(meteorobs) Observation October 5/6 2007 (Moose Creek)

[Pierre Martin]

The following night did not look promising, with rain in the  
forecast.  However, after 1:30am local, I noticed a hole in the sky.   
I quickly packed my gear and scrambled to Moose Creek.

I was especially curious to see if the OCA's might be active, since  
the predicted peak time was well positioned for me.   When I arrived,  
the clouds had temporarily taken over the sky again, so I setup and  
watched casually.  At 2:45am EDT, I was able to sign on for over one  
hour TEFF (taking occasional breaks when cloud cover exceeded 20% of  
my FOV).

I recorded 11 meteors, of which 4 could be OCA candidates.  They  
matched the velocity and length criteria.  I plotted any suspect  
shower meteors.  My plots indicate possible OCA's intersecting from a  
radiant near the border of Camelopardalis and Draco, as well as a  
second radiant near the border of Camelopardalis and Cassiopeia.  All  
OCA's were fast and brief.  With such a short observation and a tiny  
OCA sample, I can't rule out chance alignments with sporadics.

The brightest OCA candidate was a fast mag 0 meteor in Pegasus at  
3:51am EDT that left a wake.  This one aligned with the two radiant  
positions.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 5/6 2007
BEGIN: 0645 UT (0245 EDT) END: 0825 UT (0425 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 200 ft
City & Province: Moose Creek, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
OCA (October Camelopardalids)________08:23 +74 and 02:34 +71  
(positions derived from plots)
NTA (Antihelions - North Taurids)_________________01:52 +14
STA (Antihelions - South Taurids)_________________02:00 +08
ORI (Orionids)____________________________________05:44 +14
DAU (Delta Aurigids)______________________________06:00 +49
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO_OCA_NTA_STA_ORI_DAU

0645-0825___0356+57___1.39___1.25___6.00___7___4___/___/___/___/  =  11

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______AVE

SPO____0___0___1___4___1___1_____+3.29
OCA____1___0___0___2___1___0_____+2.50

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): 20% from 6:45-8:25

------------------------

Dead time: 16.65 min (time taken for breaks and plotting)

Breaks (UT): 6:54-56, 7:03-06, 7:10-17, 8:06-07