(meteorobs) Observation July 31/August 1 2010

[Pierre Martin]

I kicked off my first observing session of the August observing window  
with a two hour meteor session at the Pendleton airport (GGC).  I  
observed for two effective hours, starting just after 10:30pm.  The  
moonless window on this night was very short, but the sky was above- 
average transparency (4/5) so I decided to keep going well after  
moonrise, using my car to block the glare.  The low lying Last Quarter  
moon in the east meant that I could keep my field centered to the  
south, where it was pretty dark and the Milky Way remained visible!

In a little over two hours, I recorded 22 meteors (including four  
Delta Aquarids, three Perseids, two Alpha Capricornids, two  
antihelions and eleven sporadics).

The highlight was a spectacular mag -4 Alpha Capricornid fireball at  
12:38am EDT.  The meteor crawled slowly in southern Hercules over 20  
degrees, flared once and then ended with a brilliant terminal flash!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: July 31/August 1 2010
BEGIN: 02:35 UT (22:35 EDT) END: 05:05 UT (01:05 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.092 West; Lat: 45.568 North
Observing site: Pendleton Airport, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)________________________20:30 (307) -09
ANT (antihelion)________________________________21:24 (321) -13
SDA (Delta Aquarids)____________________________22:48 (342) -16
PER (Perseids)__________________________________02:03 (031) +55

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

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

PERIOD(UT)____FIELD_______Teff___LM____SPO_CAP_ANT_SDA_PER

02:35-03:37___17:54 +11___1.00___6.14____4___1___1___1___1
03:37-05:05___18:45 +14___1.18___6.02____7___1___1___3___2

TOTALS:___________________2.18__________11___2___2___4___3  = 22

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

SPO___0___0___0___0___0___2___1___3___4___1_____+3.09
SDA___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___1___2___0_____+3.25
PER___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___2___0___0_____+2.33
CAP___1___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0_____-1.50
ANT___0___0___0___0___1___1___0___0___0___0_____+0.50

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: 17 min (breaks) + 1.83 min (plotting)

Breaks (UT): 3:19-20, 3:40-50, 3:56-4:00, 4:34-36