(meteorobs) Observation October 21/22 2007 (Bootland Farm)

[Pierre Martin]

Here's my belated report for Monday morning October 22...

At 1am, I left home and drove about one hour to Bootland Farm (dark  
site west of Ottawa, Ontario).  On the way, I was thinking what the  
Orionids would be like one day after the peak.  Would there still be  
elevated rates?  Would the bright meteors continue?  I figured that  
anything was possible, but I thought I'd be difficult to beat the  
previous night which was exceptional!  As I drove, I lucked in when a  
beautiful mag -3 meteor dropped towards the horizon.  I couldn't be  
entirely sure, but it looked like it could have been a Taurid.

When I arrived at Bootland Farm, I was greeted by a crystal clear  
skies and a setting Moon.  Unlike the previous night, this time it  
was a solo session... just me and the skies overhead.  I could not  
have asked for a nicer late-October night.  The temperature felt so  
mild at 12C that I left my sleeping bag in the car.  I was perfectly  
comfortable with just a light jacket.  A nice breeze blew from the  
south-west, and the night was entirely free of any dew.  Overhead, I  
estimated the transparency at 4/5.  After moonset, the skies held  
steady above 6.5 mag until dawn.  Orion and the surrounding "winter  
constellations" looked good!  A faint Gegenshein was visible along  
the ecliptic.  I proceeded to setting up my mount and cameras to get  
the photography under way, and then I settled in my lawn chair for  
formal counts...

I observed for almost 3 hours TEFF (only 8 minutes less than the  
previous night) covering the hours of 7:15 UT (3:15am EDT) to 10:25  
UT (6:25am EDT).

Right off the bat, the Orionids were VERY active!  In fact, to my  
surprise they were even stronger than the previous night!  My first  
period (60 minutes) had 63 Orionids (ORI) while the second period  
(59.5 minutes) rocketed to 69 ORI!  My final period (cut short to 52  
minutes due to twilight) was still quite strong with 46 ORI.  These  
rates made for some of the highest meteor activity that I've seen so  
far this year.  By combining all other activity (such as sporadics  
and other minor showers) of this session, the total number of meteors  
is 222.  This total is just 6 meteors short of what I achieved during  
a full night of post-maximum Perseids observing at a pristine dark  
site.  This year's Orionids sure didn't disappoint!

As with the previous night, some bright Orionids appeared (although  
no fireballs).  The brightest ones reached mag -2.  The average ORI  
magnitude was +2.93.  There was also lots of the faint guys too, so  
I'm sure that the good sky conditions helped.  The brighter Orionids  
were typically colored blue-green with a few yellow and some orange  
ones too.  As is often the case with a high rate of meteors, there  
was several bursts of meteors happening.   I noted 13 instances of  
two Orionids seen within one second, and 2 instances of a pair of  
simultaneous Orionids!
A few Orionids appeared very close to the radiant.  These were so  
foreshortened that they appeared almost stationary!

Exactly 25% of all Orionids left persistent trains lasting at least 1  
second.  This was the case especially for the brighter meteors.  The  
most impressive was a 30 seconds train left behind by a mag -2  
Orionid 5:59am EDT.  Just one minute later, a mag -1 Orionid flashed  
and left a 15 seconds long train!

The finest meteor of the night came almost at the end of the  
session.  At 6:17am EDT, with skies brightening in twilight, a  
spectacular EARTHGRAZER appeared!  Something first caught my  
attention around Ursa Major and I saw this gorgeous golden colored  
meteor slowly climbing towards the zenith!  I kept following it as it  
passed the zenith and descended to the south-west.  There was a wake  
following for a few degrees behind the meteor.  I actually had to  
turn my head around to keep following it.  After a dramatic 12  
seconds or so of flight (that felt like an eternity for a meteor),  
the meteor began to gradually fade away as it sank below Orion.  I  
estimated that it must have crossed well over 100 degrees of the  
sky!  The meteor was very even in brightness and appearance along its  
entire path.  It was surely one of the prettiest earthgrazers that  
I've ever seen!

I signed off at 6:25am EDT, took a quick nap before heading in to  
work.  It was a night to remember!  :0)

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario

P.S. My two cameras captured several meteors during this session.   
Stay tune...


DATE: October 21/22 2007
BEGIN: 0715 UT (0315 EDT) END: 1025 UT (0625 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
NTA (North Taurids)_______________________________02:36 +18
STA (South Taurids)_______________________________02:40 +12
ORI (Orionids)____________________________________06:20 +16
EGE (Epsilon Geminids)____________________________07:00 +27
LMI (Leo Minorids)________________________________10:56 +37
XGE (Xi Geminids)_________________________________06:56 +11
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO_ORI_EGE_NTA_STA_LMI_XGE

0715-0815___0554+10___1.00___1.00___6.50____8__63___3___1___0___1___2
0815-0931___0632+11___0.99___1.00___6.57___13__69___1___0___1___1___0
0931-1025___0657+11___0.87___1.00___6.47____9__46___2___0___0___2___0

TOTALS:_______________2.86_________________30__178__6___1___1___4___2  = 
  222

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

ORI____2___4__13__23__23__37__36__34___6_____+2.93
SPO____0___0___0___3___0__10__12___5___0_____+3.53
EGE____0___0___0___0___4___0___2___0___0_____+2.66
LMI____0___0___0___0___3___1___0___0___0_____+2.25
XGE____0___0___0___0___1___0___0___1___0_____+3.50
NTA____0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0_____+4.00
STA____0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0_____+4.00

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: 18.5 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 9:01-10, 9:20-27, 9:29 (30sec), 10:13-15