(meteorobs) Observation July 31/August 1 2009

[Pierre Martin]

Hello all,

Here's my observation for Saturday morning August 1.  I was on my way  
to Bootland Farm, about an hour's drive west of the city, with a  
promising weather forecast.  I was to meet up with Jim Sofia at  
1:00am, who was going to observe there after moonset with his 18"  
Dob.  Along the way, I encountered some heavy fog patches and the  
ground was still wet from a rain-shower we had a bit earlier in the  
evening.  Just as I approached the site, the clear skies overhead  
became obscured with thick low clouds.  In a last-minute decision, I  
decided that I should keep driving for another half hour west, where I  
could hopefully get back into clear skies.  Just before 1:30am, I  
arrived at Westmeath Lookout, a new location I was interested in  
trying out.  It is a beautiful park in the White Water Region (across  
from Beachburg) with a surprisingly well elevated hill.  After a short  
walk to the top, I was treated with a gorgeous view!  360 degrees  
horizons, and clear dark 6.5 mag skies overhead!  There was a nice  
light westerly breeze, so fog was not a problem here.  And thankfully,  
by the time I setup, the skies were almost completely clear with good  
transparency.  This spot certainly is an ideal location for meteor  
observing.  Without wasting any time, I signed on at 1:41am EDT.  By  
then, the Moon had set and the sky was completely dark and beautiful.

Activity was quite decent and enjoyable for the nearly 3 hours that I  
spent looking, with a total of 58 meteors.  The first period (slightly  
over an hour) had 23 meteors, for an average of one every 2.6  
minutes.  The second period (an hour) had 25 meteors, for an average  
of one every 2.4 minutes.  The final period (about 40 minutes)  
provided 10 meteors under growing morning twilight.

This session was marked by a number of impressive meteors!  The best  
was a mag -4 Alpha Capricornid fireball seen low in the western sky at  
3:04am EDT.  It crawled along, produced a bright terminal flash and  
left a 5 seconds persistent train.  Another impressive Alpha Cap was  
seen just 3 minutes later...  This time, it was a gorgeous golden- 
yellow mag -1 meteor that crawled straight up in the south, and had  
one of the thickest wakes I've ever seen in a meteor.  Although it  
wasn't as big as the fireball seen just minutes before, it was every  
bit as impressive.  A third bright Alpha Cap was seen 15 minutes  
later; this time it was a mag -2 meteor going down in the south-east.

The big surprise was a rare appearance of a Pisces Austrinid at 3:57am  
EDT.  It was an impressively long 30 degrees mag -1 meteor that  
scooted along the zenith, leaving behind a wake.

The Perseids were active in small numbers throughout the session, with  
some fairly bright meteors of up to mag -1.  The Delta Aquarids were  
active every hour, but weaker than the previous nights.

As with the previous two nights, I noticed two medium-speed meteors  
appearing to radiate from the border of Cygnus and Cepheus.

The most unusual looking meteor was a faint mag +4 Delta Aquarid at  
3:52am EDT that was accompanied by a thick wake.  This gave the meteor  
a strangely elongated shape.

All in all, a good night!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: July 31/August 1 2009
BEGIN: 05:41 UT (01:41 EDT) END: 08:32 UT (04:32 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.859 West; Lat: 45.793 North
Observing site: Westmeath Lookout (White Water Region), Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)_________________________20:16 -11
ANT (Antihelion)_________________________________21:04 -15
SDA (South Delta Aquarids)_______________________22:28 -17
PAU (Pisces Austrinids)__________________________22:36 -31
PER (Perseids)___________________________________01:32 +53
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)____FIELD_______Teff____LM____SPO_ANT_CAP_SDA_PAU_PER

05:41-06:48___21:42 +05___1.12___6.58___12___1___1___5___0___4
06:54-07:55___22:54 +05___1.00___6.61____9___1___3___6___0___6
07:55-08:32___23:55 +07___0.62___6.34____4___1___0___3___1___1

TOTALS:___________________2.74__________25___3___4__14___1__11  =  58


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), where 1.00 is exactly one hour. 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
_____-4__-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO___0___0___0___0___1___3___5___5___9___2_____+2.96
SDA___0___0___0___0___0___1___3___2___6___2_____+3.36
PER___0___0___0___1___2___1___2___1___3___1_____+2.18
CAP___1___0___1___1___0___0___0___1___0___0_____-1.00
ANT___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___2___0___1_____+3.67
PAU___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0___0___0_____-1.00

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  
(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: 1 min (break)

Breaks (UT): 6:48-54, 6:55-56