(meteorobs) Observation August 1/2 2010

[Pierre Martin]

I returned to the Pendleton airport (GGC) for the following night, to  
observe for three hours during the brief evening window when the Moon  
was either out of the way, or low near the eastern horizon (set my  
chair up to be in the shadow of my car).  The transparency was decent  
(about 3/5) but not quite as good as the previous night.  This was  
quite apparent as the Quarter Moon rose and the sky's limiting  
magnitude was affected a little more than I expected.  Some occasional  
thin wisps of clouds/haze that dissipated as the evening went on, and  
would prove to not cause any problems during the session.  For this  
night, I had the company of Bruce Harding who kept busy doing visual  
with his 14" dob.

In three hours effective time, I saw 24 meteors (including 5  
antihelions, 4 Perseids, 4 Delta Aquarids, one Alpha Capricornid and  
10 sporadics).

There were a few notable meteors.  The best by far was the blue-white  
mag -3 sporadic fireball of 11:29pm EDT that scooted across Aquila,  
flaring gradually along the way.  Then, at 11:32pm EDT, a beautiful  
mag +3 Delta Aquarid shot across the zenith, tracing a persistent path  
of about 40 degrees!  A third memorable occurrence came at 1:27am EDT  
when a Perseid and a sporadic meteor appeared just a split second  
apart, and seemed to nearly cross paths!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: August 1/2 2010
BEGIN: 02:30 UT (22:30 EDT) END: 05:45 UT (01:45 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

02:30-03:31___18:23 +12___1.01___6.18____5___0___3___1___0
03:31-04:36___19:25 +11___1.00___5.94____1___1___1___2___3
04:36-05:45___19:52 +14___1.08___5.70____4___0___1___1___1

TOTALS:___________________3.09__________10___1___5___4___4  = 24

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

SPO___1___0___0___0___0___1___2___4___2_____+3.10
ANT___0___0___0___0___0___2___2___1___0_____+2.80
SDA___0___0___0___0___1___1___2___0___0_____+2.25
PER___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___2___1_____+3.75
CAP___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0_____+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: 9 min (breaks) + 0.83 min (plotting)

Breaks (UT): 3:55-4:00, 5:06-10