(meteorobs) Observation October 22/23 2008

Mon Nov 3 21:57:31 EST 2008

The two peak nights of the Orionids were rained-out, but I was  
blessed with crystal clear skies on Thursday morning Oct 23.  On this  
occasion, I went 60km east of Ottawa to the Moosecreek site.  When I  
arrived, Chris Cloutier was already there waiting - he was interested  
in watching the Orionids with me until morning dawn.  A blanket of  
low cloud cover had us a little worried, but just as we setup the  
clouds quickly dissipated :)  The skies were beautiful, and the  
rising crescent Moon was now only a slight nuisance to the sky  
darkness.  I used my car to block it from view as it rose in the  
east.  The morning was very cool with a low of -7C and humid with a  
thick layer of frost developing.

Observing almost 4 hours TEFF, the Orionids provided a great show!   
The rates were fairly constant, although the third hour was strongest  
with 35 Orionids.  The brightest Orionid reached mag -3 (with 10 sec  
train) but also lots of faint meteors.  The average magnitude of  
Orionids came out at +2.83, which was nearly half of a mag brighter  
than the sporadic background.  As usual, there were bursts of  
activity followed by lulls.  One of the most exciting moments came at  
5:16am EDT when three Orionids went by within 5 seconds.

Aside from the main Orionid activity, activity was noticeable from  
the Epsilon Geminids, Leo Minorids as well as both branches of the  
Taurids.  In total, I recorded 152 meteors.

For this session, I also ran my two DSLR cameras.  I did not have the  
EQ mount this time, so I kept the exposures below 15 sec each and  
increased the ISO to 1250-1600 to improve the chances of capturing  
meteors.  After the session was over, I went through every frame,  
selected the ones that contained meteors and stacked them together to  
create composite images.  Here's the results:

Digital compositions from stills with Canon 30D / 20mm f/2.8 lens...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/3001435252/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/3001435238/sizes/o/

This is the mag -2 Leo Minorid that I was fortunate enough to capture  
(taken from same camera as above)...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/3001435268/sizes/o/

Digital composition from stills with Canon Digital Rebel / 35mm f/2.0  
lens.  The bright one at the top left is the mag -3 Orionid...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/3001435274/sizes/o/

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario

DATE: October 22/23 2008
BEGIN: 06:05 UT (2:05 EDT) END: 10:20 UT (6:20 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North  Elevation: 200 ft
City & Province: Moose Creek, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: cord alignment
----------------------------------------------------------

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_NTA_STA_LMI_ICA

06:05-07:07___03:52+06___1.03___1.00___6.30____7__27___0___4___1___1___0
07:19-08:19___04:47+06___1.00___1.00___6.25____5__24___1___2___1___1___0
08:19-09:29___04:47+06___1.00___1.00___6.18____8__35___2___2___1___3___0
09:29-10:20___06:13+06___0.85___1.00___6.15____2__23___1___0___1___0___0

TOTALS:__________________3.88_________________22__109__4___8___4___5___0 
   = 152

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
_____-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO___0___0___1___2___0___0___5__12___2_____+3.27
ORI___1___1___1___4__14__23__24__23__18_____+2.83
NTA___0___0___0___1___0___2___1___1___3_____+3.25
LMI___0___1___0___2___0___0___0___2___0_____+1.20
EGE___0___0___0___0___1___1___1___1___0_____+2.50
STA___0___0___0___0___0___2___0___0___2_____+3.50

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: 10 min  (time taken for breaks)

Breaks (UT): 7:07-19, 8:26-32, 9:17-21