(meteorobs) Observation July 11/12 2007 (Bootland Farm)

[Pierre Martin]

On the Wednesday evening July 11, I drove out to Bootland Farm (dark  
site west of Ottawa).  Despite the overcast skies, I got there early  
to sleep, and it actually rained from 11pm- 11:30pm.  Then, the skies  
then cleared beautifully at midnight, just as the CSC has predicted!   
Sanjeev and I had a great and wonderful observing session!  The  
transparency was above-average quality, and the Milky Way was  
impressive with a wealth of details.  The mosquitoes were another  
story... they were relentless all night.

I had a fairly productive meteor session that lasted a little more  
than one hour.  A decent amount of sporadic activity, and my plots  
reveal weak activity from the CAP, ANT, ACY and JPE.  The meteors  
were on the rather faint side tonight, but one of them (the  
antihelion) travelled a long 30 degrees path across the sky.

Aside from meteors, the highlight was catching some views in  
Sanjeev's 10x42 Zeiss binoculars and his 85mm refractor.  The rich- 
field views of the dark nebulas along the Milky Way and comet LINEAR  
VZ13 were wonderful!  It goes to show that smaller instruments can go  
a long way under a good quality sky.

After I signed off, I went to sleep in my car and then woke up in the  
early morning and drove to work.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: July 11/12 2007
BEGIN: 0520 UT (0120 EDT) END: 0640 UT (0240 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North Elevation: 400 ft
City & Province: Bootland Farm, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)__________________________19:36 -14
ANT (Antihelions)_________________________________20:20 -18
SDA (Delta Aquarids)______________________________21:56 -19
ACY (Alpha Cygnids)_______________________________20:04 +46
JPE (July Pegasids)_______________________________22:44 +15
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM____SPO__CAP__ANT__SDA__ACY__JPE

0520-0640___2126 
+14___1.24___1.00___6.48___12____1____2____0____1____1 = 17

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
______+2__+3__+4______AVE

SPO____3___2___7_____+3.33
ANT____0___1___1_____+3.50
CAP____0___1___0_____+3.00
ACY____1___0___0_____+2.00
JPE____1___0___0_____+2.00

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: 5.74 min (time taken for breaks and plots)

Breaks (UT): None