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

Tue Oct 30 22:39:21 EDT 2007

Hi Bruce,

The earthgrazer mentioned below in my report reached mag +1.

Thanks!
- Pierre

On 29-Oct-07, at 12:23 AM, Bruce McCurdy wrote:

>
>    Sounds like a great night, Pierre. That earthgrazer sounds like  a
> keeper! Can you tell us how bright it was? (the one detail missing  
> from your
> fine report ... thanks for sharing)
>
>     Bruce
>     *****
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pierre Martin" <dob14.5 at sympatico.ca>
> To: <undisclosed-recipients:>
> Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 5:39 PM
> Subject: (meteorobs) Observation October 21/22 2007 (Bootland Farm)
>
>
>> 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
>>
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