(meteorobs) Observation August 9/10 2010 + image

[Pierre Martin]

On the Monday evening, August 9, the skies cleared nicely in the west- 
end so I drove to Westmeath Lookout to setup for some late night  
meteor observing and DSLR imaging.  Located in the White Water Region,  
north-west of Cobden, I really enjoy this location for meteor  
observing.  The hill-top lookout offers clear unobstructed views of  
the entire horizons.  The western horizon overlooks the valley and  
Pembroke, out in the distance, and is especially gorgeous.  On top of  
the hill, there is always a breeze which tends to keep the air in  
motion and minimize ground fog to a minimum.

On my arrival just after 10pm (EDT), I was surprised at the warm  
temperature.  It was well over 20C and very humid.  I expected to get  
swarmed by mosquitoes, but much to my pleasant surprise, there were  
none!  I did not even need to take out my Thermacell.  What a pleasant  
night, to be able to setup in t-shirt and be perfectly comfortable.   
Overhead, the sky transparency no doubt suffered from the muggy  
night.  The sky was still very nice overhead (with stars in excess of  
mag 6.6 visible) but the horizons were rather murky.  Still, it was  
great to be out there and not be bothered by the bugs.  The air turned  
slightly cooler after midnight, and my sleeping bag was just perfect.   
Ivo Leupi arrived at 1am, just when some packs of coyotes started  
their chants out in the distance.  Ivo joined me at the top of the  
hill with his lawn chair to enjoy the early Perseids, along with his  
camera to be piggybacked on my equatorial mount for meteor imaging.   
He would later manage to successfully photograph one of the brighter  
Perseids seen on this night.

Even a few days before the peak, meteor activity was quite strong.   
The Perseids rose gradually every hour, although with many faint  
members.  The third and fourth (final) hours reached 20 and 22  
Perseids repectively.  Several of the minor shower sources were pretty  
active too.  In the four hours and 20 minutes that I watched, I  
recorded a total of 116 meteors (including 71 Perseids, 8 Delta  
Aquarids, 7 antihelions, 5 Kappa Cygnids, 3 Eridanids, 2 Capricornids,  
one Beta Perseid and 19 sporadics).  I watched for August Piscids  
also, but saw none.

The best meteor on this watch came at 4:12am.  It was a slow moving  
mag -1 sporadic that crawled a long 30 degrees path.  It had a vivid  
yellow-orange color.

I had my Canon 300D, ISO 800 and 24mm f/1.4 (set at f/2.0) lens  
operating on my GPDX mount, and aimed towards Andromeda.  I took  
hundreds of pictures for the rest of the night.  The following is a  
composite of the meteors captured, including 3 bright Perseids and two  
sporadic meteors (including that long one that seems to be going  
against the "current" .....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/4916873713/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario



DATE: August 9/10 2010
BEGIN: 03:45 UT (23:45 EDT) END: 08:40 UT (04:40 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -76.859 West; Lat: 45.793 North
Observing site: Westmeath Lookout (White Water Region), Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, cord align
----------------------------------------------------------

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)___Teff___LM___SPO__PER_KCG_CAP_ANT_SDA_AUP_ERI_BPE

03:45-04:45__1.000__6.56__2___9___2___0___3___1___0___/___0
04:45-05:58__0.966__6.63__3___15__0___1___1___1___0___1___0
06:16-07:19__1.000__6.63__1___20__3___0___3___3___0___0___1
07:19-08:19__1.000__6.60__10__22__0___1___0___2___0___2___0
08:19-08:40__0.350__6.26__3___5___0___0___0___1___0___0___0

TOTALS:______4.316________19__71__5___2___7___8___0___3___1 = 116


Note: The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods broken  
down as close as possible to one hour of true observing, in Universal  
Time. The second column (TEFF) represents effective observing time  
(corrected for breaks or any time not spent looking at the sky), where  
1.00 is exactly one hour. The column (LM) is the average naked eye  
limiting magnitude, determined by triangle star counts. All following  
columns indicate the number of meteors for each shower observed.
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
_____-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5__+6______AVE

PER___0___7___7__14__18__15___9___1_____+2.81
SPO___2___0___0___2___2__10___2___1_____+3.37
SDA___0___1___0___2___0___2___2___1_____+3.50
ANT___0___0___1___2___0___3___1___0_____+3.14
KCG___0___0___0___0___2___2___1___0_____+3.80
ERI___0___0___1___1___0___1___0___0_____+2.33
CAP___0___0___0___0___0___1___1___0_____+4.50
BPE___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0_____+5.00

Note: 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: 18 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 5:06-21, 5:58-6:16, 7:10-13