(meteorobs) Observation July 4/5 2008

[Pierre Martin]

This year's Gateway to the Universe star party at Restoule Provincial  
Park (about 5 hours drive west of Ottawa) was a good time, with good  
company and lots of mosquitoes.  The new venue has much darker skies  
than the previous Powassan site, but this comes at the expense of  
lesser horizons and a smaller area to setup.  Fortunately, the skies  
were very dark (mag 6.8).

Skies were crystal clear.  Temp was down to a comfortable 10C, and  
the transparency was a notch better than the previous night!  I spent  
the last hour or so before dawn meteor observing.  In a little over  
an hour, I recorded 10 meteors (all sporadics)...

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: July 4/5 2008
BEGIN: 0555 UT (0155 EDT) END: 0720 UT (0320 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -79.767 West; Lat: 46.064 North Elevation: 400 ft
City & Province: Restoule Provincial Park, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
ANT (Antihelions)_________________________________19:48 -20
JAD (July Andromedids - non IMO shower)___________01:40 +47
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD____Teff____F______LM___SPO_ANT_JAD

0555-0720___1655+18___1.17___1.00___6.80___10___0___0  =  10

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______AVE

SPO____2___4___4_____+3.20

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 min (incl break time)

Breaks (UT): 6:19-34