46m 48s W, elevation 711 metres
Limiting magnitude: 6.1 throughout (SQM = 21.3)
Direction faced: north, centred on Polaris
method: Visual; microcassette recorder and talking watch

Active radiants: same as above

0730    start    
0733    NTA    +2
0746    NTA     -1    fading train ~1 s
0748    NTA    +3
0751    DAU    +4
0756    DAU    +3
0756    NTA    0
0758    SPO    +4 
0800    end
***

0 EUR
0 GIA
4 (!) NTA -1, 0, +2. +3
0 STA
0 ORI
2 DAU    +3, +4
0 OCA
1 SPO    +4
Total meteors: seven