(meteorobs) Observation July 13/14 2007 (Bootland Farm)

[Pierre Martin]

For the third night in a row, I setup and observed at Bootland Farm.   
Being a weekend was a good thing because I was starting to get  
tired.  But without the need to get up early for work commitment the  
following morning, I could stay to observe a little longer.  This  
time, the sky was clear just as predicted.  The transparency  
fluctuated between above-average (4/5) and average (3/5) quality, as  
we could tell quite easily from the size of the light pollution dome  
that raised and lowered.  I believe that this fluctuation was caused  
by fog patches moving through.  The temperature was cool enough that  
the mosquitoes were pleasantly absent.  During the moments of  
increased transparency, the Milky Way displayed a wealth of  
structure, including the faint bulge extending in southern Ophiuchus.

In over two hours teff, I recorded 33 meteors... a pleasant session!   
This night marked my first Perseids of the season.  Some of the  
southern radiant (Capricornids and Delta Aquarids) were getting a  
little more active.  The surprise for me however was the active July  
Pegasids.  My plots show four of these fast meteors intersecting very  
closely to where the radiant should be located.  These meteors were  
swift and distinctive.  One of the July Pegasids only reached mag +4  
but left a very distinct one second train!

The nicest meteor was a first mag Capricornid in northern Aquila that  
had a distinct bluish color.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: July 13/14 2007
BEGIN: 0415 UT (0015 EDT) END: 0644 UT (0244 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
PER (Perseids)____________________________________00:48 +51
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_PER_JPE

0415-0530___1844+10___1.19___1.00___6.48___7___3___3___0___1___1___1
0537-0644___2050+09___1.08___1.00___6.30___9___1___1___2___0___1___3

TOTALS:_______________2.27_________________16__4___4___2___1___2___4  
= 33

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__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO____2___4___4___4___2_____+3.00
CAP____1___2___0___1___0_____+2.25
ANT____2___0___0___1___1_____+2.75
JPE____0___2___1___1___0_____+2.75
SDA____0___0___0___2___0_____+4.00
PER____0___1___1___0___0_____+2.50
ACY____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: 5.70 min (time taken for breaks and plotting)

Breaks (UT): 6:04 (30 sec)