(meteorobs) Observation November 3/4 2007 (Renfrew)
Pierre Martin
dob14.5 at sympatico.ca
Mon Nov 12 20:03:28 EST 2007
On the following night, I got a call from Shane Finnigan who invited
me along for some observing at a dark sky west of Ottawa. The skies
were still a bit cloudy over Ottawa, but I was assured that a good
clear sky was on the way. I quickly packed and off I went...
We setup along Storyland Road (near Renfrew). It's a dark elevated
location with no local lights and decent horizons. Being a weekend
night, there was several car headlights passing by, which were a bit
of a nuisance. But I took care of the problem by facing my field of
view to the east, away from the direction of the cars. While Shane
kept busy imaging the comet with his refractor, I settled into my
lawn chair for meteors. The temperature was near the freezing mark
and there was a light breeze. With my new heavy-duty parka, the
night felt quite comfortable. Overhead, the skies were beautiful. I
estimated the LM at 6.5, and the gegenshein was just visible
stretching from Taurus to Pisces. The transparency started about
average (3/5), and then increased to 3.5/5 later on).
I observed and plotted meteors for an hour and a half, and had a
productive session! The Taurids were active with as many as 15
members recorded. The most impressive was a 30 degrees long
yellowish South Taurid that reached mag -1. However the northern
branch of the Taurids produced surprisingly faint meteors.
It was a treat to stare at the distant and mysterious Comet Holmes,
while meteoric debris from Comet Encke would occasionally streak in
our atmosphere. Time went by quickly as I enjoyed this session.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: November 3/4 2007
BEGIN: 0415 UT (2315 EST) END: 0600 UT (0100 EST)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North Elevation: 400 ft
City & Province: Renfrew, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
NTA (North Taurids)_______________________________03:28 +21
STA (South Taurids)_______________________________03:28 +15
ORI (Orionids)____________________________________07:00 +17
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO__NTA__STA__ORI
0415-0600___0515+22___1.56___1.00___6.48___9____7____8____1 = 25
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 not spent
looking at the sky). The 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___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE
SPO____0___0___2___3___2___2___0_____+2.44
STA____1___1___0___2___1___2___1_____+2.38
NTA____0___0___0___0___1___5___1_____+4.00
ORI____0___0___0___0___1___0___0_____+3.00
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) (UT): none
------------------------
Dead time: 11.32 min (breaks and time spent plotting)
Breaks (UT): 4:21-24, 5:27 (15 sec), 5:33-36
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