(meteorobs) Observation August 8/9 2007 (Bootland Farm)

[Pierre Martin]

Despite a forecast calling for clouds, I took a chance and took off  
late into the evening to the Bootland Farm site.  I'm glad I did!  : 
0)  On my way there, I was surprised by a bright Perseid dropping  
down to the horizon.

I arrived there at 1am EDT, and the skies were crystal clear with  
excellent (5/5) transparency!  The LM was 6.6, which is as good as  
I've ever seen it for just one hour drive outside Ottawa!  As I came  
out of the car and stood up, I stared at the wonderful canopy of a  
myriad of faint stars overhead!  The summer Milky Way displayed a  
complicated network of dust lanes that I could follow all the way to  
the southern horizon.  The air felt fresh and cool.  I could smell  
the flowers, and I could hear the coyotes howling... I felt like I  
was in a dream!  :0)  Within moments, a pair of Perseids raced  
through the Milky Way in quick succession... A few seconds later, a  
blue Capricornid crawled up gracefully.  Oh boy, this looked  
promising.  It was time to break my hypnotic stare of the skies  
above, get my lawn chair, and start some serious observing...

I observed for 3 hours, up until the onset of morning twilight.  I  
had a busy night... 100 meteors!  Four nights before maximum, the  
Perseids dominated with 57 seen.  The Perseids were also quite bright  
with many in the mag 0 and +1, including some long paths away from  
the radiant.  The Delta Aquarids produced low but noticeable activity  
despite being several nights past max.  Very weak activity was noted  
by the Capricornids, antihelions and Kappa Cygnids.

During the night, there was lots of wildlife activity.  An animal  
could be heard screaming very loudly in the woods for several  
minutes.  Several owls were hooting softly to each other as well.
The rising crescent Moon at 2:25am EDT cast a shadow and illuminated  
the ground, but it did very little to diminish the sky darkness above.

All in all, an entertaining night!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: August 8/9 2007
BEGIN: 0530 UT (0130 EDT) END: 0840 UT (0440 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, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
PER (Perseids)____________________________________03:04 +58
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)__________________________21:20 -05
ANT (Antihelions)_________________________________22:08 -09
SDA (Delta Aquarids)______________________________23:20 -13
KCG (Kappa Cygnids)_______________________________18:52 +58
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO_PER_CAP_ANT_SDA_KCG

0530-0630___2129+06___1.00___1.00___6.58___10__23__1___0___2___0
0630-0735___2237+06___1.08___1.00___6.58___12__20__1___2___2___1
0740-0840___2342+07___1.00___1.00___6.54___11__14__0___0___1___0

TOTALS:_______________3.08_________________33__57__2___2___5___1 = 100

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
_______0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5__+6______AVE

PER____8___9___8__16___9___6___2_____+2.65
SPO____1___2___3___4__18___3___2_____+3.61
SDA____0___1___1___2___1___0___0_____+2.60
CAP____0___0___2___0___0___0___0_____+2.00
ANT____0___0___1___0___1___0___0_____+3.00
KCG____0___1___0___0___0___0___0_____+1.00

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: None

Breaks (UT): 7:35-40