(meteorobs) Observation August 12/13 2010 + images

Wed Aug 25 20:36:22 EDT 2010

Thank you, Koen!  And well done on your Perseids observing effort  
too... It's impressive to see someone get in some observing for seven  
nights in a row!

- Pierre

On 24-Aug-10, at 10:46 AM, Koen Miskotte wrote:

> Nice report and pictures!
> Regards, Koen
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pierre Martin" <pmartin at teksavvy.com>
> To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 2:48 AM
> Subject: (meteorobs) Observation August 12/13 2010 + images
>
>
>> For the peak night of Thursday August 12, Ivo Leupi and I travelled
>> together to the Irvine Lake airtrip, located about 2 hours drive west
>> of Ottawa, just south of Denbigh, and north of Bon Echo Provincial
>> Park.  After a mainly cloudy day, the skies began to clear up nicely
>> around suppertime - a little better even than what the forecasts had
>> predicted.  The sky looked very promising, and we were ready to be  
>> out
>> all night!
>>
>> Several observers and setups greeted our arrival at the airstrip
>> (including Raymond Dubois, Eric Le May, Sanjeev Sivarulrasa, Bruce
>> McGlashan, another fellow setup for imaging across from the airstrip,
>> and later on Todd Weeks and Francine showed up to enjoy the Perseids
>> with us until the morning).  We arrived before sunset with plenty of
>> time to setup, and ensure that the cameras were ready to go as soon  
>> as
>> it got dark enough.  Ovewrhead, skies were of about average (3/5)
>> transparency, and completely free of any haze and fog.  After
>> astronomical night, the limiting magnitude at the zenith reached over
>> 6.8.  The Milky Way was gorgeous, and set the stage very nicely for
>> the Perseids peak night...
>>
>> At 10:15pm, I settled in my lawn chair and began a long night of
>> meteor observing.  In this first evening hour, the Perseids were
>> active with 40 meteors (many of which were long path meteors).  The
>> second hour (centered on midnight) increased with 66 Perseids, and
>> then the third hour was also great with 82 Perseids.  The fourth hour
>> (centered around 2:45am) saw a dip in rates to 65 Perseids.  However,
>> the fifth hour (centered around 4am) was a very active one for
>> Perseids with 101 meteors!  I then continued observing in the morning
>> twilight as late as I could, right up till 5am.  In this final 37
>> minutes of viewing, I saw an additional 40 Perseids.
>>
>> All in all, an unforgettable night with what appeared to be a normal
>> return of the broad traditional peak, with some bright meteors thrown
>> in (no fewer than 35 negative magnitude Perseids, 5 of which were
>> fireballs).  In just over five and a half hours of viewing, I  
>> logged a
>> total of 462 meteors (including 394 Perseids, 8 Kappa Cygnids, 7
>> antihelions, a surprising 7 Beta Perseids, 4 Delta Aquarids, 3
>> Eridanids, 1 Capricornid and 38 sporadics).  This is one of the  
>> finest
>> Perseids peak nights under optimal sky conditions that I've ever  
>> seen!
>>
>> The best Perseid came at 2:11am... It was a stunning mag -5 fireball
>> seen high up, that shot a long 30 degrees towards Cygnus.  It had a
>> distinctive blue-green flare, followed by a terminal flash and a 12
>> sec persistent train!  Two of our cameras managed to capture it.
>> Another memorable moment came at 4:10am, when 6 meteors (four
>> Perseids, one sporadic and one Beta Perseid) all came in the span of
>> just 20 seconds, 4 of which were seen under 5 seconds!  Also notable
>> was a very, very slow moving sporadic seen low in the north at
>> 12:17am... It grew very bright at mag -3 and it seemed barely faster
>> than a fast moving satellite.  After all the zippy Perseids we had
>> seen, this meteor felt like we were seeing in "super slow motion".
>> You know it's slow when I hear someone ask "what's that moving
>> light?"  It even lasted several seconds, which allowed many of those
>> present to see it as well.  Eventually, the meteor turned a vivid
>> yellow-orange and fragmented into a tight cluster of 3 distinct  
>> pieces
>> of roughly equal size!!
>>
>> The majority of those present stayed up all night.  Besides, with the
>> various shouts of excitement at the bright meteors overhead, it would
>> have been hard for anyone to try and go to sleep in our immediate
>> vicinity :)  At the end, most opted to sleep in cars, tent or outside
>> on a lawn chair.  Todd Weeks and Francine left us at 5am to enjoy  
>> some
>> birdwatching in the area.
>>
>> Here's my image results, starting with the composite of all meteors
>> captured by the Canon 5DmkII, ISO 1250 and 16-35mm lens (set at  
>> 16mm f/
>> 2.8).  Over the course of the entire night, this field of view
>> captured 38 meteors.  The brightest meteors on this composite are mag
>> -5 and mag -3...
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/4916877417/sizes/o/in/photostream/
>>
>> And here's my results from the Canon 300D (ISO 800) and 24mm lens (at
>> f2.0).  This field of view managed to capture 14 Perseids.  The
>> brightest meteor near the radiant is a mag -3...
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/13845235@N03/4916878375/sizes/o/in/photostream/
>>
>> Here's a couple of pics (taken by Raymond Dubois) on the next morning
>> after we woke up, of the mount and camera platform with the three
>> digital SLR's:
>> http://quid-valorem.smugmug.com/Astronomie/Persieds-2010/13339438_gcoD9#969674828_WpYzz-X2-LB
>>
>> Ivo Leupi and myself with our setup:
>> http://quid-valorem.smugmug.com/Astronomie/Persieds-2010/13339438_gcoD9#969670886_Kpibv-A-LB
>>
>>
>> Pierre Martin
>> Ottawa, Ontario
>>
>>
>>
>> DATE:  August 12/13 2010
>> BEGIN: 02:15 UT (22:15 EDT) END: 09:00 UT (05:00 EDT)
>> OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
>> LOCATION: Long: -77 15' West; Lat: 45 1' North Elevation: 800 ft
>> City & Province: Irvine Lake Airstrip (near Denbigh), 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
>> AUD (August Draconids - IMO video data)_________18:00 (270) +61
>> 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_SDA_ANT_CAP_ERI_BPE_AUD
>>
>> 02:15-03:29__1.000__6.78__3___40___2___0___2___0___/___1___0
>> 03:29-04:39__1.170__6.80__13__66___2___1___0___0___/___1___0
>> 05:02-06:12__1.000__6.83__3___82___1___3___1___1___0___3___0
>> 06:12-07:15__1.000__6.83__10__65___1___0___3___0___0___0___0
>> 07:15-08:23__1.000__6.83__9___101__1___0___1___0___2___2___0
>> 08:23-09:00__0.616__6.15__0___40___1___0___0___0___1___0___0
>>
>> TOTALS:______5.786________38__394__8___4___7___1___3___7___0 = 462
>>
>>
>> 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
>> _____-5__-4__-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5__+6______AVE
>>
>> PER___1___1___3___5__25__30__47__79__66__88__42___7_____+2.42
>> SPO___0___0___1___0___0___2___1___6___4__15___8___1_____+3.37
>> KCG___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___4___1___1___2___0_____+3.13
>> ANT___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___5___0___1_____+4.14
>> BPE___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___2___3___1___0___0_____+2.57
>> SDA___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___2___1___0_____+4.00
>> ERI___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___3___0___0_____+4.00
>> CAP___0___0___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0___0_____+1.00
>>
>> 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: 35 min (breaks)
>>
>> Breaks (UT): 2:29-42, 3:17-18, 4:39-5:02, 5:24-34, 6:49-52, 7:19-23,
>> 7:28-32
>>
>>
>>
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