(meteorobs) Observation April 18/19 2009

[Pierre Martin]

Hello all,

I was able to get out last night to start looking for Lyrids.  This  
was my first meteor session since the Quadrantids, so it was nice to  
be out again!  I intended to observe the last 3 hours until dawn, but  
I overslept a bit in the evening and by the time I got going to  
Bootland Farm, I was down to just a couple of hours of observing time.

The night was spectacular!  One of the best skies that I've seen at  
this location.  As I stepped out of the car, I was greeted with a sea  
of faint stars overhead.  I spent several minutes just admiring the  
scene!  It was quite apparent that the sky transparency was above- 
average quality.  The light pollution from Ottawa was reduced to a  
dome less than 30 degrees over the east, and stars in excess of mag  
6.6-6.7 were visible near the zenith.  The rising Milky Way in the  
east looked structured even though it was still quite low.  I was  
also impressed at the steadiness of the sky... there was virtually no  
scintillation in stars except for those that were very low.  It was a  
very comfortable night too.  There was a very light breeze that kept  
things dry so dew was not an issue.  Even with the low of 0C near  
dawn, I never once felt cold.  Noises from various wildlife made its  
presence heard.  I could hear one or two wolf's high-pitched howls  
(likely from very far away... sounds really carries far at this  
site), an owl hooting, a roughed grouse doing a drum beat and a  
constant distant "chorus" of hundreds of Spring Peepers!  Out in the  
field, maybe just 100 feet away, there was a single creature (frog?)  
of some kind that just kept croaking loudly.  I couldn't tell what or  
where he was exactly, but he seemed lonely as he croaked relentlessly.

Activity was surprisingly enjoyable for this time of the year with 22  
meteors in just 2 hours.  I was cord aligning / plotting as much as I  
could.  The Lyrids were better than I expected with five members  
seen.  Antihelions and Xi Cygnids (IMO Sirko video data) were also  
active.  Sometimes, I'd see a second meteor as I was busy plotting  
another that I had just seen - this made things interesting :)

The highlight was at 3:21am EDT with a gorgeous sapphire-colored  
sporadic that slowly graced northern Ophiuchus.  It reached mag 0,  
leaving a thick wake behind and its color was very deep and vivid.

After tonight, the weather will cloud over with rain on the way for  
the first couple days of the week.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed  
that things will clear up on time for the Lyrids peak, or the night  
after.


DATE: April 18/19 2009
BEGIN: 05:45 UT (01:45 EDT) END: 08:01 UT (04:01 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North Elevation: 400 ft
Observing site: Bootland Farm, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
LYR (Lyrids)_____________________________________17:52 (268) +34
ANT (Antihelion)_________________________________14:44 (221) -16
XCG (Xi Cygnids - IMO Sirko video data)__________20:20 (305) +40
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)_____FIELD____Teff____F______LM____SPO_LYR_ANT_XCG

05:45-06:51___1608+09___1.00___1.00___6.60____6___3___2___1
06:51-08:01___1719+10___1.00___1.00___6.54____7___2___0___1

TOTALS:_________________2.00_________________13___5___2___2  = 22

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
______0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO___2___1___1___6___2___1_____+2.62
LYR___0___1___0___2___2___0_____+3.00
ANT___1___0___0___0___1___0_____+2.00
XCG___0___0___0___1___1___0_____+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 (IMO definition). The above table contains the magnitudes  
from all observed meteors, and the average (last column) for showers.
------------------------

SKY OBSCURED (FOV) (UT): None

------------------------

Dead time: 15.83 min (7 min for break and 8.83 min for plotting)

Breaks (UT): 7:11-18