(meteorobs) Observation October 18/19 2008

Pierre Martin dob14.5 at sympatico.ca
Mon Nov 3 21:49:55 EST 2008


Hello all,

Here's my belated Orionids reports.  Since clear skies are so  
infrequent this time of the year, I decided to start hunting for  
Orionids (ORI) a few nights before the peak despite the glaring  
gibbous Moon.  On my way to Bootland Farm just after midnight, I got  
excited when I saw a mag -2 ORI earthgrazer drop towards the western  
horizon.  Once arrived and setup, it was apparent that with the Moon  
located so high up, there really was no escape.  The best bet was to  
face the north-north-east sky for the first part of the session, and  
then switch my field to the south-east later on once the Moon was  
over the meridian.  Fortunately, the sky transparency was very good  
with a limiting magnitude of 5.0 throughout the night.

ORI were active but the brightness of the sky kept the numbers low.   
Despite the casual earthgrazer that I saw earlier, they didn't seem  
to be producing abnormal rates.  The Taurids were silent except for a  
small burst of activity during the second hour.

The highlight of the morning was listening to a pact of wolves  
howling out in the woods.  This was my first time hearing them from  
this location.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 18/19 2008
BEGIN: 0550 UT (0140 EDT) END: 0925 UT (0525 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 (Northern Taurids)____________________________02:28 +18
STA (Southern Taurids)____________________________02:36 +12
ORI (Orionids)____________________________________06:20 +16
EGE (Epsilon Geminids)____________________________06:56 +27
ICA (Iota Cancrids - non-IMO shower)______________09:00 +29
LMI (Leo Minorids)________________________________10:28 +39
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_____FIELD_____Teff____F______LM____SPO_ORI_EGE_TAU_LMI_ICA

05:50-06:50___06:13+65___1.00___1.00___5.00____3___6___1___0___0___0
06:50-08:05___07:05+22___1.00___1.00___5.00____1___4___0___5___0___0
08:05-09:25___08:01+19___1.23___1.00___5.00____4___7___0___0___0___0

TOTALS:__________________3.23__________________8__17___1___5___0___0   
= 31

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______AVE

SPO___0___0___1___1___1___1___4_____+2.75
ORI___1___1___1___2___7___3___2_____+1.76
TAU___0___0___0___1___0___2___2_____+3.00
EGE___0___0___0___0___0___0___1_____+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: 21 min

Breaks (UT): 7:10-25, 8:35-41




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