[Meteorobs] Observation August 14/15 2009

[Pierre Martin]

For the fourth night in a row, the weather continued to be stunning!   
Despite my sleep patterns being thrown out of whack, I couldn't resist  
heading out again to enjoy the night.  Besides, a heat wave was on its  
way, and it looked like it would finally put an end to this long  
stretch of clear, transparent nights.

I opted to avoid traveling too far, so I went to the Moosecreek site.   
On my arrival, I was surprised to find over 18 cars, and people with  
telescopes everywhere!  Scores of people approached letting me know of  
a fantastic fireball that they had witnessed earlier in the evening.   
It looked like an impromptu star party.  I spent some time chatting  
with those present there, and I enjoyed the views in the scopes before  
settling myself into "meteor observing mode" ;)

I signed on just before local midnight, and observed for almost 3  
hours.  The Perseids were clearly declining with only 6 meteors seen  
in nearly two hours.  The final hour improved with 15 members seen,  
despite the rising crescent Moon causing my LM to drop a bit.  The  
brightest meteor was a mag -1 yellow-orange Perseid that left a one  
second train.  One of the sporadics seen might be a possible late  
Alpha Capricornid.  Altogether, 41 meteors were recorded.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: August 14/15 2009
BEGIN: 03:50 UT (23:50 EDT) END: 07:05 UT (03:05 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North
Observing site: Moosecreek, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
KCG (Kappa Cygnids)______________________________18:56 +58
PER (Perseids)___________________________________02:56 +57
SPO (sporadics)
(other showers not watched)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)____FIELD_______Teff___F_______LM_____SPO__PER__KCG

03:50-04:34___00:13 +72___0.73___1.00____6.43____6____3___1
05:09-06:09___18:29 +77___1.00___1.00____5.98____6____3___0
06:09-07:05___20:08 +77___0.92___1.00____6.00____6___15___1

TOTALS:___________________2.65__________________18___21___2  =  41


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

SPO___0___1___1___4___7___4___1_____+2.83
PER___1___3___1___3___6___6___1_____+2.52
KCG___0___0___1___0___1___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  
(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): 4:34-5:09, 6:27-28

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