(meteorobs) Observation August 31/Sept 1 2007 (Shawville)

[Pierre Martin]

I was attending a cow party to celebrate the end of the summer.  It  
was out of town at a staff's farm (near Shawville) with clear  
horizons, so I took advantage of this event to watch for any possible  
early Aurigids before dawn.  Despite the gibbous Moon, the  
transparency was good, which allowed LM=5.3.

While setting up, I glanced up and casually observed one probable  
AUR!  This gave me some hope that something might be going on  
already, but in over one hour TEFF, none were seen.  (The AUR peak  
had been predicted to be a very brief burst of activity for the west- 
coast (which is exactly what happened), so I did not expect anything  
- but I was curious and wanting to keep an eye on them anyway ;0))
Overall activity was in fact dreadfully slow with just four  
sporadics.  Other possible shower sources were dis-regarded this  
morning due to the bright moon in the way.

Pierre Martin,
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: August 31/Sept 1 2007
BEGIN: 0730 UT (0330 EDT) END: 0857 UT (0457 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North   Elevation: 200 ft
City & Province: Shawville, Quebec, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
AUR (Alpha Aurigids)______________________________5:36 +42
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO__AUR

0730-0857___0206+76___1.20___1.00___5.23___4____0

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______AVE

SPO____1___1___1___0___1_____+1.75

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: 15.26 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 7:53-54, 7:56-58, 8:21-32, 8:38(20sec), 8:47(40sec), 8:52 
(20sec)