(meteorobs) Observation December 13/14 2009 + images

Pierre Martin pmartin at teksavvy.com
Sun Aug 8 02:16:06 EDT 2010


For the Geminids peak night, Ivo Leupi and I were determined to travel  
where we could watch all night under clear skies.  We first  
contemplated driving several hours out of Ottawa, but we then chose to  
stay a bit more local due to unstable weather systems.  The short term  
forecasts predicted a clearing sky to the north-west of Ottawa.  We  
hit the road as early as possible after we had some supper, and drove  
north towards Maniwaki.  Road conditions were awful, with lots of  
slush, occasional snow flurries, road spray and reduced visibility.   
It got better the further north we got, although the sky was solidly  
overcast.  Some 160km of driving distance later, we reached Montcerf  
and began looking for a quiet, and reasonably dark spot with decent  
horizons.  It took less than half an hour to find one... a nice dead  
end spot that was completely quiet and dark.  With the sky still  
overcast above, we started setting up the camera equipment - figuring  
that the clearing was on its way.  Unfortunately, this was not meant  
to happen.  After waiting until 11pm, we decided to pack and hit the  
road again - perhaps the clearing had stalled?  We looked at our  
options, and studied the map.  We did not have a way to look up the  
current weather forecast.  We opted to drive as far west as we could,  
in a bid to reach the clear skies that had been forecasted earlier in  
the day.  So we drove some two hours (75km) west of Maniwaki on  
nothing but a snow-covered loggers road called "Rang de l'Aigle".  It  
was passable, provided we didn't stop in some of the more snow covered  
areas.  Eventually, this route became known simply as "unmarked road"  
on our GPS.  We drove with absolutely nothing but forest all around  
us, and no signs of clear skies.  We took note of any possible areas  
we could setup next to the road (there were almost none).  As you can  
see with the image below, the back of the car looked more like an  
igloo as it accumulated thick layers, of snow that'd get kicked up  
behind the tires.  We occasionally had to stop to clear up the  
windows...
http://tinyurl.com/3azlyvm
Just as we were losing hopes of seeing any Geminids, near 2:00am local  
time we finally spotted a few stars near the horizon, and quickly the  
clouds were beginning to break up.  A couple of meteors seen going  
down.  We stopped the car as we noticed a good sized "sucker hole"  
above us.  We sure didn't want to miss it!  Not a moment after  
stepping out, a gorgeous mag -4 Geminid fireball flashed high up,  
followed by three other meteors.  Our very remote location allowed an  
inky black mag 7+ sky overhead, where it was clear.  Orion was buried  
in a sea of faint stars.  We casually enjoyed the view, but we had no  
space to setup... and remaining on the narrow road could be dangerous,  
should an unsuspecting logger's truck come barreling in.  Judging by  
the cloud movement, we chose to drive back to a spot on the side of  
the road that we knew would work and be safe.  The clearing seemed to  
be heading in that direction.  This meant that we needed to drive an  
hour back where we came from to reach that spot.  Once we finally got  
there, we were gratified to find that the sky was indeed clearing.  It  
was now past 3am.  We rushed to setup the equipment.  Overhead, we  
could see meteors going by every few moments.  Suddenly, the entire  
sky (and ground) lit up as a mag -9 sporadic fireball came out of  
nowhere and shot like a lightning bolt across the southern  
constellations!  It left behind a long and incredibly bright blue- 
green persistent train, that glowed at about mag -3 for several  
seconds, before gradually fading and twisting apart over the course of  
the next 240 seconds.  Wow!  It was not until a few days later that I  
realized that one of our cameras was able to capture (by chance) the  
faint remnants of this train as much as 30 minutes later!  We rushed  
to start the cameras and get on with observing, but the cold night  
only added to the setup time (i.e. handling equipment with thick  
gloves and all).

Ivo and I bundled up in our lawn chairs.  Sky was average transparency  
with LM=6.6.  I signed on at 3:40am, but observed for only 17 minutes  
before more clouds moved in.  Yet this short amount of time was very  
active with 26 Geminids, including some instances of meteors appearing  
a split second apart.  The clouds forced me to stop for close to an  
hour and half.  Ivo went for a snooze while I kept casual watch.  At  
4:49am, a bright blue mag -5(?) or so Geminid fireball surprised me,  
seen through thick cloud cover, followed just four minutes later by a  
mag -3(?) Geminid.  The clouds finally parted at 5:20am, and I was  
able to observe for over an hour until the morning twilight.  Despite  
the lower altitude of the radiant at that point, I saw 69 Geminids, 14  
sporadics and one Sigma Hydrid.  It was not the Geminids "marathon" I  
was hoping to acheive, but I was pleased that we managed to see  
something despite the challenging weather conditions.  My total for  
the night (only about an hour and half of watching) is 120 meteors.   
The Geminids sure are great!

The following composite of meteors was produced with a Canon 30D and a  
16-35mm lens at f/2.8.  Five Geminids were captured.  Note the very  
faint trace of the persistent train (left behind by the mag -9 SPO  
fireball about 30 minutes earlier) just below Castor and Pollux...
http://tinyurl.com/2aarepz

Composite of meteors captured with a Canon 20D and a 35mm lens at f/ 
2.0.  This camera managed to capture two bright Geminids in Ursa  
Major...
http://tinyurl.com/2fqpyy4

Here's our setup the next morning.  Temperature was -17C (1F).  Ivo  
took this picture while I was still sound asleep, all bundled inside  
my sleeping bag...
http://tinyurl.com/2utwxlo

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: December 13/14 2009
BEGIN: 08:40 UT (03:40 EST) END: 11:35 UT (06:35 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76 13' West; Lat: 46 26' North
Observing site: Chemin de l'aigle, Maniwaki, Quebec, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:_______________________________radiant position
MON (Monocerotids)_______________________________06:52 (103) +07
GEM (Geminids)___________________________________07:33 (113) +32
HYD (Sigma Hydrids)______________________________08:42 (130) +01
DLM (December Leonis Minorids)___________________10:22 (155) +34
COM (Coma Berenicids)____________________________11:30 (173) +18
DAD (Alpha Draconids)____________________________14:00 (210) +58
ANT (Antihelion)_________________________________06:16 (094) +23
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

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

PERIOD(UT)____FIELD_______Teff____LM_____SPO_GEM_MON_HYD_DLM_COM_DAD_ANT

08:40-08:57___07:03 +14___0.283___6.60___9___26___0___1___0___0___0___0
10:20-11:35___08:27 +12___1.130___6.33___14__69___0___1___0___0___0___0

TOTALS 
:___________________1.413__________23__95___0___2___0___0___0___0 = 120

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

GEM____1___6___9__13__15__24__21___6_____+2.33
HYD____0___1___2___0___3___5__10___2_____+3.04
SPO____0___0___0___0___0___1___1___0_____+3.50

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: 7.15 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 8:57-10:20, 10:33 (20 sec), 10:31 (40 sec), 10:34 (20  
sec), 10:47 (20 sec), 11:11 (30 sec), 11:12-17





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