(meteorobs) Observation July 17/18 2010

Pierre Martin pmartin at teksavvy.com
Mon Aug 9 01:56:49 EDT 2010


I was out at Bootland Farm again, the following night.  Arrived after  
midnight, and this time the sky was absolutely stunning.  The  
transparency was excellent and I had a deep limiting magnitude of  
nearly 6.6 around the zenith.  The few residual clouds over in the  
north did not cause any trouble, and the Milky Way in the south was  
great with lots of structure right down to the horizon.  Occasional  
lightning flashes were seen, from a t-storm that must have been far  
away below my horizon.  Mosquitoes were surprisingly absent for such a  
warm night, and my thermacell took care of the few persistent ones.

After a few months of low activity, I always look forward to the July  
increase, and this night showed it quite nicely.  I observed for well  
over two hours, and recorded 42 meteors.  The sporadic activity was  
quite decent throughout the session, and I saw my first Perseids!

The antihelion, Delta Aquarids, Alpha Capricornids, July Pegasids were  
all active in small numbers.  I even saw a possible Mu Lyrid (IMO  
video radiant).

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


DATE: July 17/18 2010
BEGIN: 05:20 UT (01:20 EDT) END: 07:45 UT (03:45 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 29' West; Lat: 45 23' North
Observing site: Bootland Farm, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)________________________19:56 (299) -13
ANT (antihelion)________________________________20:32 (308) -17
SDA (Delta Aquarids)____________________________22:12 (333) -19
JPE (July Pegasids)_____________________________23:36 (354) +13
PER (Perseids)__________________________________00:44 (011) +51
MUL (Mu Lyrids - IMO video data)________________18:12 (273) +39

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

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

PERIOD(UT)____FIELD_______Teff___LM____SPO_ANT_SDA_CAP_JPE_PER_MUL

05:20-06:25___20:04 +07___0.99___6.15____8___3___2___1___1___2___0
06:25-07:45___21:23 +06___1.20___5.77___15___1___1___1___2___4___1

TOTALS:___________________2.19__________23___4___3___2___3___6___1 = 42

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 (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___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

SPO___1___1___3___2___4___6___6_____+3.13
PER___0___0___1___2___1___2___0_____+2.66
ANT___0___0___0___1___2___0___1_____+3.25
SDA___0___0___0___1___1___0___1_____+3.33
JPE___0___0___0___1___0___2___0_____+3.33
CAP___0___0___0___0___1___1___0_____+3.50
MUL___0___1___0___0___0___0___0_____+0.00

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: 8 min (breaks) + 5.04 min (plotting)

Breaks (UT): 6:22-24, 7:31-36, 7:41-42






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