(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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