[Meteorobs] Observation August 26/27 2009

Pierre Martin dob14.5 at sympatico.ca
Sat Oct 24 12:56:01 EDT 2009


Following moonset, the sky at Bootland Farm was impressively  
transparent.  I could make out stars well over 6.5 mag at the zenith,  
and the Milky Way stretched to the horizon.  It was one of the  
clearest skies that I had seen this year.  On my arrival, I setup on  
my lawn for some binocular observing with my 9x63's.  I spent several  
minutes enjoying various deep sky objects (the North America nebula,  
M71, M31, Wild Duck cluster) and the views were nothing short of  
breathtaking.

Because of work the next day, I could only take in a short one hour  
evening session.  I recorded only 8 meteors, only one of which was  
identified as a late Perseid.

The highlight came just as packing up and getting ready to go home.  A  
nice zero mag blue sporadic meteor scooted by Jupiter in the south.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: August 26/27 2009
BEGIN: 02:45 UT (22:45 EDT) END: 03:55 UT (23:55 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, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
KCG (Kappa Cygnids)______________________________19:08 +60
PER (Perseids)___________________________________04:00 +58
ANT (antihelions)________________________________22:52 -06
SDA (Delta Aquarids)_____________________________23:56 -10
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)____FIELD_______Teff___F______LM_____SPO_PER_KCG_ANT_SDA

02:45-03:55___21:19 +11___1.13___1.00___6.64____7___1___0___0___0  =  8


Notes: The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods, 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) Teff is  
simply the total time during the observing session spent actually  
watching the sky. Breaks and/or dead time are not included in the  
reported Teff. It is reported in decimal format such that a 60 minute  
observing session would be reported as Teff = 1.00. The column F is a  
correction when obstructions such as clouds block portions of the  
field of view (1.00 = 100% clear skies). The column (LM) is the  
average naked eye limiting magnitude seen.  All following columns  
indicate the number of meteors for each shower observed.  For more  
info, see: http://www.namnmeteors.org/guidechap2.html
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
_____+1__+2__+3__+4______AVE

SPO___2___1___3___1_____+2.43
PER___0___0___0___1_____+4.00

Notes: 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: 1.99 min (all for plotting)

Breaks (UT): none




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