(meteorobs) Observation May 29/30 2008

[Pierre Martin]

Here's my report for May 29/30.  This was a brief meteor session  
covering the hour around midnight, following some casual observations  
with scopes.  Despite good sky conditions and a mag 6.5 sky, The  
session had mostly dim meteors without anything noteworthy.

But the highlight came on my way back home.  As I waited for a  
traffic light to change, a magnitude -6 or -7 (!) fireball quickly  
got my attention even with all the city light pollution.  It started  
about halfway up in the north, moved rather slowly and ended low in  
the north-east. This was one of the most vividly multi-colored meteor  
that I've even seen!!! Starting green and then turning deep blue and  
then PURPLE!!!!!  The end had a dramatic break-up of at least 4-5  
orange colored pieces before fading away.  Talk about a nice way to  
end a beautiful night :0)

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: May 29/30 2008
BEGIN: 0255 UT (2255 EDT) END: 0430 UT (0030 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, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
ANT (Antihelions)_________________________________17:36 -23
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO_ANT

0255-0430___1508+09___0.92___1.00___6.48___7___1  =  8

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__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO____1___2___3___1_____+3.57
ANT____1___0___0___0_____+2.00

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: 39.74 min (incl breaks and plotting time)

Breaks (UT): 3:16-46, 3:50-58