(meteorobs) Observation August 5/6 2010

[Pierre Martin]

I was able to get out to the Pendleton airport (GGC) last Thursday  
night to observe for one hour, beginning shortly after midnight.  I  
was hoping to do more, but we had clouds moving in and out on that  
night.  During the hour that I was on, the sky was very clear.   
Present with me was Shane and Ivo, both of which were doing visual/ 
imaging with their refractors.

In a little more than one hour, I recorded 20 meteors (including 6  
Perseids, 3 antihelions, 2 Alpha Capricornids, 2 Delta Aquarids, one  
August Piscid, one Beta Perseid and 5 sporadics).

The highlight of the night came at 1:24am EDT.  Without exaggerating,  
it was one of the most beautiful meteors that I've ever seen!!   
Something caught my eye in the south, and I quickly turned me head...  
Traveling VERY slowly low in the south was an absolutely gorgeous  
earthgrazing SPO meteor.  It reached mag -3 and had a vivid yellow-to- 
orange color.  It traced a huge but magestic 50 degrees path, taking  
over 10 seconds to do so.  For a meteor, that felt like an eternity!   
It just kept going... and going.  The most impressive aspect however  
was the large fragments (3 or 4) being shed as the meteor moved along,  
towards the south-east.  Some of the fragments persisted for a few  
seconds too.  It was quite amazing to see.  Even Shane had plenty of  
time to look up and see it crawl along in its entirety.  I won't soon  
forget this one!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: August 5/6 2010
BEGIN: 04:20 UT (00:20 EDT) END: 05:30 UT (01:30 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
PER (Perseids)__________________________________02:44 (041) +56
KCG (Kappa Cygnids)_____________________________18:50 (282) +47
CAP (Alpha Capricornids)________________________20:45 (311) -07
ANT (antihelion)________________________________21:52 (328) -11
SDA (Delta Aquarids)____________________________23:12 (348) -14
AUP (August Piscids - IMO video data)___________00:44 (011) +19
ERI (Eridanids - IMO video data)________________02:50 (042) -11
BPE (Beta Perseids - IMO video data)____________03:02 (046) +40

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

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

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD______Teff__LM___SPO_PER_KCG_CAP_ANT_SDA_AUP_ERI_BPE

04:20-05:30__22:12+08___1.16__6.40__5___6___0___2___3___2___1___/___1   
=  20

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___1___2___0___1___0_____+1.20
PER___0___0___0___0___1___1___2___2___0_____+2.83
ANT___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___1___1_____+4.00
CAP___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___1___0_____+3.00
SDA___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___1_____+4.50
AUP___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0_____+3.00
BPE___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: 0.66 min (plot)

Breaks (UT): None