(meteorobs) Observation Oct 7/8 2008

[Pierre Martin]

I went to Moose Creek (about 60km east of Ottawa) on the evening of  
October 7 to look for any Giacobinid (GIA) activity.  The Moon was  
still up by the time I got there, but I opted to sign-on early to  
take advantage of the high radiant.  I faced north to keep the Moon  
away from my field and also to keep the GIA radiant well within my  
view.  The sky was quite transparent and allowed even the Milky Way  
to be easily visible.  The limit mag started at 6.0 and eventually  
climbed to 6.2 after the moonset.

In 3 hours of observing, only one possible GIA was seen.  It was a  
beautiful slow-moving, and bright (mag -2) meteor seen high up in  
Cepheus.  It was well seen and plotted, but this meteor traces back  
to a point 9 degrees south of the normal radiant position (a bit much  
I think?).

The second hour was dreadfully slow with only 3 sporadics seen.   
Fortunately, the 3rd hour picked up with 7 sporadics and 3 Taurids.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: October 7/8 2008
BEGIN: 01:06 UT (21:06 EDT) END: 04:15 UT (00:15 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: plotting and cord alignment
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
GIA (Giacobinids)_________________________________17:28 (262) +54
TAU (North & South Taurids)_______________________01:44 (026) +14
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_____FIELD____Teff____F______LM____SPO_GIA_TAU

01:06-02:11___1944+77___1.00___1.00___6.03____4___1___0
02:11-03:11___2037+78___1.00___1.00___6.03____3___0___0
03:11-04:15___2122+77___1.06___1.00___6.22____7___0___3

TOTALS:_________________3.06_________________14___1___3  = 18

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______AVE

SPO___0___0___1___1___2___3___5___2_____+3.14
TAU___0___0___0___1___1___1___0___0_____+2.00
GIA___1___0___0___0___0___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: 9.5 min  (time taken for breaks and plotting meteors)

Breaks (UT): 2:08-09, 3:39 (30 sec)