(meteorobs) Observation August 16/17 2007 (Bootland Farm)

[Pierre Martin]

On Thursday night August 16, I enjoyed several hours of observing at  
Bootland Farm, with excellent sky conditions!  A comfortable night  
too, with a light breeze.  I shared this night with Joe Silverman and  
Sanjeev Sivarulrasa, who kept busy with scopes.  The LM reached 6.6  
and the sky had an impressive canopy of faint stars above.  To the  
unaided eye, M31 has a distinct shape, and M33 was visible with  
averted vision in Triangulum.  The Milky Way stretched down to the  
southern horizon.  Early in the session, I was treated to a beautiful  
pass by the ISS almost to the zenith, that reached mag -3.  I  
followed it with my 9x63mm binoculars, and just as it was entering  
the earth's shadow and fading, it turned orange and a "shape" could  
be seen.  During a break in meteor observing, Sanjeev treated me to a  
wonderful view of a Hickson galaxy cluster in his 14.5" dob.

My session was very productive, with a count of 76 meteors in less  
than four hours.  The Perseids were much weaker than just a few days  
ago, with hourly rates never exceeding the single digits.  But they  
were still quite noticeable.

The biggest surprise on this night was the appearance of several  
Kappa Cygnids.  With a normal ZHR=3, in the past, the best I've done  
was a few of these meteors in several hours of TEFF.  But to see up  
to half a dozen/hr of these slow, graceful meteors was a real treat!   
I'm sure that the good sky conditions must have helped matters too.   
Most of the Kappa Cygnids (KCG) were of faint or average brightness  
(mag 3-4), but at 12:14am EDT, an absolutely spectacular KCG fireball  
was well seen in Ursa Major...  It reached at least mag -7 (lighting  
up the ground and trees), had a vivid blue-white color, and travelled  
20 degrees before it exploded in a terminal flash!  The blue  
persistent train left behind was initially mag -3 for a few quick  
moments before it gradually faded away during the next 5 minutes.  I  
had plenty of time to pull out my 9x63mm binoculars and follow the  
expanding and twisting train.  It appeared like a disorganized cloud  
suspended in the sky!  Wow!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: August 16/17 2007
BEGIN: 0150 UT (2150 EDT) END: 0615 UT (0215 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 & plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
KCG (Kappa Cygnids)_______________________________19:04 +59
ACP (August Capricornids)_________________________20:24 -11
ANT (Antihelions)_________________________________22:36 -07
SDA (South Delta Aquarids)________________________23:40 -11
ECA (Epsilon Cassiopeids)_________________________02:20 +62
PER (Perseids)____________________________________03:44 +58
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO_KCG_ANT_SDA_PER_ACP_ECA

0150-0300___2154+80___1.03___1.00___6.50___11__1___0___1___2___0___0
0321-0427___0009+79___1.00___1.00___6.56___13__3___1___1___5___0___0
0427-0528___0122+76___1.00___1.00___6.63___13__6___1___0___5___0___0
0528-0615___0238+72___0.70___1.00___6.63____6__1___0___0___6___0___0

TOTALS:_______________3.73_________________43__11__2___2__18___0___0  
= 76

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
______-7__-6__-5__-4__-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5__+6______AVE

PER____0___0___0___0___0___1___0___2___3___5___5__17___9___1_____+3.37
SPO____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___2___0___8___6___1___1___0_____+2.38
KCG____1___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___2___3___4___0___0_____+2.00
ANT____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___1___0___0_____+2.00
SDA____0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___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: 20 min (breaks and plotting)

Breaks (UT): 1:53-55, 2:09-15, 3:00-21, 4:15-19, 4:22-24, 4:56 (30  
sec), 5:05 (30 sec), 5:32-37